Friday after Ash Wednesday

“To Visit the Imprisoned” by Cornelis de Wael, c. 1640

Readings for Friday after Ash Wednesday [1]

Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [2]

Readings and Commentary:[3]

Reading I: Isaiah 58:1-9a

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!

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Commentary on Is 58:1-9a

This passage is from what is known as Deutero-Isaiah. It was written in the latter part of the Babylonian exile (700 BC). The prophet begins this passage with a recounting of God’s call to him and his mission statement: “Tell my people their wickedness, and the house of Jacob their sins.” The Jerusalem Bible translation is better: “Proclaim their faults to my people, their sins to the House of Jacob,” as is the Revised Standard Version [Navarre] “declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins.”

Isaiah’s lament continues as he chastises the people for missing the point of their fasts of atonement. They perform the rituals and follow the law but then violate the spirit of God’s Law by being uncaring and cruel to each other.

Finally the prophet explains the spirit of the law, what that is, and how it is to impact their actions. He closes with a description of the reward for following the spirit of God’s Law: “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.’”

CCC: Is 58:6-7 2447

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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 18-19

R. (19b) A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.

Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;

in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.

Thoroughly wash me from my guilt

and of my sin cleanse me.

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

For I acknowledge my offense,

and my sin is before me always:

“Against you only have I sinned,

and done what is evil in your sight.”

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

For you are not pleased with sacrifices;

should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.

My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;

a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.

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

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Commentary on Ps 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 18-19

Psalm 51, the most famous of the seven penitential psalms, repeats the sentiment expressed in Isaiah regarding the need for heartfelt repentance on the part of the faithful. It goes on to emphasize the need for forgiveness. The final strophe is parallel to Isaiah’s description of the acceptable fast in Isaiah 58:6-7.

CCC: Ps 51:6 431, 1850; Ps 51:19 1428, 2100

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Gospel: Matthew 9:14-15

The disciples of John approached Jesus and said,

“Why do we and the Pharisees fast much,

but your disciples do not fast?”

Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn

as long as the bridegroom is with them?

The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,

and then they will fast.”

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Commentary on Mt 9:14-15

Jesus is challenged by the disciples of John the Baptist and asked why his disciples do not keep the ritual fasts of Pharisaic law. (According to the apostolic response in their early teaching documents, the early Christians were to fast on different days than the Jews.) “But let not your fasts be with the hypocrites; Matthew 6:16 for they fast on the second and fifth day of the week; but do ye fast on the fourth day and the Preparation (Friday).” Didache (8.1) [4])

The Lord responds with the analogy of a marriage banquet where there can be no mourning as long as the bridegroom is present.  He refers, of course, to his own presence and the need for fasting only after he is gone.

“As usual, whenever the image of the wedding feast appears in the New Testament, there is no readily identifiable ‘bride’ to correspond to Jesus the Bridegroom. At the symbolic level this is so because, while each person present at the banquet may be variously looked upon in his individuality as a wedding guest and in this sense as a ‘son of the wedding chamber’, in reality, in the mystical sense, they are all together ‘The Bride’.” [5]

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Reflection:

One of the blessings of our Lenten celebration is that we feel the requirements of our faith press more firmly upon us. In scripture today we first hear the Prophet Isaiah exhort us to adopt an interior fast, as well as the exterior expression of repentance by abstaining from meat on Fridays during Lent, as we are required to do. The Lord expects us to undergo a spiritual fast that expresses itself in actions pleasing to God.

To make certain that we recognize the need to adopt this discipline, the Gospel reminds us of the rationale the Lord uses to explain this: his own presence. Jesus explains the reason his disciples are effectively “dispensed” from fasting is that while he is still with them, mourning his loss is inappropriate. It is the same logic we apply during Lent on the Lord’s Day – Sunday. We do not fast nor are we required to follow the discipline of self-denial we have established for the other days of the week during the Lenten season. Sundays we are with the Lord in the Eucharist. How can we mourn when we rejoice at his solemn presence?

We return to Isaiah’s exhortation on this first Friday of the Lenten season. God commands us through his prophetic words to adopt the attitude of Christ (although the author would not have known it was Christ’s attitude he was describing).

He asks for actions that are very specific:

“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.”

How, one might ask, can we “release those bound unjustly”? Or “set free the oppressed”? Have we not bound others in our anger, have we not oppressed others with our ambition or greed? We are called to look at our motives and see there the results of our own actions. And this is not limited to those with whom we work or go to school; rather the first place we look to release those bound unjustly and free the oppressed is within our own families. It is there that the yoke rests more heavily and the bonds cut most deeply. It is also there that forgiveness is most difficult and reconciliation most painful.

As for “sheltering the oppressed,” “clothing the naked,” and “not turning your back on your own,” these gifts of time and charity are easily associated with what we are called to be as Christians living in an unforgiving community in difficult economic times. Our special attention is directed there during this season of our fast.

Today, indeed, we feel the weight of the discipline of our faith pressing upon us. We pray that our strength is equal to the task and ask the Holy Spirit to add strength to our own.

Pax

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[1] The picture is “To Visit the Imprisoned” by Cornelis de Wael, c. 1640.

[2] S.S. Commemoratio

[3] The readings are taken from the New American Bible, with the exception of the psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This republication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.

[4] The Didache was written in the first or second century A.D. and was recommended by Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 265-c. 340).

