ISAIAH 58:7-10
Thus says the Lord:
Share your bread with the hungry,
shelter the poor homeless,
clothe the one who is naked,
and do not turn away from your own flesh.
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will spring up quickly;
your vindication will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here I am.
If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
The chapters 56 to 66 of the prophecy of Isaiah are usually called “Third Isaiah”. It is not easy to point out their author and time, although of course they are much later than the prophet himself. They seem to be a collection of heterogeneous oracles, united by a certain similarity with the style and ideology of Isaiah himself.
The fragment of today has been, as so many times, deprived of its context: it is the second part of a text that says:
Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near:
‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’
Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.
Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
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
etc.
It is therefore a precious text in the line of “mercy I want and not sacrifices”, expressly quoted by Jesus himself. This theme constitutes one of the strongest temptations of the people, and we could say of all religiosity: to make of religion a fulfillment of precepts and rites, (which guarantee that the rest of life can be “profane”, alien to God) expecting in return that God protect us in everything, so that everything goes well for us.
The prophets, in texts like this one, will progressively transcend this type of fulfillment, and Jesus will take this line to the extreme, with his renunciation of the Temple and his proclamation of “worshiping God in Spirit and in truth,” which means caring for others. Let us not forget that this will be one of the reasons that led him to the cross.
1 CORINTHIANS 2, 1-5
When I came to you to proclaim to you the testimony of God, I did not do so with eloquent wisdom or lofty words, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
I came to you in weakness and fear; my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in the demonstration and power of the Spirit, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on the power of God.
Let us continue with our continuous reading. These are the same ideas as last Sunday. Paul’s wisdom is only that of Jesus: the wisdom of the cross.
José Enrique Galarreta, S.J.