Friday after Ash Wednesday

The time of Jesus’ ministry was a time for celebrating God’s mercy. Jesus played a joyful tune, like children in the market place pretending to be playing pipes at a wedding. Jesus is the heavenly bridegroom, calling people into a relationship of love with himself and God. He declares to those who criticize his disciples that fasting is not appropriate for such a joyful moment in the story of God’s relationship with his people. Beyond the time when the bridegroom is ‘taken away’, the time beyond the death and resurrection of Jesus, the time of the church, fasting will be appropriate. The joyful tone of Jesus’ ministry continues into the time of the church. We are called to continue celebrating the good news of God’s merciful love which is abundantly available to all who seek it. Yet, the church is a mixture of wheat and weeds. As the late Pope Francis liked to remind us, we are all loved sinners. Fasting is appropriate in the time of the church. It is one of the ways we can turn towards the Lord more fully, along with prayer and almsgiving. The first reading links fasting and various forms of almsgiving or self-giving. According to Isaiah, the kind of fasting that pleases the Lord is the fasting that moves us to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless poor, clothe the naked, release the oppressed and overcome injustice. Our turning from something in fasting is always in the service of turning more fully towards the Lord, who is present among us especially in those in greatest need.