Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection March 07, 2025
Friday after Ash Wednesday
07th March 2025 (Friday)
Psalter: Week 4
Readings of the Day
First Reading: Isaiah 58:1-9a
Thus says the Lord GOD: Cry out full-throated and unsparingly, lift up your voice like a trumpet blast; Tell my people their wickedness, and the house of Jacob their sins. They seek me day after day, and desire to know my ways, Like a nation that has done what is just and not abandoned the law of their God; They ask me to declare what is due them, pleased to gain access to God. “”Why do we fast, and you do not see it? afflict ourselves, and you take no note of it?”” Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits, and drive all your laborers. Yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw. Would that today you might fast so as to make your voice heard on high! 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? This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own. Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; Your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!
Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 18-19 (R. 19b)
R/. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
Gospel Acclamation
V/. Seek good and not evil so that you may live, and the Lord will be with you.
Gospel: Matthew 9:14-15
The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”
Daily Gospel Reflection
Friday – after Ash Wednesday
Main Point: The practice of religious activities like prayers and fasting is very good and needed. But we must check and see whether they remain limited only to the domain of religion and piety or do they lead to a change of daily life
Abundance must be the target of every follower of Christ. The statement, “To the one who has more, more will be given” sounds very unfair against the principle of social justice. But such a problem arises when taken in the material sense. It is not at all in terms of material abundance and affluence.
My Practice: There is an eager tendency in the present times either to do away with all the traditional practices like fasting, or not to connect them to real-life renewal