Lent and Easter 2015

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Isaiah 58:1-9A
Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6AB, 18-19
Matthew 9:14-15
S UMMARY
Today’s readings dwell heavily on one of the three focal points of our
Lenten obligation– fasting. The passage from Isaiah is quick to point out
that fasting from abundance and lying in sackcloth and ashes, although
admirable and on the right track for a sinful people, is not the type of fast-
ing that is acceptable to the Lord. Rather, the Lord wishes an opening of
the heart and acts of goodness and charity toward one’s fellow man
(“releasing those bound unjustly…setting free the oppressed…breaking
every yoke…sharing your bread with the hungry…sheltering the op-
pressed and the homeless….clothing the naked when you see them…and
not turning your back on your own.”). The excerpt from Psalm 51 notes
that God is not pleased with sacrifices such as a burnt offering and will not
accept them. Instead, our sacrifice should be a “contrite spirit, a heart
contrite and humbled.” In the Gospel reading, John the Baptist’s disciples
complain to Jesus that they and the Pharisees follow the law and fast in a
very public way and Jesus’ disciples do not. Jesus rebukes them and re-
minds them that fasting comes from within and not from outside appear-
ances.
REFLECTION
Fasting and abstinence have been
synonymous with Lent for as long
as I can remember. As a child (and
even as an adult), it was hard to
understand at times how giving up
something I really liked (ice cream,
chocolate, wine) for forty days
could make me holier or wipe away
my sins. I almost always craved
what I had given up and usually
broke the fast sometime before
Holy Thursday, ending up feeling
guilty and sinful all over again, as if
I had “wasted” Lent and disap-
pointed God.