Sadly, many of our modern services (following the suggested rubrics in the Altar Book) omit the lovely Introit for Ash Wednesday, with its powerful antiphon from Wisdom: “You have mercy on all, O Lord, and abhor nothing you have made. You look past the sins of men that they may repent. You spare them all because you are our Lord, our God.”

This is a summary from Wisdom 11:24—12:2. The collect for the day is obviously based on this same passage. It resonates with the truth we sing in Psalm 145:9 “The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.” CPH’s old German edition of the Luther Bibel gives the cross references to this passage as Ezekiel 18:23 and 33:11.

What strikes me as so important about it, is that repentance is not the CAUSE of God’s looking past the sins of men; but rather God’s looking past the sins of men is the very CAUSE of their repentance.

It reminds me richly of John 8:1-11. “Has no one condemned you?” “No one, Lord.” “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more.”

This order is vital for us to understand, and its inversion is the cause of great evil in the church.

* I should note that although it is the Introit from the old Latin Mass, and the Lutherans retained the antiphon from Wisdom (for example, in Cantica Sacra, Magdeburg 1613, p. 356, 357) and in general were never shy about using the Apocrypha liturgically, the editors of the Common Service chose to supply a new Introit, and that’s what landed in TLH. I believe it was LW that restored the historic antiphon to this Introit.