Friends,
This week, the readings invite us to celebrate our ‘unbounded admiration’ for the Lord, who ‘keeps faith with us forever’ and is worthy of our praise – the Psalmist sings. Our God makes no distinction between classes of people, but he desires to nourish us and set us all free.
In the first reading, Isaiah has an unshakeable faith in the trustworthiness of God. Such faith allows him to see a future where God’s transforming action will enable the world to evolve to its fruition. In the Gospel, there is a fulfillment of Isaiah’s promise where Jesus not only heals the deaf man with a speech impediment but also opens the ears of many to faith and loosens tongues to spread the Good News of the kingdom.
In the Second Reading, St. James tells the young Christian community very clearly that this Good News means God has no partiality according to class or wealth: we are all equally his children. So when Jesus reaches out to the poor and to those on the margins of community life, he brings into focus the kind of world that God desires and continues to long for.
The Psalmist’s hymn of praise speaks particularly of the Lord’s concern for the poor, the marginalized, and those regarded as outsiders.
This week, therefore, let us pray to remain open to God’s love that will transform us individually and as a community.
Joy and peace.
