Why Isn’t Ash Wednesday a Holy Day of Obligation?

Why is Ash Wednesday not a holy day of obligation? A holy day is a
day that has been consecrated for God, so in that sense Ash
Wednesday is a holy day. At the heart of a holy day of obligation,
however, is the Resurrection. For this reason holy days of
obligation are times to celebrate and feast. Even in the midst of
Lent, we feast on Sundays to celebrate Christ’s resurrection. You
may have noticed, Holy Thursday and Good Friday also are not holy
days of obligation. This does not diminish their importance,
though. It simply makes no sense to celebrate these days as
obligatory feasts because they are supposed to bring to mind the
death of our Lord and also our own death—our physical death, and
our death to self in order to avoid spiritual death. God does not
force us to take up our cross and follow him, but he does invite
us. With that said, what better place to go to start Lent than to
Mass? It is the beginning of a long journey, and we need the
strength the Lord can give us through the Ash Wednesday readings
and the Eucharist. And what better way to remind ourselves of the
whole point of Lent, that we are dust and to dust we shall return,
so we ought to repent and believe in the gospel. Ash Wednesday is
not a holy day of obligation, but a holy day of invitation. For
further reading, Fr. Mike mentions the story where Elijah, in a
deep slumber, is awoken by a “messenger” who tells him to get up
and eat. This story can be found in 1 Kings 19.