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In this episode, Trent answers a common objection that tries to use Jesus’ teachings against the practice of wearing ashes.
Narrator:
Welcome to the Council of Trent Podcast, a production of Catholic Answers.
Trent Horn:
Hey everyone, welcome to the Council of Trent Podcast. I’m your host, Catholic Answers apologist and speaker Trent Horn. And today it’s Ash Wednesday. Well, I’m not wearing ashes because this episode was recorded a few weeks ago, but I do want to address a common claim that wearing ashes is unbiblical. Some people will cite Matthew 6:16 through 18 where Jesus says the following, “And when you fast, do not look dismal like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that they’re fasting may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward. But 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. And your father who sees in secret will reward you.” Doesn’t this mean we should wash our faces of ashes and of anything else that way we don’t show people we’re fasting?
Well, when you come across a passage in scripture that seems to teach that a Catholic doctrine or a practice is unbiblical, slow down, try to find as much context as possible behind the passage. And in reading a passage slowly, we can also ask questions and notice certain details that change the context in how we understand the passage. All right, so let’s give it a try. Jesus says, “And when you fast,” notice that Jesus does not say, “If you fast,” Jesus expects His disciples to fast, and it’d be a hasty assumption to think Jesus’ disciples only engaged in secret personal fasts that nobody knew about. That would be a hasty assumption. In fact, some critical scholars doubt that Jesus said, “And when you fast,” they doubt that part of the Bible. They say that this contradicts the criticism that Jesus’ disciples did not fast like the Pharisees or John the Baptist like in Mark 2:18.
But as the Protestant scholar Craig Keener notes, “Mark cannot mean that they, the disciples, never fasted. Omission of the biblical fast Yom Kippur would’ve yielded serious charges of which the gospels provide no hint.” The criticism about Jesus’ disciples not fasting may have been related to the fact that they did not keep certain optional fasts that were popular among groups like the Pharisees. As Luke 18:12 suggests, the Pharisees may have fasted twice a week. Jesus’ explanation is that, well, just as one cannot mourn while the bride groom is present, Jesus’s disciples do not fast while he is still with them. But that’s going to change after the bride groom is taken away from them. Indeed, Acts 13:2 says the Holy Spirit spoke to a group of Christians in Antioch who were worshiping the Lord and fasting. And a first century catechism called the Didache says that Christians fasted on Wednesday and Friday.
So not only does Jesus expect His disciples to fast, they fasted during periods like Yom Kippur when everyone knew they would be fasting. So this was a public fast. People would’ve known His disciples were fasting during this time. In fact, Luke probably mentions Yom Kippur, the fast, in Acts 27:9. So Jesus’s warning, therefore, is not about doing something that would reveal your fasting. If it was a Jewish holy day, everybody would’ve known Jesus’s disciples were subscribing to the customary fast. The warning is about doing something to draw attention to one’s fasting and the toll it’s taking on your body. That’s why Jesus gives the following command, “Do not look dismal like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces.” How would someone look dismal by disfiguring his face and what makes the person a hypocrite? Well, the word hypocrite refers in part to the masks that an actor in a Greek play would wear on a stage.
A hypocrite plays a part, which means a religious hypocrite is someone who appears pious but actually is not pious. That was one of Jesus’ stock complaints about the Pharisees. But in general, Catholics don’t wear ashes in order to merely appear to be pious. Ashes are a genuine sign of internal repentance, and it’s a recognition that we come from dust and into dust we shall return, Genesis 3:19. Jesus even speaks of wearing ashes as a sign of repentance and does so in a positive way. Matthew tells us that Jesus began to upbraid the cities where most of His mighty works had been done because they did not repent. Jesus then says to them, “Woe to you Chorazin, woe to you Bethsaida, for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.” Matthew 11:20 through 21.
Jesus’ criticism is not of people who engage in religious activities that outwardly manifest genuine repentance or spiritual sacrifice. Instead, Jesus criticized people who engaged in exaggerated behaviors that disfigure themselves in order to draw attention to their fasting or even to fabricate it. That’s why St. John Chrysostom said, “I know many not merely fasting and making a display of it, but neglecting to fast and yet wearing the masks of them that fast, and cloaking themselves with an excuse worse than their sin.” In other cases, the person may be sorrowful for sin but he’s also seeking vain glory through his fasting. For example, the rabbinic literature like the Talmud criticizes the Nikpi Pharisee, these were people who knocked their feet together when they walked out of exaggerated humility, or the Kizai Pharisee, they would walk into walls because they wanted to avoid temptation by keeping their eyes closed.
They were also called the black and blue Pharisees because they were constantly bruised from running into walls because they wanted to keep their eyes closed for purity’s sake. Another kind of Pharisee would rub or strike themselves against a wall in order to show how weak they were because of their fasting. The Protestant scholar Craig Evans connects this kind of pharisee to Jesus’s warning about those who disfigure themselves to show that they’re fasting. They’re so weak they fall into walls and bruise themselves. Jesus then says of the hypocrites, “They have their reward. But when you fast anoint your head and wash your face.” Notice the goal here isn’t to hide the fact that you are fasting. After all, your friends and family would’ve noticed during meal times that you were fasting, they would’ve noticed that in Jesus’s time. Jesus told somebody about His own 40-day fast in the desert so it could later be recorded in Matthew 4:2.
Instead, the goal is to not draw unnecessary attention to yourself by fasting, by making it look like your lack of food has made you gaunt or sickly. You don’t want to draw extra attention to yourself. We also have to remember as my colleague Tim Staples notes in his article on Ash Wednesday, that Jesus often uses hyperbole in His teachings. Like Jesus says we should pray in secret, but Jesus Himself prayed in the sight of others at the Garden of Gethsemane or at Lazarus’s tomb. Jesus says we shouldn’t make any oaths, but in 2 Corinthians 1:23 Saint Paul makes an oath. So in the same way, when Jesus says we should fast in secret, that’s to emphasize that we should not fast in order to receive praise from other people, not that we should hide our fasting so nobody ever figures it out, because in Jesus’ time His disciples and Himself engaged in public fasts, but not for the intention of drawing attention to themselves and sympathy and seeking glory from others and honor in the eyes of men.
In conclusion, Matthew 6:16 does not condemn wearing ashes for the purpose of entering into a spirit of repentance for observing Lent. But that doesn’t mean Jesus’s warning is not relevant today. It is. If we treat ashes as just a hip way to stand out from the crowd and announce to other people that we’re Catholic, then Jesus tells us we already have our reward, if that’s the only reason we’re getting ashes. And this applies to people, they might not disfigure their faces like Jesus says, but they enjoy complaining about how difficult it is to fast or how difficult it is to give up something during Lent in order to get sympathy from other people. Truly they have their reward. But if we maintain a holy disposition while wearing ashes or fasting, then we will carry out Jesus’ command to let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:16.
So I hope this is helpful for you all to keep an important perspective on Lent and Ash Wednesday, and to also keep an important perspective on how we read scripture. Thank you guys so much and I hope you have a very blessed day.
Narrator:
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