Friday, February 27, 2009

Lent, fasting and my neighbor

Here it is Lent; a time to deepen in our relationship with God.

I'm thinking more prayer, more quiet time to read scripture and meditate on it. Great!
Of course when you meditate on a passage like that of today's reading from Isaiah
it kind of ruins the concept of a nice, peaceful, meditative Lent that in which I can focus on me and God. Once again God pulls me out of myself.

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! Isaiah 58

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