Friday after Ash
Wednesday
(Isaiah 58:1-9a; Matthew 9:14-15)
Remember when our mothers told us to eat our food because
there were children in China going hungry?
Comedians make fun of the logic, but there is subtle connection between
the two. It parallels the reasoning
behind the lesson about fasting in the first reading today.
Isaiah chastises the people for fasting while ignoring
the needy. Fasting – experiencing voluntary
hunger --should make us conscious of those without food to eat so that we might
help them. Our mothers admonished us to finish
our dinner with a similar end in mind.
They wanted us to be grateful for the food we have so that we might help
those with little.
Food is a good although we sometimes distort its value by
eating too much. In any case food is not
the greatest good. God is. To recognize God as such we fast during
Lent. Because God commands us to do so,
it would a travesty for us to fast from food and not assist the hungry.
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