Isaiah continues to describe the Messiah today and, in doing so, also states that the Messiah will be immediately present to them.
He will be gracious to them when they cry out. He will feed them when they are hungry and give them drink when they thirst. He will actually be seen by them. He will point them in the right direction and set them on the right path. In addition to his care for them personally, he will also provide for their needs by providing for their flocks and herds and by watering their crops.
These very specific actions are all cited by Isaiah as signs of the true Messiah. In addition to the provident care that will be provided for them, they will also be healed and their wounds will be bound.
The Gospel passage from St. Matthew illustrates the compassion that Jesus has for the crowds that come to him for healing and for instruction. There is such a great need that he also hands over to his disciples the same tasks. This is all summed up with a verse with which I have a personal connection. “Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.” The personal connection comes from the fact that this was the Gospel passage which I proclaimed at my Mass of Thanksgiving a week after my ordination in 1975, the eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time in the A Cycle of the Lectionary for Sunday Mass. This phrase became the theme of that liturgy and was silk screened on the worship aids which were created for that Mass by Sr. Madelyn Gould whom many of you have met.
This verse does something to me every time I hear it because I realize that God has been very gracious in his gifts to me, especially the gifts of faith and of a vocation to the priesthood, gifts that I do not take lightly. I am sure that you can also say the same thing of God as you have also been graced with these precious gifts. As it is always recorded in the Gospels and in the rest of the Christian Scriptures, God’s gifts were given to us not to be hoarded but rather to be used for the sake of the Kingdom of God which Jesus came to proclaim. The coming of the Messiah, which we celebrate in this holy season, was God’s response to our need. As Isaiah maintains in the first reading, the Messiah is immediately present to us each day as we celebrate the Eucharist.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator