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 1:16b-17)
Last Saturday, we read about the call of Isaiah from chapter six. The lectionary takes a few steps backward and introduces us to the preaching of Isaiah in chapter one today. Speaking in literary terms, Isaiah starts "in medias res," in the middle (of things). The people who composed the lectionary decided to present this foray into the words of the prophet in a more chronological survey. In doing so, the lectionary is less startling; but it loses something as well. It loses Isaiah's sense of urgency. So upset with the status quo in Israel was Isaiah that he simply jumped into his condemnation of the Israelites.
In one of my various Bibles, I once decided to read the prophet with an eye to his concern for the social sins of Israel. I was amazed at how much yellow "highlighting" I ended up using in this quest. It is, without a doubt, the primary concern displayed by this particular prophet although he is not the only prophet to focus on the issue. The social sins of Israel, namely, failure to care for the widow and orphan, are enumerated time after time after time in the prophet's writings. Widows and orphans comprised the group which was without resources in Israel. The Hebrew word for “widow” literally means “one without a voice.” HWhile widows are not totally without resources in our day and age, there are many who are still voiceless.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus offers many sayings that are somewhat upsetting. He speaks of priorities. The evangelist uses the figure of speech that we call “hyperbole.” By exaggerating, Jesus makes the point that he must be our priority. Interestingly, the last of his sayings speaks of the importance of our care for the poor. A little later in this Gospel, Jesus will tell us that what we do for the most vulnerable, we do for him. So Matthew sees that caring for the poor is one way to make Jesus our priority.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator