QUESTIONAIRRE:

SELF CENTERED VS.

OTHER CENTERED RELIGION

As I read today’s first reading from Isaiah 58: 1-9a, I realized this is a document that our Church needs to read on a regular basis, especially at the beginning of Lent.  So here are 11 questions - to ponder before rereading Isaiah 58: 1-9 - as well as today’s Gospel - Matthew 9: 14-15 - today’s readings  which I placed at the bottom of  this questionnaire.

Who’s more important: you or me?

When I come to a door when I am walking with another person, do I let the other person in ahead of me?

When I come to a door and  another person is coming out, do I let that person out as I hold the door for them and then I go in?

Is the goal of our religion to save our soul or to be concerned for the welfare of our brothers and sisters.

Is the purpose of Lent to fast from food or fast from selfishness?

If Lent was seen as attending a wedding, would Lent be any different this year for you? How so? [Cf. today’s gospel Matthew 9: 14-15.]

Three people walked down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Who were they thinking about and aware of: self or the man who was beaten up and robbed? [Cf. Luke 10: 25-37]

When I hear the Parable of Two Men who went to the Temple to Pray, which of the two am I? [Cf. Luke 18: 9-14]

When I’m walking from my bench in church up to the front of church to receive communion, whom am I thinking of? Myself? Those I’m on line with? Those other folks whom I’m being brought into deeper communion into Christ with?

After communion am I concentrating on Christ within me - in the tabernacle of my body and being - or more with Christ in the tabernacles of all these people I’m in the church with today or with Christ in the tabernacle up here in the front of our church - the tabernacle behind the altar?

Whom does the Pope think he is in all of this?

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TODAY’S FIRST READING - ISAIAH 58:1-9

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!

TODAY’S 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.”