Lesson of Ash Wednesday
The text of the Lesson
Thus says the Lord: Return to Me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God. For gracious and merciful is He, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment. Perhaps He will again relent and leave behind Him a blessing, offerings and libations for the Lord, your God. Blow the trumpet in Sion! proclaim a fast, call an assembly; gather the people, notify the congregation; assemble the elders, gather the children and the infants at the breast; let the bridegroom quit his room, and the bride her chamber. Between the porch and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep, and say, ‘Spare, O Lord, Your people, and make not Your heritage a reproach, with the nations ruling over them! Why should they say among the peoples: Where is their God?’ Then the Lord was stirred to concern for His land and took pity on His people. The Lord answered and said to His people: See, I will send you grain, and wine, and oil, and you shall be filled with them; no more will I make you a reproach among the nations, says the Lord almighty.
Haydock
Verse 12. Mourning. For moving the heart to repentance these external works are requisite, at least in will: if they be wilfully omitted, it is a sure sign that the heart is not moved. S. Jer. W.
Verse 13. Garments, as was customary in great distress. God will not be satisfied with mere external proofs of repentance. C. --- Evil. He will forego his threats if we do penance. S. Jer. --- He punishes unwillingly. Is. xxviii. 21.
Verse 14. Who knoweth. Confidence in God and repentance must accompany prayer. --- Blessing; plentiful crops, so that the usual sacrifices may be performed again. C. i. 9.
Verse 15. Trumpet. Thus were festivals announced. Num. x. 7.
Verse 16. Sanctify. Let all make themselves ready to appear. --- Ones. Their cries would make an impression on men, and prevail on God to shew mercy. Judith iv. 9.
Verse 17. Altar of holocausts. They turned towards the holy place, lying prostrate. 1 Esd. x. 1. and 2 Mac. x. 26. C. --- Hither the victim of expiation was brought, and the high priest confessed. Maimon. --- Over them, as they might easily have done during the famine.
Verse 18. Zealous. Indignation is excited when a person perceives any thing contemned which he loves. So God resented the injuries done maliciously by the Gentiles towards his people; though he often punished them for their correction or greater merit. W. --- He will resent the blasphemies uttered by infidels against his holy name, and will restore fertility to the land. C.
Verse 19. Nations. This did not take place till after the seventy years captivity, nor then fully. It is verified in true believers, and after death in the glory of the saints. W.