Wednesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Have you ever been so angry or frustrated that you wished you could scream out loud? The anger might be at yourself, an event or a perceived or real injustice. Sometimes, those moments of anger cause us to lash out towards others who are often innocent and undeserving of our attitudes. The struggle with anger can be decisions or choices we make in anger may be deserved or even just, however often they can be harsh. Harshness is not necessarily a bad thing if it makes a point without destroying the relationship.
In the first reading from Isaiah, we sense the harsh stand that God is taking in order to teach the people of Israel a lesson for their infidelities. The prophet Isaiah is explaining that the Lord does not wish ill upon the people of Israel, nor is the Lord willing to sit on the sidelines, while Israel grows even more “impious.” God is willing to allow the Assyrians to “tread down” the people of Israel, like the mud of the streets.” (Is 10:6b)
The harsh tone of Isaiah only diminishes slightly in today’s psalm. Its words echo the expectations and chastisement of the Lord toward those who do not live the law of the Lord. Isaiah challenges the Israelites’ to return to the Lord albeit with the tone of tough love. The challenge is tempered with a reminder that those who are “upright of heart” will not be abandoned by the Lord. What are the ways the Lord is holding a mirror up in our lives to challenge the callousness of what we sometime say and do?
Today’s gospel reading from Matthew is a peaceful section in the midst of some tough words of Jesus. God’s ways are not our ways as Jesus reminds us, “for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, you have revealed them to the childlike.” (Mt 11:25) As children, we were given punishments for a variety of reasons, many of which we did not understand. Still, after suffering through the penalty, we often went right back to playing without much fussing. As adult, perhaps wise and learned, it seems my resilience in times of suffering is less easy.
While I do not believe there is a cause and effect relationship between suffering and God’s wrath, I do believe God’s providence seems harder to perceive as adults. Sometimes a more childlike view of the tough things in our life might help us have a more level approach to God’s quiet or not so quiet calls to change. Watch a child at play today. Look at their wonder and awe in their approach to creation. How could that spirit help us to persist in our belief of the love of the Lord?
God and gracious God, give our faith a childlike spirit today, so that our hearts will be more resilient, more in turn with your love. Amen!
-Michael Montgomery