Ash Wednesday, The First Day of Lent, February 22, 2023

Matthew 6, 1-6; 16-18

Jesus said to his disciples: “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.  When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.”

According to the annual calendar, February 22 is established as the feast day of the Chair of St. Peter, but according to the lunar calendar by which we know when to celebrate Easter, today marks the first day of the forty day season of Lent, popularly known as Ash Wednesday.  It is one of the rare occasions on which a feast day celebrated during a weekday is trumped by another celebration.  The length of this season has differed over time but was finally set as forty days, corresponding to the forty days during which the Lord was tempted in the wilderness.  The season is penitential, and practices such as fasting, prayer, and alms-giving are encouraged as well as sacramental confession.  We repent of our sins more intensely at this time, though our lives on earth ought to be understood as penitential.  We live in Lent now so that we may live in perpetual Easter in the next world.

“Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.”  The practice of performing good deeds in a hidden way is a particularly Christian one.  It is not the case that a person is ashamed of the good that he does, but that through doing it without the possibility of public approbation he might grow accustomed to the natural practice of good deeds.  Besides, the person who puts on the biggest public display of doing good actually does less than the one who works in a hidden way.  When the smoke of the self-congratulatory show clears, it is found that nothing actually happened.  Another way to put it is that deeds done purposefully in order to garner praise is not charity but masturbation.  In the end, we act as Almighty God, who gives us life and breath every day, free of charge, and without any fuss at all.  “And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.”  We “repay” our Father, who owes us nothing, for his gifts to us with our prayer of thanksgiving.  But he will “thank” us for doing what we ought to do with eternal gifts in heaven. 

“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them.”  This may sound like a caricature to us but people still do this today.  We ought not to make travesties of ourselves and our God with displays that have little to do with true piety.  “When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.”  Our current laws for fasting and abstinence are very light.  But we ought to follow them without display.  We are imitating Jesus so that we can become more like him.  “But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden.”  The moderation with which we should live our lives as Christians should include regular fasting.  We can think of our penitential life here on earth as a time of a permanent, ongoing fast which we intensify during certain times of the year.

God gives us this day, this hour in which to begin to become saints.  He gives us this season so that we followers of the Lamb may work at this together.