My favorite seafood restaurant

Lo, on your fast day
you carry out your own pursuits...

Thus says the Lord in today’s first reading (Isaiah 58:1-9a) to the Israelites of old.

Sadly, things are not that much different.

How many of us celebrate days of abstinence from meat by going to our favorite seafood restaurant?

How many of us respond to the penitential call of Lent with a minor sacrifice or two (no ice cream for you) and perhaps an extra devotional practice, but fail to do anything along the lines of what the Lord calls us to do in today’s first reading?

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!

Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, be merciful to me – a sinner.