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40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday after Ash Wednesday, 24 February 2023
Isaiah 58:1-9 ><}}}}*> + <*{{{{>< Matthew 9:14-15
Forgive us, O God, merciful Father, for refusing to grow up, for refusing to mature in your Son Jesus Christ in loving you, serving you, relating with you. Until now, O God, we choose to act immaturely, believing in ourselves as if we know everything very well, even bragging to you of our goodness and holiness; like the people in the time of Isaiah, we are so proud, "seeking you day after day, desiring to know your ways, like a nation that has done what is just and not abandoned your law, O God, even asking you to declare what is due to us, pleased to gain access to you, God" (cf. Is. 58:2).
Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits, and drive all your laborers. Yes, your fast ends i quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw… This, rather, is the fasting that I wish… then you shall call, and the Lord will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!
Isaiah 58:3b-4, 6, 9
Until now, we do not fast and we refuse to fast, citing so many reasons and alibis because until now we have not learned the essence and importance of fasting; help us grow, help us mature in Christ! Let us realize the essence of fasting is creating a space within us for you, O God, through others whom we lovingly serve in your name to make you present among us so that when we call, we hear you say "Here I am!"
Help us grow deeper in you, O God, in Jesus who had come to us so that our spirit of fasting may come forth from within us, not from outside that make us focus more on what to avoid; it is not the thing outside that fasting is concerned but of what is inside us we are willing to surrender, to forego, to give up in order to have you present among the least and neglected. Amen.
