Reflection
A college friend told the story of being on retreat at the Jesuit Retreat House in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Being a habitual late sleeper, he had never seen the sun rise. To take advantage of being in a beautiful location on the rocky shore of the Atlantic, he set his alarm early enough to witness the magnificent orb rise from the ocean.
With his coffee in hand, he found a comfortable spot near the coastline and waited. The sky slowly shed darkness. He anticipated the thrill of seeing the orange globe at any moment. Soon it was full morning. But there was no sun.
He shifted in his seat and looked left and right. Still no sun.
Then he turned completely around and there it was: full sunlight blinding his eyes.
All while waiting my friend was facing the wrong direction.
Today’s readings call us to pay attention to what God wants us to see. To do so, we must look in the correct direction.
Isaiah writes in the first reading, “No longer will your Teacher hide himself, but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher, while from behind, a voice shall sound in your ears: ‘this is the way; walk in it’ when you would turn to the right or to the left.”
Isaiah spoke these words to a community of believers who had just followed their leader Hezekiah instead of God. Hezekiah had convinced the people his way, not God’s, was the way to appease the militarily strong Assyrians. He took the temple and palace gold and silver and sent it all off to the foreign despot. The results were a disaster.
Father Dan Berrigan, SJ says about this event:
“This is the great refusal, the ‘original sin’—the nations, including Isaiah’s own, abandon the faith in favor of military power and polity…So judgment comes, the destruction of Judah, the reduction of the people to vassalage for more than a generation. So, ‘the king of Assyria deported the Israelites into Assyria (2 Kings 18:11). The rod of God’s anger had done its work.’”
In time, consolation followed. Thus, today’s first reading.
We, too, will be consoled when we stray from God. But if we first listen to the voice of the Teacher, we will be directed to the fullness of life instead of sin. We will know the way to walk, left or right. The voice of God is found in Scripture, in our Catholic teachings handed down through the centuries, in our daily witnessing of God’s presence in our everyday lives, and deep within each of us.
God will direct us and give us what we need to counter sin’s large-scale enterprise.
But we first must make sure we face the right direction, towards God, and not evil masked as goodness.
