“FASTENZEIT”
Saint Matthew 6. 16-21
ASH WEDNESDAY: 25 February Anno Domini 2009
Fr Watson SSP
The problem you have with fasting and the wearing of ashes is the same problem the Pharisees had with them. The problem you have with the Commandments is the same problem the Scribes had with them. The problem you have with everything is the same problem the Jews had with everything.
The reason is the same too-they were hypocrites and your sinful "old natures" are hypocrites. Self ruins everything. Ego always tries to kill the Father. Sin is always deicide.
The problem with you is that "you…being you…always ends up thinking about-YOU." Satan got Eve to think about herself rather than loving the Lord God and loving her Lord Adam. All separation from paradise and all divorce from the Holy Trinity is the result of curving in upon oneself. If your God is your belly, your "stuff" you won't grow up and out. If you navel-gaze on your own accomplishments and goals you won't keep your focus on the crucifix.
The Reformer was correct when he said that the drunken peasant, trying to stay upright on the horse does not keep from falling off to the left by simply leaning way over to the right. Because there exists a problem with Phariseeism this does not mean you should stop doing good works. Because there is the problem with being a hypocrite is not a reason to stop trying to obey the law. The trespass of works-righteousness is not a reason to become a libertine or an anti-nomian. Both are fatal for the Lord does not want you an in-sincere disciple or a sincere pagan. He wants you laying up treasures in heaven. He desires you to have your heart where He is.
Jesus wants you to fast; if He didn't He would not have said "Moreover, when you fast." Jesus does not want you to be like the Pharisees who do everything with an eye of "being seen being good," and with the fatal understanding that what they are doing counts as work of self-salvation. When you keep a tally you are sinning against the Christ. When you're satisfied with your obedience you are committing a greater disobedience.
If something causes you to sin than don't do it. That is Law, to be sure, but also excellent apostolic encouragement. If drinking a beer causes you to swear and take the Name of the Lord in vain, stay a teetotaler. If wearing a mark of ash on your forehead for 64 minutes a year causes you to fluff up like the great grouse of Phariseeism incarnate, then don't do it. If you can't refrain from eating meat on Fridays during Fastenzeit without patting yourself on the back and thinking your better than the missus who stuffs herself with the Big Mac, than you too should be eating hamburger. Where is your heart? Where is your Lord Christ? Jesus is in His Word for you. The Savior is in His blessed Sacraments for you. He takes your dirty ash covered heart and your filthy dust caked mouth and washes you off in His + regenerative bath. He covers your ashes with His blood so that the only thing visible to the Father is the white glow of Christ's goodness. He fills your mouth with His sacred Flesh, He pours the Water of Life, His true Blood, down your parched and dusty lips and you are never thirsty again. He gives you His Holy Ghost so that you genuinely and with a true heart can try and amend your daily wrongdoing, drown the "old Adam" and live for Him and your neighbor. He gives you by His Grace, through a proper distinction on the Law, the sincerity and the faith to recognize your hypocrisy and posturing and to repent of it-whether it be in the ashes and sackcloth of your heart only, or in the contrition of your heart-with a symbol on your forehead once a year-as well. It's all Jesus. Thank the Lord.
For those times when you gorge yourselves like Dives on mammon, or for those times when you disfigure your face to appear pious before men, the Christ fasted perfectly for 40 days in the dust of the wilderness-for you! For those time when you don't give your alms to the poor in the church and your resources to the parish so that Christ's proclamation and sacraments might go forth, or for those times when you let others know that "It's church because you've paid for it" Jesus perfectly, and silently, tithed His entire Body & Blood on the Tree to pay for all His Father's Redemptive Work in Him.
And though now, for a while, you feel as if you are being burned in the blast-furnace of trials and testings, He tells you that you are more precious than gold or silver and that He is simply forming you, re-forming you, and strengthening you into His own likeness. Though now for a while your body decays and your things rust and are moth-eaten, very soon, you will be in the Company of Christ where all is made new again and everything is just right-righteous in the Righteous One.
Your treasure is Christ. You are Christ's treasure. The two are now one for you are in Him in Baptism, and He is in you in the Supper. By and with the Word of the Lord…your hearts are now One.
In the Name of The Father and + of The Son and of The Holy Ghost