Friends,
in today’s Gospel we hear a passage from Isaiah echoing the Baptism of
Jesus: "Here is my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, with whom my
soul is well pleased."
In
the Greek philosophical tradition, God is the supreme good around which
everything in the universe revolves. But that Aristotle’s prime mover
would stoop down to the level of a creature and move toward him—that
would be unthinkable. And in the Jewish context, God’s absolute holiness
was consistently contrasted with human sinfulness. But that God would
himself take on the wretchedness of his creatures and stand with them—no
way.
Yet,
in Christ, God himself moves toward his creatures, takes on their
wretchedness, and stands with them. Why? Because God has come in order
to forgive sins. This is the heart and soul, the beginning and end of
Christian revelation. How often the words and gestures of forgiveness
radiate out from Jesus, and how central forgiveness is to the liturgy.
"This is the cup of my blood…which will be shed so that sins may be
forgiven."
This is why "he will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick." God has not come to finish off those who have blown it spiritually and morally, but to stand with them in total solidarity.
Saturday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 394
Woe to those who plan iniquity,
and work out evil on their couches;
In the morning light they accomplish it
when it lies within their power.
They covet fields, and seize them;
houses, and they take them;
They cheat an owner of his house,
a man of his inheritance.
Therefore thus says the LORD:
Behold, I am planning against this race an evil
from which you shall not withdraw your necks;
Nor shall you walk with head high,
for it will be a time of evil.
On that day a satire shall be sung over you,
and there shall be a plaintive chant:
"Our ruin is complete,
our fields are portioned out among our captors,
The fields of my people are measured out,
and no one can get them back!"
Thus you shall have no one
to mark out boundaries by lot
in the assembly of the LORD.
The Pharisees went out and took counsel against Jesus
to put him to death.
When Jesus realized this, he withdrew from that place.
Many people followed him, and he cured them all,
but he warned them not to make him known.
This was to fulfill what had been spoken through Isaiah the prophet:
Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,
my beloved in whom I delight;
I shall place my Spirit upon him,
and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
He will not contend or cry out,
nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
a smoldering wick he will not quench,
until he brings justice to victory.
And in his name the Gentiles will hope.
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