My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, peace be with you on this Monday in the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time. At Mass we will hear beautiful readings about getting our priorities straight and being authentic in the eyes of God. In the first reading from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, we are right at the beginning of his writings, of his warnings. In fact, we are reading from chapter one, verses ten to seventeen. This is the initial prophetic warning and admonition of the people of Judah, who politically and civilly back then were living prosperously. The Temple sacrifices were happening as scheduled every day. The marketplaces were busy. And so everything seemed to be going fine.
Except for the fact that behind the scenes, there was too much bribery, injustice, and a neglect of those who were more vulnerable, in particular the orphans and the widows. And so Isaiah comes out right from the start with a very offensive condemnation to the ears of a contemporary Jew who heard his prophetic admonition. He says: “Hear the word of the Lord, princes of Sodom! Listen to the instruction of our God, people of Gomorrah!” (Isaiah 1:10)
Now, of course, Sodom and Gomorrah had long ago been destroyed by God for their moral depravity. And so Isaiah, likening the governance, the leadership, of Judah to those princes of Sodom and Gomorrah was a very blatant and direct condemnation which would have cut to the heart of his hearers.
And God declares through the prophet: “What care I for the number of your sacrifices?” (Isaiah 1:11) And then further down, He says: “Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes. Cease doing evil; learn to do good. Make justice your aim. Redress the wronged. Hear the orphan's plea. Defend the widow.” (Isaiah 1:16–17) In other words, on a deeper and more veiled level, this is where God wishes to see goodness, change, holiness, a care for one another, because above the surface, exteriorly, everything may seem normal and positive.
And so even in today's Gospel, Jesus is saying, look, it's a commandment of God to love your family, your mother, your father. But if that love, something which is good, exceeds your love of God, your love of me, you are not yet worthy of me. “Whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:37)
My brothers and sisters, here in both readings, we are being called by God to a radical discipleship. God commanded the Old Testament sacrifices. But here in the first reading, He is rejecting them. It's not so much the sacrifice that is the problem, but it's the spirit in which it is made.
We too have the sacrifices that we make on a daily basis throughout the world. We offer the one sacrifice that is beyond any other sacrifice, of Jesus to the Father in every Mass. And we see it playing out in front of our eyes during Holy Communion. Everybody gets up. Well, the majority get up. We go to Communion and receive Holy Communion. The Eucharist is offered day in, day out, from the rising of the sun to its setting in all four corners of the earth. And yet, how much of that religious ritual is merely exterior and unpleasing to God if we are not participating with clean hearts, where we are trying to reach out to the vulnerable, to the orphan, to the widow, to those who are struggling in some way.
So, my brothers and sisters, spend some time in prayer today. Reflect with God. Be silent in His presence. Let Him illuminate your heart and your mind to show you, you personally, where are some areas in your life that still need to be ironed out. What are some of the aspects of your life that you still need to set in their proper priority.
Am I worried about my career first and foremost before I am worried about the person I can help, my neighbour? It could be my next-door neighbour. It could be somebody living in my own house. It could be even a family member. In other words, loving our father, our mother, our sons, and our daughters also can be an act of charity in which God will be pleased.
It's when we set our sons and our daughters above God. “Oh, we've got hockey today, so we can't go pray together as a family at Mass and receive the treasure beyond all treasures, the Holy Eucharist.” “Oh, we've got soccer practice, that's why I couldn't make it to Mass. I couldn't hear the Word of God which can change my life, transform me for the better, illuminate my heart, give a path to my life, to reach heaven. But I didn't have the time because, well, you know, my son, he's got soccer practice.”
How are we placing family members first and foremost, even above God? It's a deep question we really need to ask ourselves if we truly wish to follow Jesus.
Courage, my brothers and sisters. It's a lifelong journey. But let us start today, if we haven't already initiated that process of a deeper, more radical following of Jesus.
And to that end, may Almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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