Thus says the Lord: Maintain equity and practice justice, for my salvation is about to come and my justice to be revealed. Blessed is the mortal who does this, the man who holds fast to it, who keeps from profaning the Sabbath, and keeps his hand from doing any evil…
20th Sunday in Ordinary Time
ISAIAH 56, 1-7
Thus says the Lord:
Maintain equity and practice justice, for my salvation is about to come and my justice to be revealed.
Blessed is the mortal who does this, the man who holds fast to it, who keeps from profaning the Sabbath, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.
Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely separate me from his people.” And let not the eunuch say, “I am a dry tree.” For thus says the Lord:
As for the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, choose the things that please me, and hold fast to my covenant, I will give them, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.
And as for the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath without profaning it and holds fast to my covenant, these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
This is an exhortation to justice and holiness of life, addressed expressly to Israel without excluding foreigners, eunuchs… It is a universalist text, although tinged with the nationalism of Israel.
“My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” signifies a step forward from Israel’s initial exclusivism, but it shows that Israel still believes itself to be the center of the world. This same phrase is quoted by Jesus as justification for his violent action in the Temple, when he expelled the merchants from it.
ROMANS 11, 13-15 and 29-32
Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to jealousy, and save some of them.
For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?
For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy.
For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
The Jew Paul laments the fate of his people, who have rejected Jesus. Paul feels the vocation to announce the Gospel to the pagans, and he finds again and again the rejection of the Jewish communities. But he is pained by the blindness of his people and expresses here his desire and his confidence that one day they will recognize Jesus.
José Enrique Galarreta, S.J.