Friday after Ash Wednesday
As I happen to be writing this reflection for Friday on Ash Wednesday, the issue of fasting is front and center on my mind (and stomach). A hungry stomach keeps alerting my mind to its state, which I find makes it harder to focus and easier to become irritable with my husband. Apparently, I’m not very advanced with this discipline. Fasting is front and center in both of today’s readings as well. But perhaps not as you’d expect.
In our first reading, the prophet Isaiah lets us know fairly clearly what kind of fasting God is desiring from us. “This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke, setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke, sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless, clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own.”(58:6-7)
The prophet tells us that God is not interested in our fasting or other sacrifices for their sake alone. In fact, according to Isaiah, God seems to feel pretty strongly about this, especially when “your fast ends in quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw…do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?” (58:4a,5b)
I almost hear God saying, “Are you serious? Are you kidding me? Is that what you really think I’m interested in?!”
And then in today’s short gospel passage from Matthew (9:14-15), we hear about the disciples of John questioning Jesus as to why His disciples don’t fast (while the others, including the Pharisees, all do!). Jesus has a great response, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?...”
And it occurred to me as I was wondering about this passage being paired with today’s reading from Isaiah, that Jesus is the model and fulfillment of what God desires from us. As Luke’s gospel (not found in Matthew) tells us when Jesus proclaims a similar passage from Isaiah and then adds, “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” (see Luke 4:17-21)
If we are to follow Jesus, mustn’t we continue this kind of “fast” – works of mercy, compassion, justice, and liberation? For only “Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed…” (58:8a)
As we begin this year’s Lenten journey, let us pray for the grace to carry out the kind of authentic fasting that heals, and God truly desires.
—Eileen Miller