Saturday after Ash Wednesday – 25th February 203 – Isaiag 58,9b-14; Lk 5,27-32
Refrain from Evil
Our first reading from Isaiah is a continuation of yesterday’s reading. The prophet Isaiah continues to remind us that if we turn away from our evil ways, then God will renew us and restore us, but there are conditions. We must get rid of any form of oppression, false accusations or malicious speech. We need to share our bread with the hungry and console the afflicted. God’s demands are clear, but our anxious desire to secure our own lives, even when it requires that others suffer, make obedience challenging. It is easy to fast when you have abundance; the challenge is to give them up to meet the needs of others and then trust God to “satisfy your needs in parched places.” Surely then the light will shine in our lives and “the gloom shall become for you like midday.” We will become like “a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails.” In gist, we need to refrain as far as possible from our daily concerns and make every day a day of remembering God’s unconditional gift, “Then you shall delight in the Lord.”
