Lent is a radical season of change, a time of fasting but also a time of deepened prayer and charity, looking outwards to those in need. Here’s today’s reflection from the daily Mass.
BIBLE READINGS: You can find the readings for Friday after Ash Wednesday here
I wonder how many people, in the days before Lent, had the conversation which starts, “What are you giving up for Lent?” And I wonder, by the end of Lent, how many people will have given up ‘giving up’ something?
There is a similar, yet more serious conversation going on between God and his People in the reading from Isaiah. They seem to be impressed with themselves and don’t understand why God doesn’t share their own enthusiasm for their fasting. ‘They delight to draw near to God. “Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?” But God sees that, as they fast, they are also committing great injustices. The fast that God desires is one of liberation and justice, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, lifting oppression, housing the homeless. That is a far more radical demand.
Fasting and sacrifice is only one aspect of Lent. It is also a time of prayer and charity—reaching out to those in need. It is, then, a radical season, one which takes our relationship with God seriously, but also a season which demands that we look outwards to the world. By the end of Lent, it’s not only we who should be changed in some way, but so should the world. “Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily.”
Mass today is at S Saviour’s at 10am
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