Today’s reading from Isaiah (Isaiah 58:1-9) is a magnificent and, in many ways, a frightening passage. It points to where true religion is to be found. The call is for an inward spirit to match our outward observances. It is a call that permeates Jesus’ teaching throughout the Gospel and is touched upon in today’s short Gospel reading (Matthew 9:14-15).
“Raise your voice like a trumpet blast!” At Mt. Sinai, God’s voice is compared to a trumpet blast. Big feasts and the beginning of fasts were proclaimed using a trumpet. Only one day, the Day of Atonement, was prescribed for fasting in the Hebrew calendar, but there could be other days to commemorate national disasters. Today our Ash Wednesday fills a similar role, a trumpet blast in the midst of our busy calendars calling us to repentance, when many of our churches are packed. It is a “holy day of obligation” for many, without being a holy day of obligation.
Today the people in Isaiah are asking God to come near. They are calling out for just laws. They want to have their fasting and their penances noticed by God. But here is their problem, our problem. On the surface, we seem to be so religious, so pious, but all the while we are neglecting to do what God really wants. “Why do we fast, and you do not see it? Afflict ourselves, and you take no note of it?” we ask God plaintively.
God, through the voice of his prophet Isaiah, gives them, and us, a powerful response, one they, and we, hardly expect. Instead of praise, we get condemnation.
O yes, we fast all right, but at the same time we keep “doing our own things”. We do business on our holy days and some of us even oppress our workers while doing so. We fast, but at the same time quarrel and squabble with each other and physically abuse the poor. Just listen to the cacophony of speeches of the last few days from our leaders and politicians.
Is this what God wants? Is this real fasting and penance? Looking miserable, “hanging your head like a reed” in a show of abject humility, lying in the midst of sackcloth and ashes for days on end? Is it all these very pious acts that God cherishes and wants?
The kind of fast that the Lord wants is something altogether different. He wants us:
to break unjust fetters,
undo the thongs of the yoke,
let the oppressed go free and break every yoke and burden,
to share one’s bread [money and goods] with the hungry,
and shelter the homeless poor,
to clothe the person we see naked,
and to act responsibly towards one’s own flesh and blood.
(Isaiah 58:6-7)
These words were written thousands of years ago. In our modern age they still apply. They contain a proclamation that will be repeated by Jesus, both in his words and in his actions. It is by doing these things that we will really be in the spirit of Lent. It is a lot more than keeping the fast and abstinence on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday or giving up things like chocolates or television.
What is really important is to reach out in love and compassion to those in need and to treat every single person with respect and dignity. “Then will your light shine like the dawn and your wound be quickly healed over.” What wound? The wound of our sinfulness, the wound of our lack of love and sense of responsibility. The wound of our hypocrisy and false religion.
How do I think God sees me during this Lenten season? What am I doing in response to God’s call to come to his aid in helping my brothers and sisters? When we do what God wants of us, after doing all that, when we cry out to the Lord, he will answer: “I am here.”
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!