Sister Myra Remily
Friday after Ash Wednesday
Isaiah like Joel in the Ash Wednesday reading is being told by God to “cry out full throated and unsparingly, lift your voice like a trumpet blast”. A trumpet blast; remember in many Christian movies of old where there was always a trumpet blast to call the people’s attention? What is God telling Isaiah in this trumpet blast? It is all about fasting. Tell the people with a full-throated voice loud and clear of their wickedness. Fast, however Isaiah is more or less asking “what kind of fasting do you think you are doing?” What you are really doing is not fasting, what your doing is proclaiming your own pursuits! You call that fasting? God says To fast is to change you ways and to act justly, God makes it quite clear what fasting is all about. How can we, you and I fast as God wants us to fast in our day and age? 1. Release those bound unjustly (Children in detention centers), setting the oppressed free( by raising wages to a living wage, and improving working conditions), sharing your bread, sheltering the homeless, and clothing the naked ,in other words practicing the corporal works of mercy and Mathew 25 :31-46. This is the fast our God wants of us. Our call by the trumpet is to wake up, reach out and touch those in need. Yes we also need to pray, fast and give alms but also to eradicate all injustices, violence, and greed whether it is ourselves, or in our State, Nation or Universe.
We too need to blow the trumpet blast and proclaim a time of fast a fast that brings about change, peace and healing to our world.