God's Request of Us this Lent and Always

“Be merciful to me for I have sinned,” (Luke 18:13) are the words of the tax collector!  These words come to me as I reflect on today’s first reading, Isaiah 58: 1-9a. The people are complaining that God does not notice their fasting and the ways in which they afflict themselves. God responds by reminding them that “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….Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?  The Lord then tells us what kind of fast He wants of us, what is acceptable to Him and gets His attention. “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.”

Who have I bound or imprisoned "in a cold cell”  by  attitudes of jealousy, by anger and resentment, by withholding love, by a lack of gratitude, by distancing myself from them, by setting myself above them, by acting superior and unworthy of them?  Have I placed yokes upon others, expecting them to reach perfectionistic standards and, in pride, to be perfect as I am perfect, and thus refuse to serve them in any way? Who will experience freedom today because of my generosity, my forgiveness, my gratitude, my genuine service? Who will experience relief from their oppression and hunger because of my nonjudgmental  actions and thoughts today? Whose nakedness and shame will decrease or be covered today because I took time to listen to their heartbreak without criticism or without giving advice but showing empathy?

Learning to do Good

In today’s first reading, Isaiah 1:10, 16-20, the prophet spells out the fast God desires of us; namely, that we “cease doing evil; learn to do good.  Make justice…[our] aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow.”    In today’s Gospel, Mt. 23: 1-12,  Jesus challenges us to, not just teach others to do these things, but to do them ourselves as followers of Christ.  We are not in this world to place burdens on others , as the Pharisees did (see today’s Gospel, Mt. 23: 1-12) but to lift them ourselves.  Neither are we, as did the Pharisees, to “widen …[our] phylacteries and lengthen…[our] tassles,”—wearing our religion, so to speak, on our sleeves. We are not here to simply and ostentatiously assume places of honor, to be addressed as “Father,” “Sister,” “Brother,” “Mother”.  We are here to  become like our Father in heaven and like Jesus, to whom we are brother , sister, and mother when we do the will of our heavenly Father  (compare Luke 8: 21); that is, we are called to wash the feet of our tired, crippled neighbors,  our overly burdened family members, in short, to be servant of all, to humble ourselves and “raise” others up, as Jesus rose us up on the cross. We are here to learn to forgive others as Jesus forgave his persecutors. Like Jesus, we are  here  to be “poured-out wine” and “broken bread” for the sake of others  who are weighed down by the difficulties of life, those who may be suffering persecution, enduring injustices or  “withering”  under the  violence of war, domestic abuse, slave labor, human trafficking or any other  criminal activity. “Come, now,” God says to us in Isaiah 1: 10, 16-20, “let us set things right….”

How will be able to what God is asking of us? God, as promised in Ez. 18: 31, “will give…[each of us] a new heart, and a new spirit…[God] will put within…[us.]  …[God] will remove the heart of stone from…[our] flesh and give…[us] a heart of flesh.”