A reading from the prophet Isaiah (58:1-9)
Thus says the Lord:
‘Shout for all you are worth, do not hold back;
raise your voice like a trumpet.
Proclaim to my people their rebellions,
to the House of Jacob, their sins.
They seek me day after day,
they delight to know my ways,
like a nation that has acted righteously
and not forsaken the law of its God.
They ask me for righteous judgements;
to be near God is their delight.
“Why should we fast, if you do not see,
why humble ourselves if you never notice?”
Look, you seek your own pleasure on your fastdays
and you exploit all your workmen;
look, you fast only to quarrel and squabble
and strike viciously 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 day of self-humiliation?
Hanging your head like a reed,
making a bed of sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call fasting,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
Is not this the sort of fast that I favour:
to open unjust fetters,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free
and to break every yoke?
Is it not sharing your food with the hungry,
bringing into your house the homeless poor,
clothing one you see to lack clothing,
not drawing back from your own kin?
Then your light will blaze out like the dawn
and your wound will quickly be healed.
Saving justice will go ahead of you
and the glory of the Lord come behind you.
Then you will call to the Lord and he will answer;
you will cry and he will say, “I am here.”
Isaiah chapter 58 is shared between the first readings today and tomorrow. Through the voice of this post-exilic prophet God speaks at length about fasting. Selfish behaviour and exploitation of others make fasting useless. Fasting is not to be a pretence: ‘hanging your head like a reed’, and ‘making a bed of sackcloth and ashes’. The true priorities of the religious person are to ‘open unjust fetters’, ‘to undo the straps of the yoke’, to ‘share your food with the hungry’ and ‘to bring into your house the homeless poor’. These ancient words have immediate impact for today. The person who behaves like this will be light for others, and experience rapid healing. Justice will precede them, and the glory of the Lord will follow them. Their calls to the Lord will be answered.
Psalm 51 (50) The psalmist, in further verses from the Miserere, acknowledges guilt and offers in sacrifice a contrite spirit and a humbled heart.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (9:14-15)
Then John’s disciples came to him and said, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?’ Jesus replied, ‘Surely the bridegroom’s attendants cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is still with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.’
Encounter with other religious groups will be a feature of Jesus’ ministry. The behaviour of Jesus and his disciples causes consternation among the followers of John and of the Pharisees, since they do not fast. Jesus assumes the role of the bridegroom, reminding us of God’s marriage covenant with Israel. The wedding feast, at which his disciples are guests, will indeed be interrupted, when the ‘bridegroom will be taken away’ and handed over for death. The wedding-supper of Jesus the Lamb will be restored at the end of time (Apocalypse 19).
How does the presence of Jesus change everything?
For people who will not allow Jesus to change them, let us pray.