Come, Lord Jesus, Come

In today’s first reading, Is. 29:17-24, we read about the promised Messiah. Through the prophet Isaiah, God says to us:

                        In a very short time, Lebanon [the world] will become rich farmland,

and the rich farmland will seem like a forest.

At that time the deaf will hear the words of a book;

                        instead of having darkness and gloom, the blind will see.

                        The Lord will make the poor people happy;

                        they will  rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

                        Then the people without mercy will come to an end;

                        those who do not respect God will disappear.

                        Those who enjoy doing evil will be gone:

                        those who lie about others in court,

                        those who trap people in court,

                        those who lie and take justice from innocent people

in court (Is. 29: 17-21, The New Century Version or the Bible).

How seriously do we take this prophesy.  The prophet Isaiah is not only talking to the people of his day but to us as well.  Truly, the world as we know it will be changed.  God will open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf. Blindness and deafness to the needs of the poor and oppressed; blindness and deafness to justice will be removed. Leaders throughout the world and in any segment of society, all peoples, great and small,  “shall hear the words” of the Scriptures, the Torah, the Hindu Vedas, the  Quran—the holy books of all religions. Yes, people without mercy will come to an end; those who do not respect God will disappear” (Is. 29: 20).

God has promised and God will do it!  May we not lose faith as we wait for the fulfillment of this prophesy in the world of today!  I believe it. Do you?

A call to live by faith

As I reflect on the news around us--local and world situations--my mind is challenged as a Christian. How do we renew a world that seems so far away from its Creator, a world that seems to have put other things first and set God on  a back burner, so to speak.  How do we recognize the Divine Presence in all that is and will be? My mind is preoccupied with the realization that a Holy, Powerful energy continues to bring order out of the chaos we have created in all aspects of human existence. We have a God who rights the wrongs we have committed against all of humanity and all of creation; a God who pardons all our ills, as Jesus pardoned His executioners and us from the Cross, when He said: "Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing."  My heart rejoices this Easter Season that the One who came into the world 2000+ years ago, and continues coming, did not and does not come to condemn the world but to save it. What a God we have in Jesus, in the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit! God be praised and served! And God, have mercy on us, for we know not what we are doing when we continue to spread violence and perpetuate wars at home or abroad, in foreign lands or in our city streets, with strangers or friends and family members and with the universe itself.  God, have mercy!