Are We Listening?

In today's first reading, Isaiah 1: 10-17, God strongly rebukes Israel:  Bring no more worthless offerings;  your incense is loathsome to me...though  you pray the more, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood! Wash  yourselves clean! 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 please, defend the widow.."

We are no less sinless than were the Israelites in the time of Isaiah.  Immigrants, refugees, the poor and oppressed, people of other nationalities and cultures, people of different sexual orientations, people of color are many times, I believe, victims of unjust practices, are wronged by our leadership. Their pleas for justice and to be granted their basic human rights are, in many cases, I believe,  ignored. Their cries to be treated rightly, in many cases, fall on deaf ears and hardened hearts. God says to us, as He said to the Israelites: "Wash yourselves clean! 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, (the plea of immigrant children in wired cages separated from their parents), defend the widow (and those immigrants seeking safety from murderous dictators in the countries from which they are fleeing)." "Learn to do good,"   God, I believe, is saying to our leaders, by providing testing for those fearful of having contracted the coronavirus and by giving medical personnel the equipment needed to treat covid-9 patients. "Learn to do good," God, I believe, is saying to all of us, by doing what is within our power to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Are we listening to those who are wronged by sexual predators, by jealous lovers, by angry narcissists, by greedy and corrupt individuals, by persons seeking control and power over others, including clergy, by abusers of children and women and, in some cases, of men?

Am I, are you, aware of ways in which we might, intentionally or unintentionally, be engaged in evil deeds?  God says to us: "Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes. Cease doing evil; learn to do good"?  From the wrong we do, intentionally or unintentionally,  may we learn to do good, listening to the twitches of our consciences when we engage in wrongdoing!