Only a Humble Heart
You may remember I used the wrong readings last Monday and already wrote on today’s Gospel. Maybe, that was God’s way of pushing me to reflect on the first reading (IS 1:10-17).
The reading begins with God, through Isaiah, expressing His frustration with the people. They are acting up, and they think offering sacrifices and burnt offerings as repentance will put them right with God. God is definitely put out by their behavior and the superficial way they try to make up for their bad behavior. He sees their signs of repentance are insincere and phony. The reading ends with God telling the people what he wants. He says,
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.
This is reminiscent of the famous passage from Micah 6:8 where God says,
He has shown you, O mortal, what is right. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly, and to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with your God.
The message is clear from both Isaiah and Micah. God wants nothing from us but a humble heart that knows its weakness and a willingness to serve others. At the time of Isaiah and Micah, that was the widows and orphans.
The questions for us today are, “Who are we called to serve?” “Who is the outcast among us?” But maybe the more profound challenge today is to make the questions far more personal.
“Who do I personally reject and dismiss as being unworthy.” “Who have I decided is so wrong in their beliefs that the thought of them angers me?”
“Who do I refuse to make room for in my life?”
With humility, we must recognize that attitude as sin, and come before God, not beating our breasts or paralyzed by our weakness, but with humble hearts. If we ask, God will fill in us what we cannot fill in ourselves. God will forgive what we can’t forgive and heal the hurt in us that we cannot release.
The call of all of scripture, both the Old and the New Testament, is the same. Our God is a God of mercy and compassion toward us in our weakness, and toward all who suffer. He asks us only to mirror His love, acceptance, and forgiveness to those around us. God asks us to be the echo of His irrepressible love in the world. He asks us to be His presence for those who suffer, whether in our family, marching for causes we believe are misguided, or leading the city or the country in government.
If hearts are to be changed in our world, it will be because we have allowed God to change ours first, and we became the echo of His “I love you” to the world.
In God’s Unending Love,
Gwen
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