Isaiah 33: A Prophecy of Deliverance
Friday, May 17, 2024
There is good news to celebrate – we are delivered from bondage. We live in the Messianic age; the promised deliverer has arrived to live among us. We are no longer chained. We are not abandoned. We are not alone.
Yesterday’s Mass readings called us to reflect on the Good Shepherd who knows his sheep well and whose sheep know him. I know mine and mine know me. Today we continue that theme. The readings from Acts (Chapters 2 and 11) tell us the story of Peter who witnesses to the presence of the Resurrected Christ. Psalms 23, 42 and 43 describe how God takes care of us and how we thirst after this Living God. We learn how to shepherd well. A Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. We hear about false shepherds. A hired man runs away and leaves his sheep because they are not his own . . . the sheep scatter and run . . . the wolf catches them.
In today’s Noontime reading, Isaiah describes for us what happens when the true shepherd arrives to call his sheep back to the fold. Those who attacked and scattered the innocent sheep are now themselves assaulted. The spoils of the conflict disappear in the jaws of the locusts; they are gathered up like the crops taken up by caterpillars. Just when the land is deserted and hushed, just when treaties are broken and fire devours the land – this is when deliverance happens. The counters of treasures, the insolent, the corrupt, all of these will be gone while those faithful who have been scattered will now live on the heights. Their refuge will be the fortresses of rocks; their food will be supplied, their water assured. And Christ’s Rock, Peter, witnesses today, telling those gathered to listen to his story of how a vision came to him with an assignment as God’s Shepherd. I was at prayer when in a trance I had a vision . . . The Spirit told me to accompany three men without discriminating against them. Peter goes on to explain how God has called him to Shepherd the gentiles along with the Jewish people who have come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. And so today we pray . . .
Good and faithful God,
You have promised that you will not abandon us . . . teach us how to not abandon others.
You have brought us the gift of hope and renewal . . . teach us to be open to the restoration you have in mind for us.
You have promised us peace and prosperity . . . teach us how to live in peace despite the turmoil we cause.
You have been the Good Shepherd . . . never abandoning us . . . never betraying us . . . teach us to live in fidelity to you.
We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
A Favorite from May 16, 2011.
Images from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/snapnpiks0304/15407306670 and https://thisredeemedlife.org/
The Noontimes 