FRIDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY
Psalter: Week 4 / (Violet)
St. Katharine Drexel, virgin
Ps 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 18-19
A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
1st Reading: Is 58:1-9a
Cry out aloud for all you are worth; raise your voice like a trumpet blast; tell my people of their offenses, Jacob’s family of their sins.
Is it true that they seek me day after day, longing to know my ways, as a people that does what is right and has not forsaken the word of its God?
They want to know the just laws and not to drift away from their God. “Why are we fasting,“ they complain, “and you do not even see it?
We are doing penance and you never notice it.“ Look, on your fast days you push your trade and you oppress your laborers.
Yes, you fast but end up quarreling, striking each other with wicked blows. Fasting as you do will not make your voice heard on high.
Is that the kind of fast that pleases me, just a day to humble oneself? Is fasting merely bowing down one’s head, and making use of sackcloth and ashes? Would you call that fasting, a day acceptable to Yahweh?
See the fast that pleases me: breaking the fetters of injustice and unfastening the thongs of the yoke, setting the oppressed free and breaking every yoke.
Fast by sharing your food with the hungry, bring to your house the homeless, clothe the one you see naked and do not turn away from your own kin.
Then will your light break forth as the dawn and your healing come in a flash. Your righteousness will be your vanguard, the glory of Yahweh your rearguard.
Then you will call and Yahweh will answer, you will cry and he will say, I am here.
Gospel: Mt 9:14-15
The disciples of John came to him with the question, “How is it, that we and the Pharisees fast on many occasions, but not your disciples?“
Jesus answered them, “How can you expect wedding guests to mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The time will come, when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then, they will fast.“
REFLECTION:
Fasting?
What is “Fasting and abstinence?“ The law of fasting requires Catholics ages18–60 years to take only one meal a day, and two smaller meals which if added together would not exceed the main meal in quantity on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. The law of abstinence, which is not eating meat on Ash Wednesdays and all Fridays of Lent, binds those who have completed their fourteenth year onwards. The sick, of course, are not obliged.
Why Fasting and Abstinence? It is not for diet purposes. We abstain and fast for a salutary spiritual reasons (1) as penance for our sins and as (2) a spiritual discipline. We remember that Christ spent 40 days in desert in fasting and prayer before He began his public ministry. Those who have to contend with the evil, those who intend to exorcise the evil one prepare for the spiritual combat through prayer and fasting. St. Jean Vianney was so effective in driving the evil one at the confessional because of his prayer and fasting.
Fasting and abstinence are spiritual exercises that build our spiritual muscles or our ability to do battle with the evil one. We are always tempted. The devil likes to offer us always an easy path. The devil always offers us comfort. Fasting and abstinence train us to resist the lure of the easy path and instead train us to face the difficult path of the way of the cross to which Jesus calls us.
Daily Reflection
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Biblical Texts are taken from Christian Community Bible, Catholic Pastoral Edition (57th Edition) The New English Translation for the ROMAN MISSAL
With permission from the EPISCOPAL COMMISION ON LITURGY of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines
Readings and Reflections
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