The Friday after Ash Wednesday, February 24, 2023

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!

Very often, Almighty God told the Prophets the exact words he wanted them to say to the people.  This is true in Isaiah 30, 15, as the Prophet himself makes clear when he says, “Thus says the Lord.”  At other times, the Lord gives the Prophets a message that they are to put in their own way.  Here, God speaks directly to his people through the Prophet.

“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.”  One of the great complaints made against God is that he says he will answer our prayers, but then he does not.  One reason he does not seem to answer them is that we tend to ask for things that are not good for us or may even be harmful to us.  We think we know what we need, but we need divine guidance even for that.  We also tend to be very specific about what we need, as though trying to control God and limit him in his actions.  A third reason is that we ask or demand things from him when we have not put ourselves in a position to receive them.  That is, we must ask humbly, and receive humbly and gratefully.  God, through the Prophet Isaiah, accuses the people of coming before him as unrepentant sinners and demanding that he answer their prayers.  We make ourselves incapable of receiving what God would give us through our state as unrepentant sinners because we extend to him not open hands to receive his gifts but closed fists closed closed in rebellion and sin.  That is, God can be trying to give us everything we ask, but we are unable of receiving it, through our own fault.  It is also worth pointing out here that we are to ask for what we need in our lives order to please him, as well as for the health and well-being of our friends and family, for justice, for peace in the world, and for things of this kind.  We should not be asking him to aid us in sinful enterprises or in actions that are motivated by greed, lust, vanity, and so on.  Prayer should never seek our own indulgence.  If we are going to be heard by Almighty God, then we must come before him as good servants with the uniforms of our faith pressed and resplendent with good works and the desire to please him. 

In the years preceding the end of the Kingdom of Judah and the destruction of the Temple in 586 B.C., the people had lapsed seriously in their duties towards God, led by the bad examples of their kings.  “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.”  When their leaders proclaimed fasts for repentance, they went about their normal day, although not eating as they would normally.  Their actions did not come from their hearts but as under obligation.  Their intent was not to please God through inspection of their lives, the realization of guilt, and repenting.

We run the risk of carrying on after them if we merely pay lip service to Lent without the hard work of examining our consciences and going to confession — and after confessing our sins, living in a significantly different way so as not to go back to our vomit as the dogs do (cf. 2 Peter 2, 22).  In our work to fully orientation ourselves to God we may need to change jobs, make new friends, leave old friends, move to a less expensive place.  For us, as for those living in ancient times, these seem extreme actions, but nothing is worth the risk of losing our souls: “releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke” — this applies to us first and foremost.  We need to free ourselves from the yoke of bad or wicked habits, occasions of sin, and bad companions.  Once we are free, we can help others: “Your light shall break forth like the dawn.”  

“Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!”  This repentance and conversion is the first step in our efforts to gain a favorable answer to our prayers.  Then let us pray as did the men who brought their paralyzed friend to the Lord Jesus, that seeing our faith, he will refuse us nothing.