Isiah 58: 7-10
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.
If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved http://www.usccb.org/bible/approved-translations
Let Your Light Shine
In the September 16 issue of Commonweal, Catholic theologian Gary Anderson explains that ancient Judaism had two very different ideas of salvation. In the older view, salvation comes from proper worship. If you do the rites correctly, bowed at the right times, said the right words, etc., you’ll be saved. But as Jewish religious thought evolved into the time of Jesus, they came to believe that it was in doing good for others that Jews properly worshipped God and enacted their own salvation.
Ours is not a merit-based faith. If God was only taking the ones who “earned” their salvation, he’d have a lot of room all to himself. But even so, Isaiah today reminds us of the blessings that our good deeds can still have in the world, how our actions can help a little more light to shine in the dark places, and help us with the burdens that we carry, too.
Sometimes we make our lives as small as the cell phone screens we hold in front of us. But in truth everything we do ripples out and affects so many more. How important it is to step back from time to time and take that broader view.
—Fr. Jim McDermott, S.J, a Wisconsin province Jesuit, is an accomplished professional screenwriter who lives at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles CA.
Prayer
In faith and love we ask you, Holy God, to watch over our family of faith. In your mercy no thought of ours is left unguarded, no tear unheeded, no joy unnoticed. May the blessings promised to the poor in spirit lead us to the light of your Kingdom, where Jesus is Lord forever. Amen!
—The Jesuit Prayer Team