Gospel: March 7, 2025
March 7, 2025 (Friday)
Friday After Ash Wednesday
Psalter: Week 4 / (Violet)
Day of abstinence from meat (age 14 and up)
St. Perpetua and St. Felicity, martyrs
Ps 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 18-19
A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn
1st Reading: Isaiah 58:1-9a
Gospel: Matthew 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? The time will come, when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then, they will fast.
Reflection:
“We give up things to give up selfishness.”
Why do we fast in Lent? Fasting is a spiritual exercise which helps us to give more space to God and to others in our lives. If all our attention were given solely to satisfying our desires, we would be completely self-absorbed, unaware of others’ needs and unaware of God. The practice of giving up a favorite food, drink or activity throughout Lent, along with eating less, is both a penance, in sorrow for our sins, but also a spiritual exercise of self-control, that we might grow in this virtue, thus enabling us to give greater attention to God and our neighbor.
In this way, fasting from things leads us to fast from selfishness and injustice, as we are more aware of our actions and of the difficulties of others. Thus, our fasting strengthens our sense of justice and of solidarity with others, which leads us to break the fetters of injustice, to share our food with the hungry, to house the homeless, to clothe the naked and to be reconciled with one another. We give up things to give up selfishness. We give more time to prayer and charity to give more to God and to others.
