Week 7, Day 45 - The Broken-Hearted Rock Star

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter - when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard."  Isaiah 58:6-8

REFLECT

Comments from Bono, lead singer of U2 and Christian activist, at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., February 2, 2006

"In 1997, a couple of eccentric, septuagenarian British Christians went and ruined my shtick - my reproachfulness. They did it by describing the Millennium, the year 2000, as a Jubilee year, as an opportunity to cancel the chronic debts of the world's poorest people. They had the audacity to renew the Lord's call...What was this Year of Jubilee, this year of our Lords favor? I'd always read the Scriptures, even the obscure stuff. There it was in Leviticus (25:35)..."If your brother becomes poor," the Scriptures say, "and cannot maintain himself...you shall maintain him."

From charity to justice, the good news is yet to come. There is much more to do. There's a gigantic chasm between the scale of the emergency and the scale of the response. It's not about charity after all, is it? It's about justice. Let me repeat that: It's not about charity; it's about justice. And that's too bad. Because you're good at charity. Americans, like the Irish, are good at it. We like to give, and we give a lot, even those who can't afford it.

But justice is a higher standard. Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice; it makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties, it doubts our concern, it questions our commitment. Sixty-five hundred Africans are still dying every day of preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity, this is about Justice and Equality.

A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life...And this wise man said: "Stop." He said, "Stop asking God to bless what you're doing. Get involved in what God is doing-because it's already blessed." Well, God, as I said, is with the poor. That is what God is doing. And that is what he's calling us to do."

MAKE IT REAL

Become better informed today about a ministry in the world where the people live in impoverished situations. Reflect on how you can make a difference.

Day 46