Daily Retreat 07/14/08

2008 Jul 14 Mon: Weekday Is 1: 10-17/ Ps 49(50): 8-9. 16bc-17. 21 and 23/ Mt 10: 34 – 11: 1 From today's readings:  "Wash yourselves clean! Put away your misdeeds from before My eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do good....  Why do you recite My statutes, and profess My covenant with your mouth, though you hate discipline and cast My words behind you?...  Whoever receives you receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives the One who sent Me. " Learn to Do Good A few weeks ago, we considered the condemnation of religious hypocrisy found in the book of the prophet Amos, a view echoed in Hosea's writings  (cf. Hosea 6:6) and many others, including these early inflammatory verses of Isaiah, who compares the hypocritical listeners of his day to the rampantly immoral people of Sodom and Gomorrah. But, as always, it would be folly to dismiss the words of the prophet as directed merely to the people of another age - they're also meant for us!  Even though we don't worship with the blood of sacrificed animals, and we observe religious solemnities unknown at the time of Isaiah, the same insight applies: worship is worthless without the wholehearted resolve to "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, defend the widow!"