Reading: Psalm 32
“While I kept silence,
my body wasted away.” Psalm 32:3
Three traditional aspects of the discipline of Lent have
been prayer, fasting, and acts of compassion. In the reading from Matthew’s
gospel that we heard on Ash Wednesday, Jesus emphasizes that spiritual practice
should not be used to feel holier, more spiritual, superior to other people,
but rather to connect to God and to our “secret heart” (Ps. 51:6) in such a way
that we also connect to other people. “Is this not the fast I choose?” Today’s
date in the church’s calendar is given to the commemoration of Harriet Tubman,
an Ashanti (Ghana) American slave who escaped to freedom and returned to the
slave states 13 times to lead out other slaves, and Sojourner Truth, a slave of
Guinean heritage, who escaped and worked for abolition of slavery. Perhaps
today is a good day to recall this African proverb: Umuntu ngamuntu ngabantu – a person is
a person because of other people.
May
our fasting and prayer this season, O God,
lead us into acts of compassion and justice. Amen
- Choose one societal problem that needs your advocacy, your letters, your prayers, your action.
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