There is an interesting relationship between our first
reading and Gospel. The prophet
Isaiah proclaims the basics of true religion: “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.” This
call, to love God and neighbor, can be understood throughout all of the
Scriptures.
Then
there is the startling declaration of Jesus: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but
the sword.” This
flies in the face of any notion of Jesus as a pushover, or a man who doesn’t
care what people do or believe. Jesus
did not come to bring peace in the sense that we can do whatever we want
without consequence. Instead, Jesus
does indeed call us to be divided from our world which is full of greed,
violence, materialism and individualism.
Yet
this sword does not only cut us away
from the world. It divides
ourselves. Each of us have vice
and the desire to sin in our hearts.
Jesus calls us to cut out all sin to be completely united with him.
May
we follow the basics of religion as proclaimed by Isaiah, and surrender
ourselves to the sword of Christ, which separates us from a sinful world and
our sinful selves.
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