Please read the Scripture passage before the homily.
Jesus talks about hypocrites. The word hypocrite originally meant an actor in a dramatic play. Hypocrites were playing characters on a stage, entertaining the audience. They could be hero or villain on stage, and something entirely different in real life.
Our rituals and liturgies are not playacting. We are not actors or spectators. We are all engaged in real life in our rituals and liturgical actions. We are going to fast, fast from sin and feasting of goodness. We are praying together, not pretending. We are giving alms, not hoarding our money and time.
We are entering Lent, not as spectators, nor as hypocrites acting fictitious parts. No, we are entering Lent, not to impress an audience, but to be a people working cooperatively to make a better world by our praying, almsgiving, and fasting.
We fast so others can feast. We give alms because our extra money and resources belong by right to the poor and needy. We pray for others, not to change them or their behavior, but to praise God for them. Our authentic religious traditions are that we are all tied up together with each other as we come to worship before God. If we are truly religious, then there is no hypocrisy and no play acting. There is, instead, only the reality of truth and sincerity.
Today we wear ashes as a sign that we are together in the realness of faith and in communion with God and one another. We receive ashes as part of our reality, not as a part in a play. We are not hypocrites, but we are celebrating ritual and liturgy that acknowledges the real in ourselves and the reality of God who calls us into this ritual and liturgy.