Matthew 6:1

When I arrived at the cash register at Lord and Taylor’s at noontime on Ash Wednesday, the manager was doing inventory—except it was on her staff. She was inspecting foreheads to see who had gone to mass.

And with my feathers a tad ruffled over the manager’s judgmental tone, I inquired I am not going to mass until 4:00—does that count?

Her response was I guess—but you are really supposed to go in the morning.

I said nothing more but thought I am pretty sure there is no time restriction on when person is supposed to get their ashes. And I am pretty sure that God only cares that you get the ashes, not what time you get them.

And when I arrived in the vestibule at Saint Joseph’s Church with my mother at 4:00 pm that day I was relieved to find that as I suspected, God was indeed all forgiving. He chose not to strike me down for having written a blog post about the pope earlier that week.  And the added perk of being at the service was that the gospel reading just happened to be one of my favorites: Matthew 6:1

In it Jesus says that if you perform good works for the sole purpose of soliciting praise from others, God grants no recompense. And if you give alms, it should be done anonymously—so that that left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. And if you pray, it should be done in private—because God knows what is in your heart and there is no need for an audience.

To sum it all up: devotion is best worn behind closed doors—it is not a red carpet photo-opportunity.

And the minute I got into the car with my mother I pulled down the rear view mirror and proceeded to wipe my ashes off.

My mother scolded What are you doing?!!

And I said I am doing what the gospel said—were you not paying attention in there?

And although she understood my thought process she still didn’t approve of my removal process.

And so I let my ashes stay put until I got home.

Because commandment #5 is: honor thy mother. And that sometimes trumps What would Jesus do?