The prophecy of Zechariah that we read today contains the Lord's answer to a question about fasting. After the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C...
The prophecy of Zechariah that we read today contains the Lord's answer to a question about fasting. After the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C., an additional July fast was established among the Jews for mourning Jerusalem. In 518, prominent Jews living in Babylon, having heard that the work of rebuilding the Jerusalem Temple was progressing successfully, sent a question to Jerusalem: was it necessary to keep this additional fast?
And the Lord answers through the prophet Zechariah, saying: "...was it for Me that you fasted and wept?" The conclusion of the Almighty is not comforting. He tells the prophet that those who wept were weeping for themselves. Indeed, in moments of loss and defeat, we often do not grieve so much over the sorrow as feel sorry for ourselves, sorry that "all this" has happened to us. And God says the same about fasting: just as a person eats for himself, so the Jews also fasted for themselves. Repeating what He had said literally a few years earlier through Deutero-Isaiah, the author of the second half of the book of Isaiah, the Lord points to the meaning and form of fasting pleasing to Him: render true judgment, and show mercy and compassion each to his brother.
In the passages read today from the next chapter of the book of Zechariah, the Lord addresses those who have already lived through catastrophe and restoration. For those who have lived through this, says the Lord, fasting will become a time of restoration, a time of joy. Fasting will become the effort needed in order to experience fully the joy of the presence of the merciful God among us. The Church included this prophecy in our liturgical reading today because catastrophe and restoration for us today mean the death on the Cross of Jesus, killed by us and by our sins, and His Resurrection. And during Great Lent we mourn Jesus and rejoice in His Victory, so that we may be able to feel and experience, to the depths of our being, His presence with us.
8 A promise that Jerusalem shall be restored, Zec 8:1-8.
That the whole church shall be established and increased, Zec 8:9-23.
8:16 Judgment of truth - True judgment. Peace - That may restore, and settle peace among you. Gates - The places of judicature, where the judges sat.