FRIDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY
Day of abstinence from meat
(age 14 and up).
Psalter: Week 4 / (Violet)
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 loud 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 do what is right and have 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
Then 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.“
Reflections
SEE THE FAST THAT PLEASES ME: BREAKING THE FETTERS OF INJUSTICE…
SETTING THE OPPRESSED FREE
In 1970, a Synod of Bishops in Rome put out a programmatic document: JUSTICE IN THE WORLD. In the Introduction, the bishops categorically state: WORK FOR JUSTICE AND TRANSFORMATION OF THE WORLD APPEAR TO US AS CONSTITUTIVE DIMENSIONS OF PREACHING THE GOSPEL. This is just a modern formulation of what Christ said about what kind of fasting pleases him, namely — breaking the fetters of injustice and setting the oppressed free. This was what inspired the religious and priests of the 70s to opt to be in solidarity with the poor and the oppressed, linking arms with the workers in picket lines, joining the hunger strike of the urban poor against demolition, accompanying farmers on their quest to claim their lands. This is as true today as it was in the 70s. There is still so much injustice oppression and exploitation in our society — the struggle of the indigenous people for their ancestral lands, the insecurity of workers under contractualization, the helplessness of the victims of human trafficking, the chronic hunger of the poor. It is good to remember that our preaching of the good news is not complete unless we take up their cause and join in their struggle.
Daily Reflection 2018
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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
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