My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, peace be with you on this Friday after Ash Wednesday. We are given beautiful readings from the prophet Isaiah, from the Psalmist in Psalm 51, and from the Gospel of Matthew, and a common theme that arises in all of them is the sacrifice, the penance of fasting. So I'd like to examine some elements of fasting, as we know that in the liturgical year during Lent, the Church as a penance recommends these three rites: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Prayer, number one, priority, so it always tops the list, right? So that we can do everything that we do for the Lord, in the Lord, and with the Lord, because disconnected from him there's no love. And if there's no love, we can be like clashing cymbals, a lot of noise, but no substance. So love has to be the root even of our fasting.
So in today's first reading, our Lord bemoans the kind of fasting that he was seeing in his people Israel, and he sends out the prophet Isaiah to reprimand them because under the guise of something good, they continued in their evil ways, hoping that it would just cover up all those offenses that they were committing against their neighbor and ultimately against God himself. And so the Lord calls out their sin of presumption. And I quote, “Like a nation that has done what is just and not abandoned the law of their God, they ask me to declare what is due them, pleased to gain access to God. They say, ‘Why do we fast, and you do not see it? Afflict ourselves, and you take no note of it?’ Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits, and drive all your laborers. Yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw. Would that today you might fast so as to make your voice heard on high. Is this the manner of fasting that I wish, of keeping a day of penance? That a man bow his head like a reed and lie in sackcloth and ashes? Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? 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. Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am’” (Isaiah 58:2–9). My dear brothers and sisters, how beautiful a reminder to all of us from the Lord is this admonition that he gives his chosen people in the Old Testament. For we are now the chosen people, all of us who have collaborated with God's grace and mercy and are trying to follow Jesus.
In today's Gospel, Jesus is challenged by those who think they understand what fasting is, but again, it's the wrong kind of fasting. It's the fasting of religious piety, rather than to truly get closer to the Lord and please him. And so we hear from the Gospel of Matthew: “The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast’” (Matthew 9:14–15). So we fast to try to get closer to God so that he will give us the strength, the wisdom, the love in our hearts to reach out to others who are struggling. But when Jesus walked the face of the earth, this was God in our midst. God was with us in the flesh. So the apostles would be asked to fast, as Jesus himself said when they couldn't cure the demoniac, they couldn't cure the father's son who had been possessed by a devil: “This kind can only come out through prayer and fasting” (Mark 9:29). So they would be asked to fast, but they also had to remember that the Lord God of Hosts was right there with them. The bridegroom was there. They're celebrating. This is the day of salvation, the day of grace, the day of rejoicing when the Lord is with us.
Jesus then says something striking: “The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast” (Matthew 9:15). So our Lord is with us in many beautiful ways, especially in the Eucharist. He is with us, and he never leaves us. He never abandons us. But we also hope and thirst for that day when we shall see him face to face in person, when we shall look upon the light of his face. That's what we pray for, all souls departed and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, that they be granted that vision of the light of the face of God. Until then, my brothers and sisters, be of heart. Make your fast count. Make your fast help you to open your heart to your brother and sister in need, whoever that may be. And while you endeavor to do this, may our Blessed Mother intercede for you and call upon you most special blessings from Almighty God. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord. Amen.
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