FRIDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Seek good and not evil so that you may live,
and that the Lord God of hosts may really be with you. AMOS 5:14

ISAIAH 58:1-9 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Our motives for fasting during Lent are often suspect. If we are honest with ourselves we will recognize that the things we do during Lent as part of our Lenten observances are generally only cosmetic changes - they do not go heart-deep, they do not transform and make of us a new creation in You.

Your Word makes crystal clear the kind of fast that is displeasing to You and that which is acceptable. You ask us to rend our hearts, not our garments. You ask us to be more charitable, kind, and generous, to give not from our surplus but from our need. We need to treat everyone with the same respect and courtesy. We are called to be gracious in thought, word, and deed. We are called to be humble, ready to serve, to take the last place, to be considered least in the eyes of the world.  This is pleasing in Your sight - You came to serve and to give Your life as a ransom for many. We too must be ready to lay down our life for Your sake and for the sake of the Kingdom.

Let us never forget that to those to whom much is given, much is expected. 

Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me
– it is the Lord who speaks –
to break unjust fetters and
undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and break every yoke,
to share your bread with the hungry,
and shelter the homeless poor,
to clothe the man you see to be naked
and not turn from your own kin?
Then will your light shine like the dawn
and your wound be quickly healed over.
Your integrity will go before you
and the glory of the Lord behind you.
Cry, and the Lord will answer;
call, and he will say, ‘I am here.’

PSALM 50(51):3-6,18-19 ©

Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness.

In your compassion blot out my offence.
O wash me more and more from my guilt
and cleanse me from my sin.

My offences truly I know them;

my sin is always before me
Against you, you alone, have I sinned;
what is evil in your sight I have done.

For in sacrifice you take no delight,

burnt offering from me you would refuse,
my sacrifice, a contrite spirit.
A humbled, contrite heart you will not spurn.

A humbled, contrite heart, O God, you will not spurn.

MATTHEW 9:14-15 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

There is a world of difference between being a disciple of the Eternal Word of the Father and a disciple of other spiritual leaders. Who fasts at a wedding feast? It would be unnatural to do so. The disciples sat at the Banquet of the Word of God and feasted on the Incarnate Word for three whole years. God made Man was in their midst. You lived with them, ate, and slept with them. Walked with them. Performed astonishing miracles and wondrous signs revealing Your divine power over nature, and over the hearts, minds, spirits, and souls of all who came to You for healing. 

Were the disciples more privileged than we who are Catholics because You were physically in their midst? No. You abide in us more intimately since Your resurrection than You ever did with them. Your Spirit makes a dwelling place in our hearts. We eat Your Body and drink Your Blood in Holy Communion and we are more one with You than we are with ourselves. When we breathe it is Your Spirit that breathes in us - take away Your Spirit and we will die. 

Yes, we need to fast, we need to pray, and we need to mortify our flesh, because the world, the flesh, and the devil are constantly baying for our immortal souls. But You do battle with us and You assure us that not a single soul that the Father has given You can be snatched from You. We are Yours, Lord, now and eternally.