12 February 2015 - better, stronger fasting

[ Today's Readings ]

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

It isn't enough to look like we're fasting.

Is this the manner of fasting I wish,
of keeping a day of penance:
That a man bow his head like a reed
and lie in sackcloth and ashes?

It isn't enough to just do the thing. It has to come from the heart.

My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.

It needs to be a genuine solidarity with the world in it's suffering.

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.”

LORD Jesus, you yourself weep with those who weep. Here is the model for the attitude with which we ought to fast.

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept (see John 11:33-45).

Jesus, don't let us use our Lent as an opportunity to turn inward and ignore the world. You tell us that we fast when you are taken from us. Yet you are with us always, so what do you mean? If you are truly so present how shall we ever fast? But you are taken from us by your death, which we remember until you come again, and the sin that makes it necessary. This death encompasses all of the sorrow of all of history. If we try to embrace this sorrow on our own we are overwhelmed. But when we embrace it by embracing your cross it is transformed. Our fasting is transformed. It is not and cannot be only focused within.

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;

This is wonderful. When fasting is a practice that is mostly vanity we just end up miserable anyway.

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

This fasting, united to your own suffering, embracing in love the sorrow of the world, actually does something.

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!

We know that, although you are taken from us, the third day is coming. Your resurrection is what gives us power. Fasting is made meaningful by Easter. We break every yoke, we set the oppressed free, we clothe the naked and share our bread with the hungry. We don't turn our backs on suffering but unite it with power of your cross so that it can be overcome by the power of your resurrection.

A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.