(Our Family Church in Syracuse, The Sacred Heart Basilica)

Today is Ash Wednesday for us of the Catholic Faith and (from Wikipedia)-

In the Western Christian calendar, Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent and occurs forty-six days (forty days not counting Sundays) before Easter. It falls on a different date each year, because it is dependent on the date of Easter; it can occur as early as February 4 or as late as March 10.

Ash Wednesday gets its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of the faithful as a sign of repentance. The ashes used are gathered after the Palm Crosses from the previous year’s Palm Sunday are burned. In the liturgical practice of some churches, the ashes are mixed with the Oil of the Catechumens (one of the sacred oils used to anoint those about to be baptized), though some churches use ordinary oil. This paste is used by the priest who presides at the service to make the sign of the cross, first upon his own forehead and then on each of those present who kneel before him at the altar rail. As he does so, he recites the words: “Remember (O man) that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

So we went to church today and during mass, my 3 year old Jacob decides to ask about why we have the ashes on our forehead.  I did my best to explain what I know(since I didn’t have Wikipedia in front of me) and then Jacob noticed a picture of Jesus with holes in his hands and feet.

“Mommy, why does Jesus who lives in our hearts have holes on his hands and feet?” he asked me.

Jacob is a very spiritual boy.  He goes to a Baptist Pre-School that teaches the basic fundamentals of the Christian religion and is also taught about his Catholic Faith at home by us, Wikipedia and by my parents. 

I was expecting some questions about the holes in the hands and feet but at 3 years old, I was stumped on how to answer truthfully yet tactfully so I just decided to go for it.

“Jacob, He died to take away our sins.” which he clearly didn’t  grasp.

Yeah.  I then went on to tell him that we’ll Google all of it properly when we got home because I don’t want to misinform him and my mom won’t be here until tomorrow evening to explain in my place.  I understand all the fundamentals of my religion, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t do ‘kid speak’ and I talk to my son plainly as I would an adult.  I think with the topic of religion, he needs to know the facts and I want to verify them via Google or my Mother.

On the way home from Church, I noticed Jacob wiping the ashes off his forehead.  When I asked him why, he told me that if he has ashes on he’ll look like Jesus and he doesn’t want to get nailed to a cross for sinning.  I started to drive just a teeny tiny bit faster to get to Google and/or my mother and changed the topic over to “Well, what do you think about Heaven?”

I knew I was going to blog this the second we started this conversation.  I want to preserve it in my mind and I of course, share all my thoughts with you.  This is exactly what Jacob told me.

“Um.  You have 2 sides on your shoulder, Jesus is on this side and the bad guy who goes to Jail is on the other side like this (he shows me the shoulders). When you’re a bad guy, you go way down to jail and when you’re a good guy you get to drive a really long long way in a car…oh, hey, there’s a baseball stadium, and you just keep driving and driving to get to Heaven.”

Trying to remain stoic, I asked him how he’d know when he reaches Heaven.  “Candy Garmin (the nickname for our nav system) will tell you.”

DUH.  Of course!  Why wouldn’t Candy Garmin tell me when I got to Heaven?  At this point, tears are pouring out of my eyes because I don’t want to laugh and make him think anything is funny.  I was truly intrigued to hear his point of view.

So I came home, sat down and Blogged this.  I’m about to call my mother and we’re going to do a proper speakerphone conversation about Catholicism and the Lenten Season.  When I just asked Jacob what he thinks about going to Heaven, he told me this-

MOM.  I TOLD you.  I’m not talking about it anymore.  You get in a car and if you’re good you get to Heaven and you die and then you just sit there with your friends and I’ll get to see Anya (our cat) but Apollo (current cat) is gooder (I corrected him-better) and you just don’t listen to the bad guy on this shoulder.  That’s it.  I’m done.  I wanna watch a show.

Be Sociable, Share!

•