Reading 1 Is 58:1-9a
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!
Responsorial Psalm PS 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 18-19
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
For I acknowledge my offense,
and my sin is before me always:
“Against you only have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight.”
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
For you are not pleased with sacrifices;
should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
Verse Before the Gospel See Am 5:14
Seek good and not evil so that you may live,and the Lord will be with you.
Gospel Mt 9:14-15
“Why do we and the Pharisees fast much,
but your disciples do not fast?”
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.”
DANGER! EXPLOSIVES!
"People do not pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins burst." –Matthew 9:17
Jesus said that His disciples would have to wait until after His ascension before they fasted (Mt 9:14-15). They had to receive the Holy Spirit before fasting, because Jesus' kind of fasting is so explosive that it would be destructive unless encased in a life in the Spirit (see Mt 9:17). For example, after Jesus fasted for forty days, He exploded in the power of the Spirit (Lk 4:14) into the three greatest years of ministry in history, culminating in His death, resurrection, ascension, and the giving of the Spirit at Pentecost. The explosion that took place after the church of Antioch fasted was the first missionary outreach of the Church (Acts 13:2). All missionary outreaches to the present day are reverberations of that initial explosion ignited by fasting.
New Testament fasting is highly explosive. In the context of life in the Spirit, fasting can be used by the Lord to move mountains of sin (see Mt 17:20-21, NAB), implode strongholds of the evil one (see 2 Cor 10:4), and propel God's people for years and even generations. However, fasting not in the context of life in the Spirit provokes people to blow up against one another. This "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 58:4)
| PRAYER: | Father, may I properly use the explosive power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8) as it is detonated by fasting. |
| PROMISE: | "Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me." –Ps 51:4 |
| PRAISE: | Joyce regularly fasts and prays for an end to abortion, for aborted babies, and their parents. |
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