Category: Uncategorized

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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 the loser was squirming, nearly blue in the face!

It was a pointless game, really. Boys being boys.

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That feeling of repression – of holding our breath in until we’ve 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 out to him.

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) ibelieve.com (2) BBC Science Focus Magazine (3) maninthemirror.org

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Deuteronomy 30: 15-20

Moses said to the people:
“Today I have set before you
life and prosperity, death and doom.
If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God,
which I enjoin on you today,
loving him, and walking in his ways,
and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees,
you will live and grow numerous,
and the LORD, your God,
will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy.
If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen,
but are led astray and adore and serve other gods,
I tell you now that you will certainly perish;
you will not have a long life
on the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and occupy.
I call heaven and earth today to witness against you:
I have set before you life and death,
the blessing and the curse.
Choose life, then,
that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God,
heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.
For that will mean life for you,
a long life for you to live on the land that the LORD swore
he would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

The Word of the Lord.

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In our first reading, Israel is on the brink of returning from exile – a punishment which God allowed because of Israel’s repeated infidelity. Now they have the opportunity to re-enter a covenantal relationship with God through Moses.

“I place before you life and death,” he says. “Choose life.”

These are two extremes. There is no returning from death, nor is there an end to life in the Lord. But Israel must make a definitive choice now – as we all must during Lent.

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Interestingly, the verb Moses uses in his appeal to Israel – “return” – implies the turning back of both parties, Israel and God. 

God is ready to receive Israel again, but Israel must also choose life.

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At the very center of Moses’ message is the circumcision of the heart. Just as physical circumcision lays bare a most sensitive part of the body, the circumcision of the heart means the removal of any covering that disables the sensitive perception of God’s will.

The Lord asks the same of us during Lent.

Now is our time to remove sin from our midst; to return to the Lord, forsaking the paths that led us astray like our ancestors. 

It’s also a time for us to return to one another, to beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks; to forgive our enemies; to work for peace.

These spiritual practices are a practical type of cross – the cross of Christian living – which no one can escape if we are to be genuine disciples of Jesus, as he commands us to be in today’s Gospel.

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Today the Lord tells us to take up our cross – the practical cross of Christian living – and to follow him.

By the end of Lent, what will be the state of your heart? And where will your cross be?

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Image credits: (1) Endofthematter.com (2) The Heaton File, WordPress (3) Cedric Poole Ascetics

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Gospel: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Take care not to perform righteous deeds
in order that people may see them;
otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.
When you give alms,
do not blow a trumpet before you,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets
to win the praise of others.
Amen, I say to you,
they have received their reward.
But when you give alms,
do not let your left hand know what your right is doing,
so that your almsgiving may be secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

“When you pray,
do not be like the hypocrites,
who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners
so that others may see them.
Amen, I say to you,
they have received their reward.
But when you pray, go to your inner room,
close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

“When you fast,
do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
They neglect their appearance,
so that they may appear to others to be fasting.
Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you fast,
anoint your head and wash your face,
so that you may not appear to be fasting,
except to your Father who is hidden.
And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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If we venture into our kitchens this morning and do a “head-count” of all our dishes, we may find we have a few imperfect sets.

7 dinner plates, 5 saucers, 9 glasses, 3 soup bowls. But why?

Incomplete sets are the mark of a “lived-in” kitchen. Many of us have children or grandchildren running around. I myself am clumsy from time to time.

Maybe a bowl fell off the counter last week; a glass broke in the dishwasher; a wet plate slid from our hands.

What do we do when a dish breaks?

We sweep it into the garbage.

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That’s how we deal with most things when they’re broken. 

That space heater that fizzled out this winter; that wobbly wooden chair; that old couch the kids jumped on just one too many times. 

Toss it. Drag it out to the curb. Throw it in the dumpster.

But what about a broken heart? A weak marriage? A fractured friendship? A crumbling relationship with God? 

Are we to be disposed of like a broken bowl?

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The Japanese have a fascinating custom called Kintsugi. 

When a bowl is broken, they don’t throw it away; rather, they piece it back together using glue and gold.

They say that breakage and repair are all part of the history of that object. The focus is not on how the object broke, but that it was restored.

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Haven’t we all been broken like a bowl at some point in our lives? 

We’ve been diagnosed with cancer; we’ve struggled with addiction; we’ve lost our job, our home, our marriage, or even a child.  

Life has a way of breaking us. 

But broken hearts – and by extension, broken lives – can be put back together. That’s what our faith – and forgiveness – is all about.

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Throughout the Gospels, Jesus seeks out the sinful, the sorrowful, the possessed – and he heals them. 

“For I did not come to call the righteous,” he says, “but sinners.” The broken ones.

Ask any of those healed, Jesus has a way of filling those cracks and chips in our lives with the golden glue of his mercy.

In that sense, the Lord is the ultimate Kintsugi artist. He can piece anyone back together, no matter how much damage has occurred.

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Where are the cracks in my own life or spirit? Where do I need to be forgiven? Pieced back together?

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Often people associate Ash Wednesday with the passage of time; with death. 

But it’s about much more than that. It’s about new beginnings; forgiveness; restoration; resurrection.

As you come forth to have ashes traced on your forehead, remember these words: “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”

Turn to the Lord, trusting that he can – and will – piece us all back together, because no life, no circumstance, no person is disposable in the eyes of God. 

Spiritually, we’re all a composite of gold and glue.  Those cracks in our lives – and the healing that takes place – are all part of our story.

Repent, and believe in the Gospel.

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Image credits: (1) USA Today (2) LinkedIn (3) Walk on Water