Daily I hear His voice calling out to me. It is a call for me to love my neighbour; it is an admonition to spend myself on behalf of the poor; it is an invitation to fight injustice and defend the defenceless.
Today I was reading the Epistle of Barnabas and the author, in his discussion of fasting, quoted from Isaiah 58. It seems as though this passage is one of those that I am given to carry with me - it keeps returning unbidden, but always present.
Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke?
Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into the house; when you see the naked, to cover him; and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then your light will break out like the dawn, and your recovery will speedily spring forth; and your righteousness will go before you; the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.There are passages in Scripture which require little or no exegesis to understand - this is one of those passages. It speaks for itself.
And if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom will become like midday.
I hear the voice of the Holy Spirit calling out to me: "enact God's love in the world"... "love thy neighbour". Why do I not respond? No, the more appropriate question is, Why am I slow to respond?
As we seek to follow the prompting, the call, of the Holy Spirit... as we seek to build lives directed towards love, we must continually remember the example of Mary. Tomorrow (March 25th) is the day on which the Christian Church remembers the Annunciation to the virgin Mary. The angel Gabriel was sent by God to the virgin Mary with a message. The message was of the very salvation and redemption of humanity and the whole of creation; the message was of the coming of Jesus the Christ, the promised Messiah. She was young; she was frightened; she was even a little confused (understandably so). But that response of faith that she gave to the angel over two millenia ago became the model of the Christian faith. The ideal response to God which we are all to emulate.
And Mary said, "Behold, the maidservant of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word."When we hear the voice calling to us, when we discern the prompting of God's Holy Spirit in our lives, we the admonition to love reaches our hearts, we are to follow the example of Mary. We are to respond with "Yes". I pray that I would learn to do just that: say Yes to God.
Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum
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