God's Judgment of His People

Reflection on Today's Readings, Thursday of 15th Week in Ordinary Time Year II, 16th July, 2020
Texts: Is. 26:7-9,12,16-19; Ps. 102:13-21; Matt. 11:28-30
Isaiah 26:7-19 deals with two kinds of God's judgment: judgment of his people and judgment of the foreign nations. Today's first reading concerns itself with the judgment of his people by omitting the verses that talk of the judgment of foreign nation.
Isaiah, in the first reading, shows that God's judgment of his people is meant to correct them and make them to return to the right path. God's judgment of his people is offshoot of his holiness and hatred for evil. Isaiah earnestly desired God's judgment, for it encourages righteousness. He puts it thus: "My soul yearns for you in the night, my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgements are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness". When the righteous are rewarded for their good deeds, they are motivated to continue in it, and when sinners are punished, they retrace their steps and come back to God. Blessing sinners will not make him realize the evil in their deeds. The reading shows that the people of Israel were in distress at the time of the prophecy, being punished for their sins.
Isaiah also recalls that when the people are being punished, it will seem all their efforts and labour to come back to God yield nothing, for he says, "O Lord, in distress they sought you, they poured out a prayer when your chastening was upon them. .... We were with child, writhed, but we gave birth only to wind. We have wrought no deliverance in the earth, and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen". However, he recognized that all their good deeds were done by God's grace. He puts it thus: "O Lord, you will ordain peace for us, you have wrought for us all our works". He also expresses hope of salvation as he says, "Your dead shall live, their bodies shall rise". Sometimes in life all our good works seem to mean nothing before God, for our afflictions still remain. Those are the times that hope matters most; we are to be consoled by our hope and rejoice in it. Our hope is resurrection, eternal life; even though we die we shall rise at the end of time to live for ever.
Jesus Christ, in today's gospel, calls us who labour and are heavy laden to come to him for rest. He invites us who are in distress to come. This invitation is a call to pray to him just like when the people of Israel, in the first reading, called on God when they were in distress. When we come to him, he will give us grace to bear the burdens and the yoke of our lives, that we will say, like the people of Israel, "O Lord, you will ordain peace for us, you have wrought for us all our works". However, for us to gain salvation, we must follow his ways, for he says, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me". When we follow his ways, he will supply the grace to carry our loads and bear the challenges of our lives.

Lord our God, may we always find joy walking in your ways. Amen.

Fr. Andrew Olowomuke