[5] Fire of Mercy Heart of the Word Volume I. Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA, © 1996 p. 439

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

“Christ Carrying the Cross” 
by Jan Sanders van Hemessen, 1553

Readings for Thursday after Ash Wednesday [1]

Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [2]

Readings and Commentary:[3]

Reading I: 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.”

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Commentary on Dt 30:15-20

Moses is presenting the Law of the Lord to the Hebrew people whom he has lead out of bondage in Egypt. He makes it clear that by following the Law, the body of which has been laid out in previous chapters of the book and detailed in Numbers and Leviticus, they will find favor in God’s eyes and they will prosper. If they disregard the law, they will find disfavor with God and will die out. He completes the ritualistic covenant phrasing by inviting them to choose life by following God’s law and statutes.

"The concluding exhortation (vv. 19-20) is particularly moving: 'choose life', loving the Lord, for 'that means life'. In the New Testament we find passages which echo the same ideas: 'I am the life,' our Lord will say (John 14:6); and St Paul: 'It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me' (Galatians 2:20); 'for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain' (Philippians 1:21)." [4]

CCC: Dt 30:15-20 1696; Dt 30:16 2057

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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6

R. (40:5a) Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

Blessed the man who follows not

the counsel of the wicked

Nor walks in the way of sinners,

nor sits in the company of the insolent,

But delights in the law of the LORD

and meditates on his law day and night.

R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

He is like a tree

planted near running water,

That yields its fruit in due season,

and whose leaves never fade.

Whatever he does, prospers.

R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

Not so the wicked, not so;

they are like chaff which the wind drives away.

For the LORD watches over the way of the just,

but the way of the wicked vanishes.

R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

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Commentary on Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6

Psalm 1 serves as a preface to the whole book of the psalms. The psalmist here exalts those who follow the Lord’s commands, and reflects upon the blessings they will receive. As in Romans 6:19ff, this selection emphasizes the contrast between the salvation of the just and the punishment of the wicked.

This wisdom psalm begins by extolling the virtue of those who follow the law. The focus is to look to God for guidance, and not to trust only in the counsel of men. Those who reject the law will be blown away like “chaff,” an image used in the Gospel as well (Matthew 3:12).

This portion of the psalm is later echoed in Isaiah 48:17-19, like an overlapped formula of covenant.  Blessed is the man who “delights in the law day and night,” but “the way of the wicked vanishes.” It also takes up the theme of following right paths and staying true to the teachings of God: “Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, but delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on his law day and night.”

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Gospel: Luke 9:22-25

Jesus said to his disciples:

“The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected

by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,

and be killed and on the third day be raised.”

Then he said to all,

“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself

and take up his cross daily and follow me.

For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,

but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

What profit is there for one to gain the whole world

yet lose or forfeit himself?”

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Commentary on Lk 9:22-25

The Gospel takes up the theme of life and death as Jesus first informs his disciples that he will undergo his passion at the hands of the Jewish hierarchy and be raised. He then provides an invitation to life by contrasting, as Moses did in Deuteronomy 30:15-20, the (spiritual) salvation brought about through faith, and the (eternal) death that awaits the faithless.

"Jesus prophesied His passion and death in order to help His disciples believe in Him. It also showed that He was freely accepting these sufferings He would undergo. 'Christ did not seek to be glorified: He chose to come without glory in order to undergo suffering; and you, who have been born without glory, do you wish to be glorified? The route you must take is the one Christ took. This means recognizing Him and it means imitating Him both in His ignominy and in His good repute; thus you will glory in the Cross, which was His path to glory. That was what Paul did, and therefore he gloried in saying, 'Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ' (Galatians 6:14)' (St. Ambrose, "Expositio Evangelii Sec. Lucam, in loc.')." [5]

CCC; Lk 9:23 1435

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Reflection:

The initial lines from the reading from Deuteronomy feel like the Old Testament covenant formula.  If you follow the Lord faithfully, you will have life and all that God hopes for you.  If you don’t, you will be cursed and your life will be short and miserable.  This is an excellent example of the relationship between Israel and the “God of Justice” in the Old Testament.

The same sentiment is clearly echoed in the psalm, appropriately, Psalm 1.  Again we hear the covenant formula: blessed is the one who follows the Lord, and cursed the one who does not.

Contrast the Old Testament relationship with God to the New Covenant announced by Christ in the Gospel from Luke.  Jesus is the sacrifice that seals the covenant, in absolute obedience to God the Father. 

“The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected

by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,

and be killed and on the third day be raised.”

On day 39 of our Lenten countdown to Easter, we are given a reminder of our goal for the season.  It is given bluntly and without ambiguity.  We must, as our Savior says: “deny himself [ourselves] and take up his [our] cross daily and follow me [him].”

What is denying oneself?  It is rejecting the animal instinct in ourselves that directs us to do only those things that feel good.  It is rejecting that feeling we all have that drives us to ignore the good, wellbeing, or safety of others, and do only what we feel is right for us.  If we can we can put others first as Christ did when he “picked up his cross,” then we are on the right track.

If we do as secular society seems to think is right, what is good for us, then we may have achieved  secular success, but at what cost?  “What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?”

Pax

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[1] The picture is “Christ Carrying the Cross” by Jan Sanders van Hemessen, 1553.

[2] S.S. Commemoratio

[3] The readings are taken from the New American Bible, with the exception of the psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This republication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.

[4] The Navarre Bible, “Pentateuch,” Scepter Publishers, Princeton, NJ, © 2003, p. 781.

[5] The Navarre Bible, “Gospels and Acts,” Scepter Publishers, Princeton, NJ, © 2002, pp. 410-11.