Invitation
May I hereby draw your attention to
the daily reading of the Gospel?
This invitation wants to share with You the joy
of the Gospel. Everyone, no one excepted,
can experience that joy by opening their hearts
to the healing power of God’s word.
Available every day
Consideration
Today’s readings highlight fasting from different aspects:|
Fasting is an explicit precept in the O. T. ( Isaiah) but it requires a right understanding to
be pleasing to God. It is not about performance but about God and fellow man.
-Fasting also occurs in the Gospel. On Ash Wednesday, we listened to three reflection texts
from the Sermon on the Mount: almsgiving, prayer, fasting. Fasting is on the same level there
but again it warns against achievement and mere outward show.
In today’s gospel, Jesus speaks very nuanced about fasting. Fasting is not the normal rule in life. It is an exception. One does not fast when there is a feast. It is not fitting then. Jesus’ presence was like a wedding feast. But there come days when the bridegroom is away. Then we miss him, and fall back on ourselves. Then we have to fast.
FIRST READING Isa 58:1-9a
Is this sometimes a fast that pleases Me.
From the Prophet Isaiah
This is how God the Lord speaks :
‘Call out loudly, do not hold back,
let your voice resound like a trumpet;
and reveal my people’s transgressions,
the house of Jacob its sins.
‘Surely, they consult Me from day to day,
striving to know My will,
as if they were a people practising righteousness
and do not despise the law of their God.
‘They ask Me for righteous judgments,
crave the presence of their God.
‘We fast, why dost thou not see?
‘We humble ourselves, why dost thou not heed it?
‘Behold, while ye fast, ye are after your own gain
and exploit thy workers.
‘It is with strife and strife that ye fast,
and adrift thou smitest with the fist.
‘If thou shouldst fast thus
thy prayer finds no hearing in heaven.
‘Is this sometimes a fast that pleases Me,
is so the day that man should humble himself :
Let his head hang down like a reed,
prostrate himself in sackcloth and ashes?
‘Call ye that fasting,
is that what you call the day pleasing to the Lord?
‘The fasting I wish is this:
To break the trees of the yoke,
let the oppressed go free, break every yoke,
share your bread with the hungry,
take into thy house the homeless tramps,
clothe the naked whom thou seest,
and turn not away from thy own flesh.
‘Then shall thy light shine like the dawn,
thy healing shall prosper;
thy righteousness shall go forth before thee,
the glory of the Lord follow thee closely.
‘Then when ye pray to the Lord He will hear you,
when then ye cry unto him he shall answer : Here am I !’
Thus speaks the Lord Almighty.
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 51(50), 3-4, 5-6a, 18-19
What I sacrifice, God, is my penitence,
a crushed and humiliated heart Thou dost not reject.
God, have mercy on me in Your mercy,
Deliver my sinfulness in Thy mercy.
Wash my guilt utterly from me,
cleanse me from all my sins.
I acknowledge my wrongdoing,
always I have my offence before me.
Towards Thee alone have I sinned,
what opposes Thee I have done.
In gifts Thou hast no pleasure,
whatever I offer Thee, Thou wilt not.
What I offer, God, is my penitence,
a crushed and humiliated heart Thou dost not reject.
VERS FOR THE GOSPEL Ps. 130(129), 5 and 7
In the Lord I put my hope,
In his word I trust ;
For the Lord is ever merciful,
his mercy unlimited.
GOSPEL Mt 9, 14-15
When the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast.
From the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Matthew
On a certain day
John’s disciples came to Jesus asking :
‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast ,
but not your disciples?’
Jesus spoke to them :
‘The friends of the bridegroom
cannot be grieved
as long as the bridegroom is with them?
‘There will come days
when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
then they will fast.’
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Fratelli tutti
Encyclical by
POPE FRANCISCUS
On brotherhood and social friendship
210. What happens to us today and draws us into a perverse and
empty logic, is that an assimilation of ethics and politics to the laws
of physics is taking place. There is no good and evil per se, but
only a calculation of advantages and disadvantages. The shifting of
moral reason has the consequence that law cannot refer to a
fundamental concept of justice, but rather becomes a mirror
of prevailing ideas. This is where degeneration begins: a ‘levelling
downwards’ through a superficial and compromise-ready
consensus. Thus, in the end, the logic of power triumphs.
To be continued
Every day at 1 am
The Bible text in this issue is taken from The New Bible Translation,
©Dutch Bible Society 2004/2007.
Considerations from Liturgical suggestions for weekdays and Sundays
Fratelli tutti Official English translation
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