“Be merciful to me for
I have sinned,” (Luke 18:13) are the words of the tax collector! These words come to me as I reflect on today’s
first reading, Isaiah 58: 1-9a. The people are complaining that God does not
notice their fasting and the ways in which they afflict themselves. God
responds by reminding them that “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….Do you call this
a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? The
Lord then tells us what kind of fast He wants of us, what is acceptable to Him
and gets His attention. “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.”
Who have I bound or imprisoned "in a cold cell” by attitudes of jealousy, by anger and
resentment, by withholding love, by a lack of gratitude, by distancing
myself from them, by setting myself above them, by acting superior and unworthy of them? Have I placed yokes upon others, expecting
them to reach perfectionistic standards and, in pride, to be perfect as I am
perfect, and thus refuse to serve them in any way? Who will experience freedom
today because of my generosity, my forgiveness, my gratitude, my genuine service? Who will
experience relief from their oppression and hunger because of my nonjudgmental actions and thoughts today? Whose nakedness
and shame will decrease or be covered today because I took time to listen to their heartbreak
without criticism or without giving advice but showing empathy?
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