Friday 16 February 2024 – Friday after Ash Wednesday
Isaiah 58:1-9
Thus says the Lord: Shout for all you are worth, raise your voice like a trumpet. Proclaim their faults to my people, their sins to the House of Jacob. They seek me day after day, they long to know my ways, like a nation that wants to act with integrity and not ignore the law of its God. They ask me for laws that are just, they long for God to draw near: ‘Why should we fast if you never see it, why do penance if you never notice?’ Look, you do business on your fast-days, you oppress all your workmen; look, you quarrel and squabble when you fast and strike the poor man with your fist. Fasting like yours today will never make your voice heard on high. Is that the sort of fast that pleases me, a truly penitential day for men? Hanging your head like a reed, lying down on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call fasting, a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me – it is the Lord who speaks – to break unjust fetters and undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke, to share your bread with the hungry, and shelter the homeless poor, to clothe the man you see to be naked and not turn from your own kin? Then will your light shine like the dawn and your wound be quickly healed over. Your integrity will go before you and the glory of the Lord behind you. Cry, and the Lord will answer; call, and he will say, ‘I am here.’
Psalm 50 A humbled, contrite heart, O God, you will not spurn.
Matthew 9:14-15
John’s disciples came to Jesus and said, ‘Why is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?’ Jesus replied, ‘Surely the bridegroom’s attendants would never think of mourning as long as the bridegroom is still with them? But the time will come for the bridegroom to be taken away from them, and then they will fast.’
Reflection:
When I fast I can become very self-focused. I focus on my hunger, my empty stomach, when I am next going to eat, gee that piece of cake looks nice, when is my next meal, what time is it now. I can even get grumpy. But, I don’t think that is the spirit of Lenten fasting. In his book “Hunger for God,” John Piper writes: “Christian fasting, at its root, is the hunger of a homesickness for God.”
I once had an argument with someone about the value of fasting from meat. You see, my father was a butcher and Lent was the worse time of year for a good income to support the family. Why should he be penalised by the church and fish-mongers make good business? In the end of the argument I realised my heart was lacking in love.
I guess sometimes we miss the point of fasting and abstinence.
In the text from the prophet Isaiah we just heard, “Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me – it is the Lord who speaks – to break unjust fetters and undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke, to share your bread with the hungry, and shelter the homeless poor, to clothe the man you see to be naked and not turn from your own kin?”
This is ARK philosophy — ACTS of RANDOM KINDESS.
It focusses me outwards not on my own hunger. I become concerned for the well being of others, looking out for them, anticipating how I can bring them love, happiness, and freedom. Fasting is a way people humble themselves before God. It sharpens our hunger for the Divine, If done in the right spirit it takes us out of ourselves and helps us focus on others. It becomes an act of loving. Fasting is a part of God’s love story with us. It brings people together so they will be concerned for each other and look after one other. God gives us opportunities to love one another. Fasting is just another one of those opportunities. We use it or we lose it.