DAILY GOSPEL
Friday, 16 February 2018
Friday after Ash Wednesday
Saint(s) of the day : St. Onesimus, Disciple of St. Paul
COLLISION
Then you will call ... and he will say: Here am I. – Isaiah 58:9
My colleagues and I went out for lunch to celebrate several occasions. On our way back to the office, a 16-wheeler truck hit our company vehicle from behind. While our vehicle surged forward because of the impact, it felt like everything went into slow motion.
I couldn’t think of anything except to utter the name of Jesus over and over.
I ended up with a broken pelvic bone.
Did I question why the Lord allowed this to happen? No! I knew it was because of His grace that all of us survived in spite of a huge truck colliding with us. I felt an outpouring of His love through the presence of so many relatives and friends who visited me in the hospital.
Call on the Lord and He will always see you through.
Just trust in the power of the name of Jesus. Rissa Espinosa ([email protected])
Reflect: Do you believe in God even if you don’t always get what you pray for?
Lord, may we trust that You will always give what is best for us. Amen.
St. Gilbert of Sempringham, pray for us.
1ST READING
Our faith in God is relational. It is about being in a loving relationship with Him and opening our lives to His mercy. The way we relate with one another should be the same way we relate with the Lord. This is the message of today’s reading — God wants us to change our relationships for the better, more than doing some sort of individualistic penitential practice.
Isaiah 58:1-9
1 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. 2 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. 3 “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. 4 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! 5 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? 6 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;7 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. 8 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. 9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am! bridesmaid
P S A L M
Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6, 18-19
R: A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
1 [3] Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. 2 [4]Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me. (R) 3 [5] For I acknowledge my offense, and my sin is before me always. 4 [6] Against you only have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight. (R) 16 [18] For you are not pleased with sacrifices; should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it. 17 [19] My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit; a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn. (R)
GOSPEL
In today’s Gospel, Jesus shows how we want to enjoy the company of our friends, so we eat, drink, and be merry. There will come a time when they return home or move to another place and we will no longer see them as much as we wish. Let us enjoy each other’s company but also recognize that there is a time for penance and repentance.
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION
Seek good and not evil so that you may live, and the Lord will be with you.
Matthew 9:14-15
14 The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?” 15 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.”
think: In what ways do you enjoy being in the company of Jesus?
HYPOCRITICAL AND REAL FASTING
What is fasting all about? Easy to answer but not easy to do — unless your friends hinted that you have gained some weight and you realize that your dress or pants don’t fit anymore as they did a while ago. In other words, fasting is abstaining from or reducing the intake of food, right?
Wrong! How wrong we can be about so many things we thought to be so clear. And we can easily be wrong because we don’t know our Bible enough, especially not the Old Testament. The great prophet Isaiah teaches us today something quite shocking about fasting.
The prophet thunders against the cheap trickery of people who try to impress God by abstaining from some things but commit the worse injustices against their fellowmen by oppressing them and by not caring for the poor, the hungry, the sick, and the homeless. For it is easier to fast than to love.
As kids, we abstained from eating chocolates and candies during Lent. We collected them and got a bad stomachache during Easter when we began to eat what we had collected during the six weeks of Lent. My father loved smoking cigars; during Lent, he abstained but I did not see him doing any special acts of charity.
Ascetic practices are good in themselves. There is no doubt about this. But ascetic practices without practicing charity at home, in the neighborhood, and among those we meet and live with every day are useless. Better eat chocolates and smoke your cigarettes and go to a movie even during Lent, but abstain from quarreling, cheating in exams, lying, and gossiping.
Doing something good is better than abstaining. Therefore, your best “fast” would be becoming the most charitable person possible. That’s the “fasting” the disturbing prophet Isaiah teaches us today on the third day of Lent. Fr. Rudy Horst, SVD
------- REFLECTION QUESTION -------
Who in your family, in your neighborhood, or among the people you live with needs your real “fasting” — your love, concern, and support?
Ouch, Lord! You got me again! You made me realize that some of my exercises of “self-denial” are not pleasing to You at all. Help me to change and serve You with love in the people around me. Amen.
Today, I pray for: