The readings on Ash Wednesday and the first days of Lent always prick my ears a little bit, as the prophets and Jesus speak out against public displays of penance and fasting. In today’s reading from Isaiah the prophet denounces the false, performative fasting that he sees around him, practiced by people who nevertheless “drive their laborers, who quarrel and fight, striking with wicked claw.” They carry out the mechanics of fasting and repenting and yet their hearts are unchanged, and their interactions with their fellow human beings remain unaffected.
“Is this the manner of fasting I wish, of keeping a day of penance: That a man bow his head like a reed and lie in sackcloth and ashes? Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?”
I think it’s fairly clear that the prophet’s answer to this question is, “No, of course not.” True fasting, we are told, involves radical transformation not only of self, but of community, of society. It isn’t to any individual that Isaiah’s words are addressed: it’s to the entire people of God. A true fast is to set free the oppressed, breaking EVERY yoke. Not just the yokes of our interpersonal relationships, not just the yokes in our families or workplaces or parishes. EVERY yoke. A true fast is feeding the hungry, housing the houseless, clothing the naked, sheltering the oppressed.
As if we needed any further confirmation of just how essential this work is, I’m reminded of the story in the Gospel of Matthew, when Jesus is predicting the Final Judgment. He divides the sheep from the goats, and he tells those on one side to enter into the kingdom of heaven, and when they question why he tells them that they fed the hungry, visited prisoners, gave drink to the thirsty, clothed the naked, welcomed strangers and cared for the ill. Sound familiar? The fast our Lord requires of us is to serve one another, to uplift and love one another, to establish justice as best as we can in this imperfect world, to break every yoke. This is the main criteria by which our lives will be evaluated.
Yes, Lent is a time for looking within our souls, for reflecting on our attachments, for cleaning up our heart so that divine love might sit more comfortably within, but it is also about looking outside of ourselves; the traditions and practices of this season should draw our attention to our brothers and sisters and siblings at the margins. That is why the Church teaches that Lent is upheld by a tripod of three practices: prayer, fasting and almsgiving, each corresponding to the three objects of love: God, self, neighbor. We pray to deepen our relationship with God, for what relationship can survive a failure to communicate? Fasting is about examining our habits, learning which things are keeping us from God. And almsgiving is exactly what Isaiah entreats us to practice in today’s reading, for unless we live with concern and care for our fellow creatures, unless we make their needs our own and root out all oppression, unless we break every yoke, God will remain silent to our prayers and reject our fasting.
