DAILY- HOMILY

February 20, 2015, FRIDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY

Violet

Is 58:1- 9a / Mt 9:14-15

Reading: Is 58:1- 9a

     Cry out aloud for all you are worth; raise your voice like a trumpet blast; tell my people of their offenses, Jacob's family of their sins.

    Is it true that they seek me day after day, longing to know my ways, as a people that does what is right and has not forsaken the word of its God? They want to know the just laws and not to drift away from their God.

    "Why are we fasting," they complain, "and you do not even see it? We are doing penance and you never notice it." Look, on your fast days you push your trade and you oppress your laborers.

     Yes, you fast but end up quarreling, striking each other with wicked blows. Fasting as you do will not make your voice heard on high.

     Is that the kind of fast that pleases me, just a day to humble oneself? Is fasting merely bowing down one's head, and making use of sackcloth and ashes? Would you call that fasting, a day acceptable to Yahweh?

     See the fast that pleases me: breaking the fetters of injustice and unfastening the thongs of the yoke, setting the oppressed free and breaking every yoke.

     Fast by sharing your food with the hungry, bring to your house the homeless, clothe the one you see naked and do not turn away from your own kin.

     Then will your light will break forth as the dawn and your healing come in a flash. Your righteousness will be your vanguard, the Glory of Yahweh your rearguard.

     Then you will call and Yahweh will answer, you will cry and he will say, I am here.

Gospel: Mt 9: 14-15

     Then the disciples of John came to him with the question, "How is it that we and the Pharisees fast on many occasions, but not your disciples?" Jesus answered them, "How can you expect wedding guests to mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? Time will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, then they will fast."

Reflection:

     God has better common sense than man. Many times we look at things from the microscopic level and fail to understand the bigger picture or their rationale. Sometimes we comply with a technical attitude rather than with a discerning spirit behind the word of God. Take for instance fasting. The end or goal of fasting is not to make us suffer, nor to make us observe the rules faithfully and in the end, commit sin by quarrelling or boasting. The purpose of fasting is to convert, to repent and turn away from the worldliness of our being, and to enter into a spirit of love and communion with God. We miss the point if we don't understand the laws of God with the correct spirit of charity.

WE PRAY FOR MTQ DAILY PRAYER DIARY INTENTIONS:

BIRTHDAY

     RODEL MANANSALA

IN MEMORIAM (+]

     ESTHER C. SY

Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers and for those who need our prayers the most. 

Have a good day!

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