12 February 2027 · Latin Rite
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“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?” Isaiah 58:6
Isaiah is told to shout like a trumpet at a people who seem very religious. They seek God daily, they fast, they bow their heads, and they complain: “Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?” God's answer is blunt: “Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers.” They fast and quarrel; they bow like a bulrush and lie on sackcloth, yet nothing changes in their treatment of others. Then the Lord describes the fast he wants: to loose the bonds of injustice, to let the oppressed go free, “to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin.” Fasting that does not lead to justice and mercy is an empty ritual.
Then comes the promise: “Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly… Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.” In the Gospel the disciples of John ask why Jesus' disciples do not fast. Jesus answers with a wedding image: “The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” Jesus is the Bridegroom of Israel, the God who wedded his people. Christian fasting is not gloomy self-punishment; it is the longing of the bride for the Bridegroom, whom we await, and a love that makes room for the poor. On this first Friday of Lent we abstain from meat and remember the day the Bridegroom was taken away on the cross.
Theme: “Is not this the fast that I choose?”
The fast God wants: justice, mercy and longing for the Bridegroom.
“Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high.” Isaiah 58:4
“Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars;” 1 John 4:20
Apply: Examine how you treat those who work for you or under you.
“Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?” Isaiah 58:7
“for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,” Matthew 25:35
Apply: Give what you save by fasting to the poor this week.
“And I will take you for my wife forever; I will take you for my wife in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy.” Hosea 2:19
“And Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” Matthew 9:15
Apply: When hunger comes today, turn it into a short prayer: Come, Lord Jesus.
True fasting breaks yokes and shares bread.
We fast in love for the Bridegroom and his poor.
Take-home resolution: Keep the Fridays of Lent with abstinence and one act of sharing.
Dear friends, God tells Isaiah: shout out, do not hold back! The people fast and complain that God does not notice. God replies: you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers (Isaiah 58:3).
Then God describes the fast he chooses: to loose the bonds of injustice, to let the oppressed go free, to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house (Isaiah 58:6–7). Fasting without mercy is empty.
And the promise: then your light shall break forth like the dawn; you shall call, and the LORD will answer, here I am (Isaiah 58:8–9). In the Gospel Jesus says his disciples will fast when the bridegroom is taken away (Matthew 9:15). We fast because we long for him.
On this first Friday of Lent, let our abstinence be love: for Jesus the Bridegroom, who was taken away on the cross, and for the poor in whom he waits for us. Amen.
Children, God says the best kind of fasting is sharing. If we give up a sweet this Lent, let us use it to help someone who is hungry!
Lord God, you do not want empty fasting but hearts that set the oppressed free and share bread with the hungry. Make our Lenten fast a work of justice and love, a longing for your Son, the Bridegroom, and a light that breaks forth like the dawn. Amen.
On the first Friday of Lent, two readings ask what fasting is. In Isaiah the people complain that God has not noticed their fasting, and God replies that it has not touched how they treat their workers. In Matthew Jesus' disciples are asked why they do not fast, and he says that they will, when the bridegroom is taken away. Psalm 51 again gives the heart of it: “a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” We fast because we miss the Lord, and we show that we miss him by how we treat the hungry.
Setting.
Chapters 56–66 of Isaiah are thought by many scholars to come from the time after the return from exile, when the people were back in a poor and disappointed land. Fasting days were important to the community then (see Zechariah 7:1–5). The people are devout: they “delight to draw near to God” (v. 2). The prophet's complaint is not about their prayers but about what their prayers leave untouched.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
““Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?”” (58:3)
A real complaint, and an honest one. God does not reject the question. He answers it with a look at what is happening at their workplaces on the same day.
“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?” (58:6)
The prophet does not tell them to stop fasting. He changes what is being fasted from: not only from food, but from the power one holds over others. Jesus reads almost these words at Nazareth (Luke 4:18 adds “to let the oppressed go free” to its quotation of Isaiah 61).
“Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house;” (58:7)
The hunger the fast creates makes room for someone else's bread. “Your own kin” at the end of the verse means that those in need are one's own flesh.
“Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.” (58:9)
Their complaint in v. 3 was that God was not looking. Now the promise comes. When the door is opened to the poor, the Lord is found to be standing there.
How the Church reads it.
Jesus' words in Matthew 25 (“I was hungry and you gave me food”) have this chapter behind them. The Catechism lists the works of mercy as the actions that come to the aid of our neighbour in body and soul: feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked (CCC 2447), and it recalls that giving alms to the poor is a witness to charity and a work of justice pleasing to God (CCC 2447, 2462). St John Chrysostom told his hearers that the honour of fasting lies in more than abstaining from food: if you see a poor man, take pity on him (in substance).
Setting.
Just before this, Jesus has called Matthew and eaten with tax collectors and sinners (9:9–13). Now the disciples of John the Baptist come with a question of their own. Pious Jews of the period fasted beyond what the Law required. The Pharisee in Luke's parable fasts twice a week (Luke 18:12). This is a serious question from serious people, and Jesus does not rebuke them.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
““Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?”” (9:14)
Note that they fast “often”, and Jesus does not say that fasting is wrong. His disciples look strange for lacking it.
““The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they?” (9:15)
In a village a wedding was the great feast, and mourning had no place at it. His presence is a time of joy. This is what makes Christian fasting different from a discipline for its own sake.
“The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” (9:15)
The Church has heard this as her own instruction. We live in those days, between his going and his coming again. Christian fasting has the taste of longing.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that the Lord referred to himself as the “bridegroom” (Mark 2:19), and that the Church is the Bride (CCC 796). The earliest Christians kept fast days: the Didache names Wednesdays and Fridays, and the Friday fast is linked with the Lord's death. The Church's law still makes every Friday and the season of Lent days of penance (Code of Canon Law 1250; CCC 1438). Every Friday, in a small way, the Church remembers the day when the bridegroom was taken away.