Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Sometimes the “Golden oldies” can still ring true and make you smile! I’m talking about an old TV Coca-Cola commercial of 1969 that had everyone humming and singing “It’s the real thing!” The point behind the smiling young faces as they raised their bottle of Coke was that this was the original, the true, the authentic worldwide flavor without substitute.
Isaiah in today’s reading might have wished for his own way to grab the people’s attention to make the point about authenticity. With his booming prophetic and poetic language, he was reprimanding the people for abandoning their heritage of genuine faithfulness promised in their covenant with God. They were going through the motions and elaborate rituals of religion, but it was all show and not connected to the heart. If they wanted to worship God with a genuine heart and get back to the “real thing,” they must respond, said Isaias, with justice and compassion to the widows, the orphans, and the poor.
The beat goes on in today’s Gospel when Jesus hammers the point that following him demands an authenticity that requires a priority of values and choices, even among families. The nature of truth and compassion has always been challenged by the weakness of human nature, but perhaps never more so than in our present time when truth can be manipulated by technology and popular opinion.
Our relationship with God will always be through Christ, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Anything less does not measure up to “the real thing!”
Reflection by Fr. Daniel Petsche, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections