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My salvation is about to come

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), Isaiah 56:1, 6-7 (Lectionary 118, Aug. 14, 2005)

This Sunday’s overture reading is from the beginning of Trito-Isaiah. This is the last eleven chapters of The Book of Isaiah as it is presented in our bibles. These chapters were written by a member of the prophetic school of the eighth century B.C. prophet Isaiah after the exiles had begun to return from the Babylonian exile. This disciple’s mission was to apply the basic teachings of the original prophet Isaiah to a new situation, a situation experienced by those who had been in exile and who had now returned to the hardships of the ancient fatherland. The author’s mission is to try to apply to this new situation what the people had learned during its fifty or so years of exile in Babylon.

The year is about 520 B.C. The temple has not yet been rebuilt. The author of these chapters begins his proclamation (and our Sunday reading) with an announcement about what lies in store for the people: "My salvation is about to come, my justice, about to be revealed." The verses omitted in our reading assure the children of Israel that God’s acceptance will be extended to all those who observe the sabbath and keep their hands from evildoing, even to those whom one might expect God to exclude.

This last element is expanded in the two verses that constitute the rest of our Sunday reading. Foreigners will be welcome to worship the Lord if only they worship Him by observing the sabbath and by respecting the provisions of the covenant. Everybody will be welcome to worship in the temple of the Lord. The temple will be a house of prayer not just for the children of Israel, but "for all peoples."

What is at issue here is universalism as opposed to particularism. At the beginning God chose one people for Himself. He protected them and guided them and taught them. God gave them laws and rules to help them preserve their religious identity as His particular people. But this was not to be the final and conclusive arrangement. Those who were outside the chosen people were to have access to God, too. At a certain point in time, they, the foreigners, were to be invited to become God’s people, too, to worship God in the same way that God’s own people reverenced Him. "Their holocausts and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar."

Making membership in God’s people open to outsiders did not come about easily. At about the same time that the author of this third section of Isaiah was offering fellowship in God’s people to outsiders, others would have been remembering that Ezechiel (in chapter 44) had said that foreigners and the uncircumcised should not be admitted to temple worship. A century later Ezra, the scribe, would be fulminating against inappropriate relationships with foreigners. What we are dealing with here is a tension of values, tension between clear and exclusive religious identity on one hand, and the extension of God’s care to all His human creatures on the other. Both are important. Both are to be preserved. Yet how they are to come together is not always clear.

We see this same tension in this Sunday’s gospel reading. Jesus resists curing the daughter of the Canaanite women. She was a foreigner and it wasn’t yet their turn to be included in the salvation that Jesus had come to bring. The mission to the Gentiles was to be the work of the missionary church, a work that would begin only after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus’ task was to preach only to His own people. But the woman’s faith was strong enough to break through this temporary barrier.

God’s Christian people, with the help of the Holy Spirit, has resolved the tension between particularity and universality. The Christian faith is catholic, that is, universal, that is addressed to all human beings throughout the world. But that is not to say that anything goes, that there are no demands that accompany faith. We are all called to salvation, to life in the risen Christ, but we are also all called to respond to the demands that accompany life in Christ: self-giving to Christ in faith, dedication to the needs of our brothers and sisters in faith throughout the world, worship of God through the sacraments, acceptance of the teaching of the Christian community, participation in the nuts and bolts of the church community. Membership in God’s people is addressed to all. But it is not a gift without demands.

Each of us is called to participate in the community of faith. Each of us is to be brother and sister to all the other members. Each of us is charged with extending the boundaries of the Church. It’s a glorious calling. But it’s not necessarily easy, not necessarily without tension.

For Reflection and Discussion.

How have I experienced the universality of the Church?

How do I participate in proclaiming the gospel to all the world?



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	*Overtures* Reflection on the first readings of the Sunday liturgy By Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk My salvation is about to come Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), Isaiah 56:1, 6-7 (Lectionary 118, Aug. 14, 2005) This Sunday’s overture reading is from the beginning of Trito-Isaiah. This is the last eleven chapters of The Book of Isaiah as it is presented in our bibles. These chapters were written by a member of the prophetic school of the eighth century B.C. prophet Isaiah after the exiles had begun to return from the Babylonian exile. This disciple’s mission was to apply the basic teachings of the original prophet Isaiah to a new situation, a situation experienced by those who had been in exile and who had now returned to the hardships of the ancient fatherland. The author’s mission is to try to apply to this new situation what the people had learned during its fifty or so years of exile in Babylon. The year is about 520 B.C. The temple has not yet been rebuilt. The author of these chapters begins his proclamation (and our Sunday reading) with an announcement about what lies in store for the people: "My salvation is about to come, my justice, about to be revealed." The verses omitted in our reading assure the children of Israel that God’s acceptance will be extended to all those who observe the sabbath and keep their hands from evildoing, even to those whom one might expect God to exclude. This last element is expanded in the two verses that constitute the rest of our Sunday reading. Foreigners will be welcome to worship the Lord if only they worship Him by observing the sabbath and by respecting the provisions of the covenant. Everybody will be welcome to worship in the temple of the Lord. The temple will be a house of prayer not just for the children of Israel, but "for all peoples." What is at issue here is universalism as opposed to particularism. At the beginning God chose one people for Himself. He protected them and guided them and taught them. God gave them laws and rules to help them preserve their religious identity as His particular people. But this was not to be the final and conclusive arrangement. Those who were outside the chosen people were to have access to God, too. At a certain point in time, they, the foreigners, were to be invited to become God’s people, too, to worship God in the same way that God’s own people reverenced Him. "Their holocausts and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar." Making membership in God’s people open to outsiders did not come about easily. At about the same time that the author of this third section of Isaiah was offering fellowship in God’s people to outsiders, others would have been remembering that Ezechiel (in chapter 44) had said that foreigners and the uncircumcised should not be admitted to temple worship. A century later Ezra, the scribe, would be fulminating against inappropriate relationships with foreigners. What we are dealing with here is a tension of values, tension between clear and exclusive religious identity on one hand, and the extension of God’s care to all His human creatures on the other. Both are important. Both are to be preserved. Yet how they are to come together is not always clear. We see this same tension in this Sunday’s gospel reading. Jesus resists curing the daughter of the Canaanite women. She was a foreigner and it wasn’t yet their turn to be included in the salvation that Jesus had come to bring. The mission to the Gentiles was to be the work of the missionary church, a work that would begin only after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus’ task was to preach only to His own people. But the woman’s faith was strong enough to break through this temporary barrier. God’s Christian people, with the help of the Holy Spirit, has resolved the tension between particularity and universality. The Christian faith is catholic, that is, universal, that is addressed to all human beings throughout the world. But that is not to say that anything goes, that there are no demands that accompany faith. We are all called to salvation, to life in the risen Christ, but we are also all called to respond to the demands that accompany life in Christ: self-giving to Christ in faith, dedication to the needs of our brothers and sisters in faith throughout the world, worship of God through the sacraments, acceptance of the teaching of the Christian community, participation in the nuts and bolts of the church community. Membership in God’s people is addressed to all. But it is not a gift without demands. Each of us is called to participate in the community of faith. Each of us is to be brother and sister to all the other members. Each of us is charged with extending the boundaries of the Church. It’s a glorious calling. But it’s not necessarily easy, not necessarily without tension. For Reflection and Discussion.** How have I experienced the universality of the Church? How do I participate in proclaiming the gospel to all the world?

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