Ash Wednesday

For those who participate in Ash Wednesday mass and receiving ashes, is it due to obligation or true faith and humility? Honestly, it's obligation for me, although it makes me ask why every day isn't a lenten day?

The Gospel reading for Ash Wednesday is from the sixth chapter of Matthew—the chapter in which Jesus teaches the disciples to recite the Lord’s Prayer. But, in the reading, Jesus goes beyond simply telling us what words to say. The passage teaches us how to pray.

Per Jesus, "when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. . . . But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door and pray to your Father in secret.”

Jesus sets the same rule of secrecy for charity and fasting: “When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, to win the praise of others. . . . But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret. . . . When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden.”

So, Jesus may be implying more self-discretion in "promoting" our ashes to others and in voicing our commitment to a Lenten fasting of something we savor. Perhaps we should fast on hatred of others, in a subtle, clandestrine manner.