God Comes to Save

In tomorrow's first reading, Is 35: 4-7a,  God asks the prophet Isaiah to "[s]ay to those whose hearts are frightened:  Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared....Streams will burst forth in the desert, and rivers in the steppe. The burning sands will become pools, and the thirsty ground springs of water."

Imagine the day when "the eyes of the blind"  and "the ears of the deaf" throughout the world--in our  own country, in our government, in Congress, etc.--will actually be opened to truth and to the cries of the poor, the oppressed, the abused of our societies.  That day is coming, Isaiah tells us!  God will come "with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save [us] from all kinds of oppressors, within and without: pathological lying, corruption, thievery, murder, avarice, narcissism, covetousness and so many other ways in which we are deceived by Satanic forces.

Know, too, that our own ears and eyes will be opened.  "Streams [of grace] will burst forth in the desert [of our hearts]." Our thirst for God, for Truth itself and for truth within ourselves, will be quenched!

God Comes with Divine Recompense as Savior

In today's first reading, Is. 35:; 1-6, 10,  we read that "[t]he desert and the parched land will exult; the steppe will rejoice and bloom....[T]hey will see the glory of the Lord, they will see the splendor of the our God." "Feeble hands" will be strengthened." "Weak knees" will be made firm. Those strong according to human standards, whose faith, for instance, lies, not in the Lord, but in being or becoming billionaires will crumble in the dust.  Drug dealers and users whose faith rests in deals made and drugs used will be brought low. Human traffickers and pimps whose delight is in the number of girls/women they "own" will be humbled! Criminals who boasts of the many crimes they have committed or plan to commit shall crash in defeat eventually.

Yes, Satan will eventually lose all power over humankind. "Here is your God," Isaiah tells us,  "he comes with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you."  When the Lord comes and is accepted as Savior, as Messiah, in any one's life, that person's "eyes...will be opened, [their] deaf ears "be cleared"; "then the lame will leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing."

When the Lord returns,  those who have repented of their wrongdoing, those who recognize their sinful ways and fall on their knees before the one true God in repentance will have their blindness and deafness removed--no longer will they be worshipping idols, false gods or god-substitutes.  Yes, when the Lord comes, "those whom   the Lord has ransomed," Isaiah tells us, "will return and enter Zion singing crowned with everlasting joy; they will meet with joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning will flee."

May you and I be among the throng of people following the Lord on that last day of our lives!