Does receiving ashes on the forehead, a custom widely practiced on Ash Wednesday, go against Christ’s command to keep your fasting a secret (Matt. 6:16–18)?
This command appears in the Sermon on the Mount. Christ’s teaching there on fasting is the last in a mini-series on spiritual disciplines which includes almsgiving and prayer. He opens this series with a heading:
Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. (6:1)
Secrecy is not particular to fasting; Christ requires it for all three. For almsgiving, Christ says “do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be in secret” (6:3). For prayer, Christ says, “go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret” (6:6). Finally for fasting, Christ says, “when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by men but by your Father who is in secret” (6:17). Working through the three major spiritual disciplines in this manner, Christ connects the opening heading to each practice. In this way, he shows that he intends this heading to regulate how Christians ought to observe all “practices of piety” (6:1) to ensure we do not lose our heavenly reward.
Christ commands secrecy for all spiritual disciplines. Despite this, many of those who argue against the practice of receiving ashes will place money in the offering plate this Sunday, in open view to everyone. They will also pray while others are assembled, again in open view to everyone.
Christ’s teachings here presume a distinction between personal and public practices of piety. Some almsgiving, prayer, and fasting should be done in individual capacities, and these should place a premium on secrecy. In each item of the mini-series, Christ alludes to “the hypocrites” who are the counter-examples of those who secure a heavenly reward. When almsgiving, the hypocrites sound a “trumpet” before them “in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by men” (6:2). When praying, the hypocrites “stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by men” (6:5). When fasting, “they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by men” (6:16). Why call such persons “hypocrites”? Wouldn’t “proud” or “vainglorious” be more fitting? In each example, it is individuals observing a private penitential practice; they are not praying or fasting with their communities, but alone and of their own initiative. Christ does not teach against private practices of piety (much the opposite), but he teaches against using them as a pretext to advertise one’s piety. This is why they are hypocrites: They make their private lives public. Since doing so means it has ceased to be private, they advertise what they do not have and gain a reputation for being what they are not (namely, pious). They present themselves as one thing, but are in fact another.
Some almsgiving, prayer, and fasting should be done in a corporate capacity. This is striving together as the Church, and since all do it together, as a unity, there is no room for individualism or boasting. There is no opportunity for hypocrisy, as there is no private practice to be publicized. Instead, the ashes are received by all, equally, and we look upon each other unimpressed, as fellow pillars of dust etched with the sign of death-life, which is also the initial of Christ (Greek Χριστός), and in this way present ourselves as we truly are. By receiving the ashes, we appropriately fulfill the other (somewhat contrary) command of Christ in the same Sermon, the command to be seen:
You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matt. 5:14–16)
