Ash Wednesday, February 14, 2024

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.”

The eighth century scholar Alcuin hands down to us that Pope St. Telephorus (d. 137) established a seventy day period of fasting in preparation for Easter.  The number of days was based on the seventy years the Jews suffered exile in Babylon after the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in 587 B.C.   During that time, he decreed that neither the word alleluia nor the Gloria in Excelsis Deo because of what is written in Psalm 136, 4: “How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a strange land?”  This became the basis for the season we call Lent.  Over the centuries the  forty days before Easter came to be seen as the more intense preparation for the celebration of the Lord’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection.  The beginning of this period falls on Wednesday.  In earlier centuries, the faithful covered their heads with blessed ashes on this day as a sign of their repentance.  The ashes would remain throughout Lent, as well as the fast.  Today we receive ashes on our foreheads only, in the shape of a cross, and the fast has been greatly lessened.  Still, we keep Lent, beginning with today, and perform penance, purifying ourselves, as it were, for Easter, but also as a way of walking with Jesus in his sufferings.

In the Gospel Reading for today’s Mass, the Lord Jesus speaks of the proper way of giving alms, praying, and fasting, which particularly perform during Lent.  We are not to perform these actions for show, but ought even to do them in a hidden way — and to practice these actions so regularly that we do not think of them but do them almost as if by instinct.  Thus, we protect our sincerity and our purpose of doing them only for God.  The Lord here emphasizes our intention, what is in our heart, and so we can compare these actions to sins he tells us to avoid.  That is, in Matthew 5, 21–22, the Lord teaches: “You have heard that it was said to them of old: You shall not kill. And whosoever shall kill, shall be in danger of the judgment.  But I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment.”  Now, a person can kill another by accident or by self-defense and the killing is not be sinful.  When the killing is motivated by the anger of hatred, then it is.  It is the anger that erupts from hatred that makes a killing a murder, and therefore a sin. Just so, the giving of alms is good, but it may be undertaken for the mere purpose of tax benefits or to impress another person.  It is the love that prompts the alms that perfects the act.  Therefore, we must especially cultivate our love of God and neighbor during Lent: to look long and with feeling upon the crucifix, to really examine our consciences and to grieve for our sins so that we might live in gratitude for the forgiveness won for us by the Lord Jesus, who would do anything to win our love.