In today’s first reading, Is 49: 8-15, the prophet says to
us:
Along the ways,…[you]
shall find pasture,
On every bare
height shall…your pastures be…
For…[God] who
pities[you] leads [you]
and guides [you]
beside springs of water.
[God] will cut a
road through all [your] mountains,
And make [your] highways
level.
See, some shall
come from afar,
Others from the
north and the west….
Sing out, O
heavens, and rejoice, O earth,
Break forth into
song, you mountains.
For the Lord
comforts his people
And shows mercy to
his afflicted.
As I meditated upon this passage, the thought came to me
that the “bare height” where our pasture shall be is heaven itself, that God,
who pities us, leads us to this Promised Land, cutting through the mountains of
our lives, leveling the highways. “See,
some [come into eternal life] from the mud slides in the State of Washington,
others from the watery grave where the
Malaysian plane’s tragedy occurred, others
from the devastating 8.2 earthquake off the coast of Chile. So, too, does God remember those who die by
the violent hand of another, those who suffer
because of a terminal illness, an ugly divorce, a domestic dispute. God knows
and cares about all who suffer the brutal ravages of a war, all who are the
target of ethnic cleansing, who are bullied because they are different from
those who abuse them. “Can a mother forget her infant, be without
tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never
forget you,” God tells us, no matter how
much it seems otherwise.
“I do believe, Lord, help my unbelief” (Mk 9:24).
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