Today many Christians begin the season of Lent by receiving the imposition of ashes. They hear the intonation of death over them: "Dust you are. To dust you shall return." It is a salutary lesson to learn that we live in death even as we partake of life. But we must learn precisely this on Ash Wednesday. We must understand our human weakness and our liability to sin and death. Only then will we use the ashes rightly as a sign of a life of repentance: they must be in outward sign of an inner attitude: true humility and contrition. David puts it so beautifully: "A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise" (Ps 51:17). The ashes must not become a sign of anything else, such as our moral or spiritual superiority over those who do not receive the sign this day. What an abomination it would be to treat the very signs of humility as the signs of superiority and pride. As the corny song has it: "Oh, Lord, it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way!"

Whether we choose to fast or some other appropriate Lenten discipline, what is important about it is the lesson of our weakness, mortality, and sinfulness. You are not making a point to God about how pious you are; because He is aware of your piety (or lack of it) without your pointing it out to Him. It is not as though He is sitting in heaven, pointing to our Lenten discipline with glee and exclaiming: "See how they love me! I wouldn't have known the depth of their faith and piety, if they hadn't given up chocolate for Lent." God is not a dumb idol to be tricked by some outward display. Lent simply highlights the humility of the Christian life, that it is a life of repentance from beginning to end. We learn from the Lenten discipline, we do not teach God by it.