Say to all faint hearts, ‘Courage, do not be afraid!’
This week’s readings invite us to celebrate our ‘unbounded admiration’ (Gospel) for the Lord who ‘keeps faith with us for ever’ (Psalm). Our God makes no distinction between classes of people, desiring to nourish us and set us all free.
Isaiah (First Reading) 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.
There is a fulfilment of Isaiah’s promise in the Gospel, 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 marginalised, and those regarded as outsiders.
This week, we pray to be open to God’s love – the God who wants to work in and through us, healing and transforming us individually, as communities, and in our institutions.
