“Don’t be like the hypocrites…be secret.”

 

When it comes to prayer, fasting and having mercy during Lent Jesus would have us do all these things, less like a hypocrite does them and more like a ninja.

 

There is a common misconception that the church obliges us to go to Mass and to receive ashes imposed on our heads today.  That is not correct.  While the Church encourages us to go Mass and also to receive ashes, but does not make it obligatory.  But, the church does oblige us in two other respects: to fast and to abstain.

 

Fasting and Abstinence

 

Have a meal today, if you must.  If you have to have more than that because you fear you’ll become a danger to yourself or to others, have go ahead and take something more.  But don’t let what you take beyond that first meal amount to another meal.  Also, don’t take meat today.  This is obligation to fast the Church imposes on us only twice the whole year, today and Good Friday.  The abstinence obligation is an every-Friday obligation. (So, up to 53 days of abstinence every year. That might blow some of you away, but, there you are.)

 

Jesus expects us to be able to pull this off, with style.  He even tells us to comb our hair real nice when we’re fasting.  He wants fasting always to be an interior disposition which God alone can see.

 

God sees.

 

It’s a huge act of faith to remember that God sees even when nobody else does.  Recalling this can prevent us from proceeding with a warped motivation.  It can also power us through long dry spells when everyone else who would only do things for show would have quit long ago.

 

Let’s start Lent strong today by starting it in secret, like a ninja.