Reading of the Word of God

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

Isaiah 58,9-14

Then you will cry for help and Yahweh will answer; you will call and he will say, 'I am here.' If you do away with the yoke, the clenched fist and malicious words, if you deprive yourself for the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, your light will rise in the darkness, and your darkest hour will be like noon. Yahweh will always guide you, will satisfy your needs in the scorched land; he will give strength to your bones and you will be like a watered garden, like a flowing spring whose waters never run dry. Your ancient ruins will be rebuilt; you will build on age -- old foundations. You will be called 'Breach-mender', 'Restorer of streets to be lived in'. If you refrain from breaking the Sabbath, from taking your own pleasure on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath 'Delightful', and the day sacred to Yahweh 'Honourable', if you honour it by abstaining from travel, from seeking your own pleasure and from too much talk, then you will find true happiness in Yahweh, and I shall lead you in triumph over the heights of the land. I shall feed you on the heritage of your father Jacob, for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

The passage from Isaiah continues the reflection on fasting pleasing to God. It is reiterated that it must generate deliverance for the oppressed. Both "the pointing of the finger" and "the speaking of evil", i.e. malicious judgement and evil speaking, practices that are still widespread today, are to be avoided. The text picks up on a statement from the previous verses, which called for 'opening one's heart to the hungry'. It is not just a matter of sharing food with the hungry, but of sharing oneself, one's heart. The fasting that God desires becomes sharing one's life with the poor. This personally committed choice leads to a profound change in one's existence. The consequences described in the following verses are clear: the Lord will guide those who choose to serve the poor, give them strength and make them like "a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail." Love for the poor radically changes life and makes it a point of reference for others, a source of life for the world. "You shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets to live in." Those who serve the poor make a ruined city liveable and habitable. The text adds a final invitation concerning the Sabbath, the Lord's Day. There is indeed a profound unity between remembering the Lord on his day and loving the poor. Without listening to the Word of God, without remembering his love, everyone will be caught up in himself and will live an external religiosity, full of practices without a centre and a heart.