Friday, February 24. 2023

 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 a 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 God’s command to feed those without food.  Our mothers admonished us with a similar end in mind.  They wanted us to show gratitude to God for the food He has provided by eating it.

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.

Friday, February 19, 2021

 Friday after Ash Wednesday

(Isaiah 58:1-9a; Matthew 9:14-15)

In the days of perennial Friday abstinence, preachers often ranted about people eating lobster.  What kind of a sacrifice is that? They would say.  They had a point.  Lobster is rich and tasty, hardly a hardship.  The criticism echoes the one offered in today’s reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah.

The writer did not live toward the end of the eighth century B.C. like the prophet most of us think of when we hear the name Isaiah.  He lived and prophesized two centuries later.  The Jews had not long returned from the Babylonian exile.  They were rebuilding Jerusalem and wanted to live the traditions of their ancestors.  They fasted and prayed for God’s assistance.  Speaking for God, the prophet tells the people that their fasts and prayers are in vain if they do not practice justice.  God told their ancestors to pay workers fairly and to directly assist the hungry and homeless.

In Lent especially but also throughout the year, we should heed the prophet’s words.  Our prayers and fasting must be oriented to caring for those in need.  We must support a society where everyone has both material and spiritual resources to live with dignity.

Friday, February 28, 2020

Friday after Ash Wednesday

(Isaiah 58:1-9a; Matthew 9:14-15)

When we were children, my sister, brother, and I would ask our mother what she wanted for her birthday or Christmas.  She invariably answered, “Good kids.”  Her response is not much different from God’s in today’s first reading.

The Jews want to court God’s favor.  They think that by prayer and fasting he might be won over to their side.  They see God as a politician sees a rich person whose money she needs.   They do not understand that God is more like a Father who wants his children to love one another.  He announces what he expects of them -- mercy and justice.  God is especially concerned that the needs of the weakest among them be looked after.

We should consider Lent a time of inventory and reconciliation.  We want to ask ourselves how have we treated others and make amends where we are lacking.  By “others” we should not think only of those whose paths we cross daily.  The indeterminate category should include people of other nations.

Friday, March 7, 2014

Friday after Ash Wednesday

(Isaiah 58:1-9a; Matthew 9:14-15)

Some wonder about the need to fast.  They point to Isaiah’s critique of Judah’s fasting in the first reading today and say working for social justice is what God requires.  For them serving sandwiches in a soup kitchen is a much better practice of Lenten piety than not eating ourselves.

But fasting is an age-old way of expressing love.  Through it one lays aside attention to her own needs, to assist others.  People deny themselves of sleep – a form of fasting -- to attend to a sick friend through the night.  Others do not eat as a kind of social protest to express solidarity with a group suffering persecution.

We do not fast –at least for religious reasons –as an exercise of our endurance.  No, we attach fasting to a felt need like expressing compassion for a group in distress or showing love for God.  We rightly see fasting along with almsgiving and prayer as part of a three-stranded rope that supports the heaviest tension.  We fast and pray.  We fast and give our food (or the money saved by not eating) to the poor.  In these ways we please God and neighbor.

Friday, February 24, 2012

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 is similar to the reasoning behind the lesson about fasting in the first reading today.

Isaiah chastises the people for fasting while ignoring the needy. Fasting – experiencing 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 all 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. But it is not the greatest good. God is that. To recognize God as such we fast during Lent. Because God commands us to do so, it would a travesty to fast and not assist the hungry.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Friday after Ash Wednesday

(Isaiah 58:1-9a; Matthew 9:14-15)

Fifty years ago every Catholic adult was supposed to fast every day of Lent. The fast consisted of not eating more than one full meal a day, not eating between meals, and not taking meat more than once a day except on Friday when it was completely prohibited. Probably because many began flouting the fast and others scorned the backsliders, the practices were abandoned in 1966 in favor of the much lighter fast the Church imposes today.

Christians fast for several reasons. As with Jesus in the desert, fasting prepares us for a religious mission. It focuses our attention on what must be done and recognizes the need for God’s assistance. During Lent our focus is renewal in the Spirit that comes at Easter. Fasting also brings us in solidarity with the poor by experiencing their want of food and also by freeing up resources that might be shared with them. Finally, it serves as an outer sign of inner affection for the Lord as when a lover will sacrifice a free night to accompany his beloved to the library.

In the reading from Isaiah today, the prophet excoriates the people for undermining the purpose of fasting. Rather than disposing them to care more deeply, fasting serves the people as a subterfuge for their greed. Because It has made the Jews more sanctimonious than saintly and more corrupt than compassionate, Isaiah wants to alter the rules. The desired fast will no longer be so much what the Jews give up but what they give. They must feed the hungry and release the unjustly imprisoned. Only then will God accept their self-denial as legitimate expressions of love.

Homilette for Friday, February 27, 2009

Friday after Ash Wednesday

(Isaiah 58:1-9a; Matthew 9:14-15)

Muslims are apt to ridicule the Catholic way of fasting. “What is so hard about not eating between meals,” they might ask, “when you can eat three times a day?” They see their fast of not eating or drinking at all during daylight hours as much more demanding. But we might query Muslims about the severity of their practice as they often binge throughout the night during their month of fasting.

God calls into question the fasts of both Catholics and Muslims as He chastises Israel in the reading from Isaiah today. His critique is that not that fasting has no value but that it must be accompanied by a change of heart. Indeed, fasting can facilitate conversion by palpably reminding us of those in extreme need. Not eating sweets should make us think of refugees in Africa whose daily bread is bitterness. Abstaining from meat should conjure images of poorly educated people in our own country whose lives lack substance. Then we must pray for the needy, give of our sufficiency to assist them, and advocate for changes in public policy that will safeguard their human dignity.

Homilette for February 8, 2008

Friday alter Ash Wednesday

(Isaiah 58:1-9a)

Like Mahatma Gandhi, Cesar Chavez, the Mexican-American farm labor organizer, often fasted. He did not necessarily ask others to accompany him in his sacrifice. Rather, he fasted in order that he himself might be cleansed inwardly. He knew how fasting enables one to focus on his or her objectives. Distractions, at least from food, will not tempt the faster because he or she has already made a decision about them. Also, the sense of inner hunger gives urgency to the faster’s purpose.

The prophet Isaiah in the first reading today scolds Israel for not fasting rightly. Religious fasting should remind the people of their first priority, which is God. However, Israel only exploits its fasting to gain more money. It is as if the money the people save from not eating is used not for the poor or for some necessity at home, but to buy lottery tickets.

During Lent the Church calls us to fast. The ashes we accepted on Wednesday were an explicit recognition that we have sinned. We should have also been asking ourselves, “What are we going to do about our sins?” The answer, of course, comprises the three disciplines of Lent. First, we are going to turn away from the gratification of our appetites. Then, we will pray to God for forgiveness. Finally, we will show greater care for everyone, especially those in need. In these ways, we shall reach our goal, which is no one other than God.