“Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me -- it is Yahweh who speaks -- to break unjust fetters and undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke, to share your bread with the hungry and shelter the homeless poor, to clothe the person you see to be naked and not turn from your own kin? ... If you do away with the yoke, the clenched fist, the wicked word, if you give your bread to the hungry, and relief to the oppressed…” (Isaiah 58: 6-10)
“It is clear that the kind of fasting God wants from us during this Lenten season has more to do with sacrificial love than with things. The kind of self-denial God asks of us focuses on others more than on ourselves. What we are to let go of in a special way during Lent are things like clenched fists, wicked words, the yokes or burdens we place on others, and a self-centeredness that prevents us from responding to the needs of people who are hungry or homeless, sometimes even in our own families.”
I’m using the reflection above from Jim McGinnis at The Institute for Peace and Justice, (www.ipg-ppj.org) because it caught me like a moth to a flame. I must face the question of Lent, “What am I being call to let go of?” It would be too easy to answer, food, positions, coffee or TV. Letting go of food between meals may be the place to start, I fear now that more is asked of me and the response will not be so easy to give or commit myself to.
Today I pray for the grace to see more clearly what I am being asked to let go of. Tomorrow I may pray for the grace to actually let go of it.
”Lord, in your great love, answer me.” (Ps 69:14c)