The Gospel Friday after Ash Wednesday Book of Isaiah 58:1-9a. Thus says the Lord GOD: Cry out full-throated and unsparingly, lift up your voice like a trumpet blast; Tell my people their wickedness, and the house of Jacob their sins. They seek me day after day, and desire to know my ways, 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. 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 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! Psalms 51(50):3-4.5-6ab.18-19. Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; In the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. Thoroughly wash me from my guilt And of my sin cleanse me. For I acknowledge my offense, And my sin is before me always: Against you only have I sinned, And done what is evil in your sight. For you are not pleased with sacrifices; Should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it. My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit; A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 9:14-15. 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. Commentary of the day Blessed John-Paul II, Pope from 1978 to 2005 General Audience of 21/03/1979 (trans. © copyright Libreria Editrice Vaticana) Then they will fast Jesus answered the disciples of John the Baptist when they asked him: Why do your disciples not fast? Jesus answered: 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 (Mt 9:15). In fact the time of Lent reminds us that the bridegroom has been taken away from us. Taken away, arrested, imprisoned, slapped, scourged, crowned with thorns, crucified. Fasting in the time of Lent is the expression of our solidarity with Christ... My love has been crucified and there is no longer in me the flame that desires material things, as the Bishop of Antioch, Ignatius, writes [at the end of the 1st and beginning of the 2nd centuries]... Food and drink are indispensable for man to live, he uses them and must use them, but he may not abuse them in any way. The traditional abstention from food and drink has as its purpose to introduce into mans existence not only the necessary balance, but also detachment from what might be defined a consumer attitude. In our times this attitude has become one of the characteristics of civilization and in particular of Western civilization... Man geared to material goods... very often abuses them. It is not a question here lust of food and drink. When man is geared exclusively to possession and use of material goods—that is, of things—then also the whole civilization is measured according to the quantity and the quality of the things with which it is in a position to supply man, and is not measured with the yardstick suitable for man. This civilization, in fact, supplies material goods not just in order that they may serve man to carry out creative and useful activities, but more and more... to satisfy the senses, the excitement he derives from them, momentary pleasure, an ever greater multiplicity of sensations, [for example through] audiovisual media... It is seen from this that modern man must fast, that is, abstain not only from food or drink, but from many other means of consumption, stimulation, satisfaction of the senses. God bless...
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 00:39:13 +0000
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