"Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thong of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
"Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
"Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly."
These are the prophet Isaiah's words, in chapter 58, verses 6-8a.
Percy Dearmer rendered Isaiah's words this way, as we find them in Hymn 145:
"For is not this the fast that I have chosen? (The prophet spoke) To shatter every yoke, of wickedness the grievous bands to loosen, oppression put to flight, to fight, to fight, to fight till every wrong's set right; to fight, to fight, to fight till every wrong's set right.
"For righteousness and peace will show their faces to those who feed the hungry in their need, and wrongs redress, who build the old waste places, and in the darkness shine. Divine, divine; divine it is when all combine! Divine, divine, divine it is when all combine!"
Surely this is a fast for our times, times when hunger and homelessness threaten many who have never experienced this kind of threat before. A more literal translation speaks of not hiding ourselves "from our own flesh"-- in other words, of not hiding ourselves merely from our kin (family) or kith (friends), but from any of our fellow human beings who share with us the frailty of flesh.
This is the fast I will explore this Lent, a centrifugal spirituality rather than a centipetal spirituality, a spirituality which flees rather than seeks ego-centrism, a spirituality which reaches out to others.
Are you willing to join me in making a New Beginning with a centrifugal spirituality? If you'd like to write about it, just use the Comment link.
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