Q. Why do some Catholics wear the ashes they receive on Ash Wednesday all day? Didn’t Jesus say that we should wash our faces when we fast? — G.P., via e-mail.
A. Here is what Jesus said about fasting in the Sermon on the Mount: “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 others to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you” (Matt. 6:16-18).
The Pharisees of Jesus’ time made a big show about fasting, covering themselves with sackcloth and ashes and standing proudly in the public square so that all could see them and acclaim them for their ascetic practices. But while they looked holy on the outside, they were corrupt and immoral on the inside.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites,” Jesus said. “You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside you appear righteous but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing” (Matt. 23:27-28).
Now there may be some Catholics whose wearing of ashes on Ash Wednesday covers up a lifestyle of hypocrisy and immoral behavior, but the great majority of Catholics who wear ashes are sincerely demonstrating an attitude of penitence and reparation. Their outer appearance is consistent with their inner demeanor. They are not looking for acclaim, as the Pharisees were, and they may in fact be serving as an actual grace to persons who see them.
My wife and I remember traveling from Tampa to Boston a few years ago on Ash Wednesday and seeing very few travelers with ashes on their foreheads. But we also got comments from fellow travelers, who said things like, “Oh, I forgot it was Ash Wednesday,” or “Maybe I should get back to church.” You never know what impact you might have on another person with a humble display of ashes.
Recall that Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, also stressed the importance of letting the light of our faith shine before others. “You are the light of the world,” He said. “A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father” (Matt. 5:14-16).
So Jesus is calling upon us to strike a balance between displaying our faith in order to attract others to Him, and showing off a religiosity that is phony and hypocritical.
Q. The words spoken by the priest in advance of the Our Father at Mass (“At the Savior’s command and formed by divine teaching, we dare to say”) are clear and beautiful, but my parish priest changes them. He says, “At our Savior’s command and formed by His divine teaching, we dare to pray.”
I don’t think he has the freedom or right to do that, but when I asked him about it, he said he believes that his changes add value and are equally correct. Should I just accept his response or pursue the matter more actively? — J.O, via e-mail.
A. You are correct that no priest has the freedom to change anything in the liturgy. In the words of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, “. . . the Priest will remember that he is the servant of the Sacred Liturgy and that he himself is not permitted, on his own initiative, to add, to remove, or to change anything in the celebration of Mass” (n. 24).
You’ve registered your complaint with the priest, and he has declined to say the correct words. We would not pursue the matter any further since he is not open to your concerns and since this deviation from the rubrics of the Mass is quite minor compared to some of the liturgical abuses that we have written about over the years.
We have advised readers to choose their battles, that is, to save themselves for the big issues rather than the small ones. Keep this priest in your prayers that he will come to realize that he is a servant of the liturgy and not its master.
Q. I found your recent reply regarding Hell difficult to understand. You stated that those in Hell “maliciously rejected God’s mercy and forgiveness in this life” and “rejected every opportunity to turn away from sin.” It sounds as though you are saying that only those who have led a persistently wicked life are subject to eternal punishment. From my Catholic school education, I have always believed that a single unforgiven mortal sin, for example, giving in to a strong temptation and dying before sacramental Confession, would likely lead to Hell, despite the individual’s living a generally exemplary life. Could you clarify this? — K.B., via-mail.
A. No, we were not saying that the only persons in Hell are those who led persistently wicked lives. Hell is a possibility for any person who committed one mortal sin and did not repent before death. At the beginning of that reply, we quoted the Catechism as saying that “mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God’s law; it turns man away from God, who is his ultimate end and his beatitude, by preferring an inferior good to him” (n. 1855). The Catechism (n. 1856) quotes St. Thomas Aquinas as having said that “when the will sets itself upon something that is of its nature incompatible with the charity that orients man toward his ultimate end, then the sin is mortal by its very object…whether it contradicts the love of God, such as blasphemy or perjury, or the love of neighbor, such as homicide or adultery” [STh I-II, 88, 2, corp. art).
To be damned, one must knowingly and deliberately engage in actions that God and the Church have deemed to be gravely immoral matter, which is the definition of mortal sin. Furthermore, one must act out of malice, that is, with an ill will toward God and the laws enacted by His Church. And one must die without having repented for the sin. (Sacramental Confession is not required for forgiveness; one can beg God’s mercy apart from the sacrament if no priest is available.) Having said that, we nevertheless wonder how many of those who failed in this regard really possessed the necessary understanding and full consent of the will required for a sin that could damn them to Hell. How many acted out of carelessness rather than callousness?
Original sin makes it possible for a person to choose Hell by knowingly and deliberately turning away from God in one area of the moral life, but we think it more likely that loss of Heaven results from persistently grave immoral conduct. We find it hard to imagine anyone living “a generally exemplary life” and then committing a grave sin that results in eternal damnation for that particular sin.
The more likely scenario involves a pattern of immorality, or what Pope St. John Paul II called a “state of spiritual ruin” that comes from refusing the grace of the Holy Spirit. In his encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem, the Holy Father said:
“Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, then, is the sin committed by the person who claims to have a ‘right’ to persist in evil — in any sin at all — and who thus rejects redemption. One closes oneself up in sin, thus making impossible one’s conversion, and consequently the remission of sins, which one considers not essential or not important for one’s life. This is a state of spiritual ruin because blasphemy against the Holy Spirit does not allow one to escape from one’s self-imposed imprisonment and open oneself to the divine sources of the purification of consciences and of the remission of sins” (n. 46).
Q. I think we can all agree that the very moment the priest places the Host on our tongue we are connected with Jesus in a most intimate manner. I am profoundly dismayed, therefore, that I cannot return to my pew and have a private and quiet conversation with Jesus. Rather, I am expected to sing or, worse yet, try to blot out the booming voice of the cantor, who is deeply in love with his or her voice. Whatever happened to sacred silence? — A.C. Tennessee.
A. As far back as 1980, the Vatican’s Sacred Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship said that “the faithful are to be recommended not to omit to make a proper thanksgiving after Communion. They may do this during the celebration with a period of silence, with a hymn, psalm, or other song of praise, or also after the celebration, if possible, by staying behind to pray for a suitable time” (Inaestimabile Donum, n. 17). After Communion says the 2010 edition of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, the faithful “praise God in their hearts and pray to Him” (n. 45).
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