Isaiah 58:9-10
If you remove from your midst oppression,
false accusation and malicious speech;
If you bestow your bread on the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted;
Then light shall rise for you in the darkness,
and the gloom shall become for you like midday;
Each day our readings bring us new ideas on how we are to live. Today’s reading from Isiah bring another clear concept to mind, get rid of the bad things in your life and retain the good. This may sound obvious but how much do we each grab and clutch onto the bad things of our lives. Drinking, smoking might seem obvious, but what about doing the will of God?
A Revelation
I had a revelation this week, actually driving on home from work. I was listening to the radio and the host was speaking about the words and phrases of the Scripture passage of the day. I believe it was the reading of the Rich man asking Jesus how he can inherit eternal life. It seems a simple question. Yet it burns deep into our psyche… of how well we listen to what God is actually telling us and how we can and should change our lives. So the question is why is it we don’t turn our ways completely to God? the revelation that came to me is …well it scares the garbanzo beans (add your own word) out of me !
God gives us little guides throughout life. Sometimes it comes from friends or from complete strangers. But their origin is straight from God. We must be careful though. If I were to listen completely to everything that I heard, I would simply go crazy. I must take the time and the reflection to determine what God is actually saying and to weed out those things that are coming from elsewhere.
We’re outta here !
And sometimes what is being told to us is scary. How am I going to do that? Somewhat reminiscent of Moses. He could not fathom how he could walk up to Pharaoh and say .. ‘Umm were outta here’.. but he did it. He didn’t do it alone. But with God’s help (quite a lot actually) the Jewish people were on the move to the “land of milk and honey”
Like Gloria Gaynor said.. “At first I was afraid, I was petrified” Sometimes that is how we feel when we realize what God is asking of us. To drop everything we know and follow Him. Levi did it in today’s Gospel. However, this is what God asked of Levi. This is a most important thing.. Will God ask that I drop my family and my job and simply follow Him? I tend to doubt it. I gave my covenant to my wife and God isn’t going to ask me to break that. That kind of extreme radicalism was given to Levi. For Dave? no.. I am called to follow Him and I do, not perfectly obviously. Be God has “Dave’s” way of following Him. Just as He has “your” way
But yeah it is scary to start looking down that road and see a whole bunch of pitfalls that humanity tells us Preserve yourself!!! Thankfully, like Moses heard, God say.. “Be not afraid.” Be good, Play nice Think God!
To read the daily readings from the Lectionary here is a link to the USCCB site: Today’s reading