Word to the Wise
Thursday, July 19, 2012 - Thursday in the 15th Week in Ordinary Time
[Isa 26:7-9, 12, 16-19 and Matt 11:28-30]But your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise; awake and sing, you who lie in the dust. For your dew is a dew of light, and the land of shades gives birth. [Isaiah]
Isaiah is trying to give hope to a people whose choices in lifestyles and political alliances had led to disaster. His preaching is not about resurrection in the sense that Christian preachers would later on quote him, however. He is speaking of the restoration of the kingdom of Israel. A similar image would be used in the famous vision of dry bones in Ezekiel 37. When Christian preachers began to interpret the Old Testament in the light of Jesus' life, death and resurrection and his teachings, their immediate ancient context took on a different meaning. The Old Testament was seen as a "foretelling" of events in the life of Jesus and the New Israel.
Jesus' words of comfort in today's gospel scripture speak of rest and a lighter burden - a restoration! These are words of hope to a people who had been burdened by Greek and Roman conquest and by the greed of wealthy landowners. For us today, the list of burdens might take on aspects of hunger, homelessness, unemployment, illness - anything that could destroy hope in a future of God's love. We are invited to place our burdens in his care. With Isaiah, we can look forward instead of being mired in a hopeless present. Our bones shall be restored! AMEN
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