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Isaiah: 58: 1-9
Thus says the Lord GOD:
Cry out full-throated and unsparingly,
lift up your voice like a trumpet blast;
Tell my people their wickedness,
and the house of Jacob their sins.
They seek me day after day,
and desire to know my ways,
Like a nation that has done what is just
and not abandoned the law of their God;
They ask me to declare what is due them,
pleased to gain access to God.
“”Why do we fast, and you do not see it?
afflict ourselves, and you take no note of it?””
Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits,
and drive all your laborers.
Yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting,
striking with wicked claw.
Would that today you might fast
so as to make your voice heard on high!
Is this the manner of fasting I wish,
of keeping a day of penance:
That a man bow his head like a reed
and lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Do you call this a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD?
This, rather, is the fasting that I wish:
releasing those bound unjustly,
untying the thongs of the yoke;
Setting free the oppressed,
breaking every yoke;
Sharing your bread with the hungry,
sheltering the oppressed and the homeless;
Clothing the naked when you see them,
and not turning your back on your own.
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall quickly be healed;
Your vindication shall go before you,
and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer,
you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!
The Word of the Lord.
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I remember as a child playing a game with my cousins. We’d jump into our grandfather’s pool and see how long we could hold our breath for: ten, twenty, thirty seconds.
Sometimes the winner would have to wait underwater for over a minute until second place was squirming, nearly blue in the face!
It was a pointless game, really. Boys being boys.
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But that feeling of repression – of holding our breath in until we nearly fainted – reminds me of a potential pitfall we face during Lent.
In addition to praying and giving alms, many of us give something up – caffeine, impatience, alcohol, social media, chocolate, etc.
The trick is doing so without becoming a grouch. Nobody wants to be around a “hangry,” irritable person. If fasting from caffeine only makes you tired and snappy, then something’s wrong.
As the prophet Isaiah warns the Israelites in our first reading: “Your fast ends in quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw. Would that you might fast so as to make your voice heard on high!”
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Yes, fasting can be painful at times. But it’s meant to direct our attention to our deepest hunger – our hunger for God – and towards the real hunger that many face without choice.
“Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless, clothe the naked when you see them,” Isaiah says.
Do everything with a joyful, loving disposition. Then the Lord will hear us when we cry.
Otherwise, if we’re just holding our breath until Easter, then we might as well dive underwater until we’re blue in the face.
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Image credits: (1) Catholic Daily Reflections (2) Pinterest (3) Kindness Blog
Your commentary models your advice for Lent. I smiled as I read of your swimming pool game. Nothing dour about that beginning even as it becomes the lesson of the day. My favorite line from Isaiah today: “ . . . Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall quickly be healed . . .”