Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time
ISAIAH 66:18-21
Thus says the Lord:
I am coming to gather
all nations of every language;
they shall come to see my glory,
I will give them a sign, and from among them
I will send survivors to the nations:
to Tarshish, Ethiopia, Libya, Masac, Tubal, and Greece,
to the distant coasts that have never heard of my fame
or seen my glory;
and they shall proclaim my glory to the nations.
And from all countries, as an offering to the Lord,
they shall bring all your brothers
on horses, in chariots and litters,
on mules and camels,
to my holy mountain, Jerusalem – says the Lord –
as the Israelites, in pure vessels,
bring offerings to the temple of the Lord.
From among them I will choose priests and Levites
– says the Lord -.
This is the end of the book (the “Third Isaiah” we are familiar with). The Prophet’s preaching concludes with an apotheotic scene: the knowledge of God by all nations, with a multifaceted message: on the one hand, the customary imagery of the gathering of all nations, the display of God’s ultimate power which in the liturgical text is shown in the enumeration of multitudes of the most unknown nations gathered on the Holy Mountain: and, above all, the promise of the great triumph of the Lord in His chosen ones, who are not the people of Israel but all peoples.
The text is particularly universalist. Of course, it is Mount Zion where the Lord triumphs, and Israel retains its prominence, but there is a special emphasis on the nations that never knew the Lord, and among them, priests are chosen.
From all this, we conclude how the faith of Israel is opening up to an ever-greater universality, without renouncing the prominence of the “Chosen People,” as dangerous and nationalistic as ever.
Despite everything, how ill it sounds, the glory of God as that of a famous lord, the temple as a summit…! How far away the kingdom is, how far away Abba is, how different Jesus is!
HEBREWS 12:5-7 and 11-13
You have forgotten the paternal exhortation given to you: “My son, do not reject the Lord’s discipline or grow weary of his reproof; for the Lord reproves the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” Accept correction, for God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not correct?
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
We find ourselves in the last chapter (the 13th is a farewell exhortation), which contains various pieces of advice, in the typical tone of the Books of Wisdom. In fact, this text alludes to, without citing, Proverbs (3:6 and 13) and Ecclesiasticus (30). The last lines are a literal quote from Isaiah 35:3, which refers to the exiles in Babylon.
This is a pious interpretation of the difficulties of life understood as “paternal punishments” to correct us, as fathers do with their children.
This interpretation has two aspects. On the one hand, understanding the difficulties of life as something from which we must draw profit, which help us to stay awake and walk better on our path without being deceived by the seductions of the world. On the other hand, an interpretation of evil as a necessary correction that God gives us. The first can be useful; the second falls within the many naiveties that have been written to address the problem of evil. And it seems to me that the terrible tragedies suffered by countless people need a less simple and devout explanation than the one offered by this text.
José Enrique Galarreta