Tuesday of the First Week of Lent
Read through Christian eyes, the words of the prophet Isaiah in today’s readings are immensely powerful. Through Isaiah, the Lord says that the Word is sent like rain and snow, not returning to the heavens until they have fundamentally changed not only the earth but also its harvest, and thereby, the people who eat its produce. Creation is different because of a raindrop. And in a real way, creation is sustained by it. So too, Isaiah tells us, is the Word of God. From the Gospel of John, we know that Jesus is the Word made flesh. This means that God’s Word does not return to the Father before he nourishes the world.
But what does this nourishment look like? Today’s Psalm is a glimpse into that nourishment. The Kingdom of God is not just for each individual heart; there is also something deeply social about it: “Glorify the LORD with me, let us together extol his name.” We are reminded that God rescues the just. In the Old Testament, the just were those who cared for the poor, the orphan, the widow and the foreigner—those who needed the most care. This tells us that the nourishment ushered in by God’s Word is justice, right relationship between not only humanity and divinity but between humans themselves.
This theme comes into sharp focus in the gospel reading. The reading from the Gospel of Matthew has the words of the Our Father, the prayer we say every Sunday and probably several times throughout the week in rosaries or in other moments. The beauty of the Our Father is that even in just a few lines, we are reminded of those two aspects of justice: the human to divine and the human to human. Jesus teaches us to call on God in prayer and to call God, “Father.” We pray for God’s will to be done, but this is not a prayer made in solitude. The prayer itself is the in first person plural (like the Psalm!) and concludes by reminding us about the charity required by the community: “Forgive us…as we forgive others.” Jesus even reiterates the point at the end by mentioning that the forgiveness offered by God is tied up with our own willingness to forgive.
A community needs forgiveness. People cannot remain together unless they are willing to forgive one another. And if all people are called to and welcome to the Body of Christ, it seems no one—no matter how little we think they deserve it—is exempt from our forgiveness. This is how the earth is nourished by God’s Word: by the self-giving example of the love and forgiveness modeled in Christ.
- Katherine Scmidt