Isaiah 1: 10, 16-20, 27-28, 31; Psalm 50; Matthew 23: 1-12
Some of you complain when our liturgists pick and choose the verses from a long text like the opening chapter of Isaiah. So reach for your Bible and read the whole, including the verses missing above. We focus on: “Learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.”
Where in the news of today do you see justice at work? Where are there structures of justice in our first world society? Give thanks. Who needs rescuing, surely in Haiti, but in your own circle? Who needs your helping hand, listening ear today? Who is the orphan in your midst, the lonely, the neglected, the one cast out even by our church leaders? Will you who are the church reach out? Who is the widow, grief stricken, and from the Hebrew, voiceless? How will you respond to her or to him?
Keep us alert to our far neighbors who are oppressed, widowed and orphaned, but help us respond to the needy ones right in our family, our circle of relationships. Thank you.