IN LENT, LET US ACCOMPANY JESUS IN HIS JOURNEY TO THE CALVARY

ASH WEDNESDAY: Is 58:1-12

Early in the morning, I received an sms from Sr. Faustina Fube (from Lubengele Parish) wishing me "a fruitful lenten season, as you begin your 40 days with our Lord Jesus". Indeed, these forty days of Lent are a very special time for us to accompany Jesus and learn from him in his journey of faithfulness that led him to the cross.

For forty years, the people of Israel wandered in the desert, always quarrelling with God, rebelling against him again and again. They proved themselves unfaithful, continuously putting God to the test. In his forty days in the desert, Jesus went through a similar experience, but with a complete different attitude. Jesus proved himself to be the faithful servant, who is always ready to do his Father's will.

Lent is a special time for us to turn back to the Lord. It is a time for reconciliation, for prayer and for fasting. We may complain as the people of Israel did. They were never satisfied, because they always looked for their own pleasure.

Today, in the office of readings, we were given the following passage, taken from the prophet Isaiah:

"Why have we fasted, and you see it not?

Why have we humbled ourselves, 

and you take no knowledge of it?’

Behold, in the day of your fast 

you seek your own pleasure,

 and oppress all your workers.

 Behold, you fast only 

to quarrel and to fight

and to hit with a wicked fist.

Fasting like yours this day

will not make your voice to be heard on high.

 Is such the fast that I choose,

 a day for a person to humble himself?

Is it to bow down his head like a reed,

and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?

Will you call this a fast,

and a day acceptable to the Lord?

Is not this the fast that I choose:

 to loose the bonds of wickedness,

to undo the straps of the yoke,

to let the oppressed go free,

and to break every yoke?

 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 him,

 and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?" 

(Is 58:3-7)