Word to the Wise
Monday, July 15, 2024 - Monday in the 15th Week in Ordinary Time
[Isa 1:10-17 and Matt 10:34-11:1]Though you pray the more, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood! Wash yourselves clean! Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan's plea, defend the widow. [Isaiah]
JULY 15 ST. BONAVENTURE ofm, bishop and doctor of the church
The Book of Isaiah is the work of more than one prophet! It covers the fate of the Chosen People from the time the Assyrians attacked and destroyed the Northern Kingdom to the return from exile seventy years after the Babylonians destroyed the Southern Kingdom - a period of almost 200 years. But the themes of fidelity to the covenant and messianic hope appear over and over again. In today's passage from the beginning of the book, Isaiah warns the people of the Northern Kingdom (Samaria/Ephraim) that they are being systematically corrupt. The "widow and orphan" are being forgotten. Their worship is empty.
These themes are strikingly modern. It is a reality that the vast majority of human beings on this planet live in poverty. The most vulnerable - the "widow and orphan" - are forgotten by the wealthy who concentrate on maintaining their wealth and claim to be worshiping God while trampling on the poor. The modern notion of "trickle down" wealth stands convicted!!! Isaiah warns the Northern Kingdom, as he and Jeremiah and others would warn the Southern Kingdom of Judah, that their safety is in God and not in alliances with pagan kingdoms. Those alliances often meant the introduction of pagan religious and cultural practices at odds with the covenant.
The challenge from Isaiah applies all over the planet. When "the economy" and "political power" become the pagan "gods" in our temples, we are in danger. For Christians, the scene of the final judgment in Matthew 25:31-45 should be a reminder of the true path to the kingdom of heaven. If we are looking for Christ in our wallets and titles, we are looking in the wrong place. Isaiah's voice is still echoing. AMEN