Keeping Secrets

Ash Wednesday

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Welcome to Lent. Sounds like an odd greeting, but I mean it. The secret is out. I love Lent. I love it because I am the kind of person who is willing to admit that she needs structure and ritual. It makes me feel calm and secure. If you are Catholic, you may likely understand.

Today is the day that we are reminded of the truth about life. The ashes on our forehead remind us of the human condition affected by sin. Easy enough to understand, but is it? Today we live in a world that everyday denies that sin even exists.

In the imposition of ashes, today, we are admitting our guilt before God and expressing our desire for inward conversion. This sign is the first step in our journey of conversion. It takes us to the sacrament of reconciliation, then to the Passion and then to salvation in the Resurrection at Easter.

This is what we must remember.

We are made up of two substances. A body and a soul. It is no secret that our bodies die. But what is often difficult to remember or understand is that our soul (the invisible part of us that animates our bodies) is wounded when we sin.

During Lent, we are offered a beautiful prescription. We learn from today's reading that what our souls need is to pray, to fast, and to give alms. But the key is that we must do these three things in secret.

Why is secret? When these three things (prayer, fasting and almsgiving) are done in secret, it is God who sees your true intentions. These offerings are done in communion with God, alone. This is because it is God who heals the soul.

God Wants More Than Good Deeds

Mk 7:1-13

Today's Gospel reading relays the story of the Pharisees' reaction to Jesus and his disciples having come from the marketplace without purification and daring to eat with unclean hands. The Pharisees saw Jesus and his crew as a band of religious outlaws. There was great confusion and disdain for the notion that a renegade preacher and his students would dare veer from the tradition of the elders. In the eyes of the Pharisees, Jesus was dangerous, not only for what he did but for what he lead other men to do.

In our day in age, the moniker "Pharisee" is synonymous with the notion of "hypocrite." However, in ancient times, there were people who cherished the label for it was a stamp or outward sign that a person was "holy." But to Jesus, these outward signs and their associated pride was what was truly blasphemous. These men were putting aside God's commandments in order to cling to human traditions.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. . .

God only knows what is really in the human heart, and I am certainly not in any position to judge another. But, I can not help but observe the world around me. There seems so much inconsistency in all of us. Even people who seem well-meaning seem to sometimes miss the point.

I think of all of the celebrities who seep out at times of natural disaster. They harness the power of generosity to pay homage to the god of "good deeds." I think of the grandma that slinks out of Mass after communion only to cut off traffic dashing out of the parking lot. I think of the women who profess their faith but will not abandon the false notion of "human choice." I think of the people of seemingly good will who unabashedly debase the notion of family by attempting to rewrite God's own plan for love and life. I think of the millions of ways that I fall short of being the Christian I dream I can be.

The point is that we all fall short of the glory of God. What is important is the intention of our heart. If our intention is the affirmation of man, we fail just as the Pharisees failed. But if our intention is to love as God loves even when no one sees, we honor God with our lips and our hearts. This is Jesus' lesson to us.