8 March 2019 - heard on high

Today's Readings

(Audio)

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

It is true that the LORD is with us always, even unto the end of the age (see Matthew 28:20). We do "not grieve as others do who have no hope" (see First Thessalonians 4:13). Yet even though Jesus is present and available to his people we do not always avail ourselves of his presence. We allow the fallen world to distract us and in doing so there is a sense in which the bridegroom is taken from us.

The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast.

The cross is our refuge when the bridegroom seems far from us. Carrying it is our path to find Jesus again. Fasting and carrying our cross help us to learn to put Jesus first and to unite our suffering in the world with his own. Jesus, it turns out, was taken from us, but never gone so completely that we could not follow. We simply refused, preferring instead to hide. We lied to bystanders in the outer courts about our relationship with Jesus because to be honest meant sharing in his fate.

The way of the cross is not self-hatred or suffering to no purpose. The way of the cross is the way of love. 

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?

Embracing the cross shows our love for Jesus and our refusal to let any earthly thing separate us from him. It shows our love of neighbor for the suffering we bear is made infinitely valuable by Jesus for their sakes.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church (see Colossians 1:24).

Fasting so as to make our voice heard on high frees us to love in practical ways.

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.

Yet, though fasting is in this sense practical, there is something more than mere good deeds here. There is the paschal mystery at work.

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!