15 February 2013

15 February 2013

Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits,
and drive all your laborers.

The LORD isn't interested in tack-on behaviors.  Fasting isn't something we just add on to the life we otherwise live.  To change a behavior is relatively easy but to change our hearts is harder and requires God's grace.  The danger is that when we give something up we can find other temporal pleasures with which to replace it rather than allowing God to fill the vacuum.  Of course this will never lead to peace for us.

Yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting,
striking with wicked claw.

Again the LORD reminds us that he is not concerned with the externals of fasting.  Fasting apart from grace turns us inward, wears us down, and leaves us angry and anxious.  But if we let God fill the void our sacrifices create we has his promise that he will transform us.  We will be more free to love him and therefore to love our brothers and sisters.

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.

We are so afraid that this is true because we think that if it is it will mean misery for us. We are afraid that we won't find satisfaction but only chores, tedious work, and tasks beyond our ability.  The fact is though, it is our selfishness that keeps us from joy and satisfaction, not God and not his plan for us.  Selfishness and ego lie and promise false pleasures which we don't bother to question.  They are satis-fictions but we prefer to remain stagnant and "comfortable" rather than risk change.  But God calls us upward and the risk is worth the promise:

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,and your wound shall quickly be healed;

Let us offer the LORD what he truly wants this Lent.  Let us offer him souls maleable to his touch.  This is one way to define contrite, the disposition which the LORD asks of us.  We admit that the LORD is right and we are wrong.  Once we do he is freed to shape us according to his purposes.  

My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
   
Jesus tells us the are times when he is too present to us for fasting to be appropriate.  In those times fasting is superfluous because he is the dominant priority of our lives.  No matter what we do or don't do it is for him.  Sadly, this isn't the usual state of things.  We are normally more driven by selfishness than by love of him.  It is hard to hear that the bridegroom is far from us but it does make the goal clear.  We fast so that we can have that degree of closeness to the bridegroom once more (and not so that we can more effectively live our life apart from him, I might add).

“Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?

Come, LORD Jesus.  Draw nearer than before.  Fill us with your love and never leave us.  We abandon ourselves to you.  We leave our old ways at your feet.  Instead of our human will, may your love be the force that moves us.  Bring us to your embrace.