Homily for 9 Mar 2016

9 Mar 2016

From the Prophet Isaiah we hear a wonderful litany of all the good things God has done, and will do: freedom to prisoners, a place of rest and pasture, mercy, guidance toward refreshing waters, comfort, and so on.  And yet, as we heard, Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.”  God’s works are all around Zion, and yet, they are blind to them.

And the blindness of “the Jews” in the gospel is apparent.  Jesus lives the Law of God perfectly, and still they can’t see him for who is he; they can’t even see him as a fundamentally good person.

But it isn’t just our ancestors who had temporary spiritual blindness.  It kind of “runs in the family,” up to the present day.  It’s tempting sometimes—especially when life is rough, or Lent is throwing us curve balls—to forget the good things God has done for us.  It’s even tempting sometimes to get so used to our spiritual practices, even coming to Mass, that we can forget the magnitude and the depth of goodness of what we have here.

Even in our private prayer, we might occasionally forget that we’re speaking with God himself.  Or, rather, we might forget how amazing that is—that the God of creation knows each of us personally, and that he wants to share himself with us.  That is an astounding thing—for those who have eyes to see it.

And so, if we’re ever tempted to say, “The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me,” we need only open our eyes of faith, and remember the goodness of our God, and his promise to be “near to all who call upon him.”