Path to follow, healing touch, and rain for the seed
Isaiah 30:19-21, 23-26 - Saturday, December 9, 2023
Isaiah 30:19-26 contains a message of hope and restoration with a beautiful opening: "O people of Zion, who dwell in Jerusalem, no more will you weep; He will be gracious to you when you cry out, as soon as he hears he will answer you" (Is 30:19). The Lord will take care of his people by guiding them, providing sustenance, and making the nature shine with His glory. The passage also ends beautifully with an image of the Lord binding His people's wounds and healing their injuries (see Is 30:26).
There are three themes worth considering in this passage: education, health care, and environment. Let me begin with education. Isaiah says that whenever people deviate to the right or the left, they will hear a command: "This is the road; follow it" (Is 30:21). Nowadays, new trends appear that aim to teach us how to live and be happy. There are the minimalists who advise us to live more meaningful lives on less. There are the mindful ones who teach us mindfulness as a remedy for our stress in life. Some investigate places where people live up to a hundred years and share their discoveries with others. "This is the road" to happiness and a more meaningful life they tell us. Amid all those teachers of life, one can also hear a bearly audible voice of the Church. What does she tell us? Follow Christ, and let Jesus be your Teacher and Guide.
There is a saying that a healthy person is a rich person. Our awareness of health has recently increased and more people pay attention to the food they eat, the water they drink, the environment they live in, and the people they connect with. All of these have an impact on our health. In view of the Church, a healthy lifestyle needs three components: a relationship with the divine, with society, and with nature. Despite the rejection of institutionalised religions by many people, we see a growing interest in spirituality and meditation. The Western individualistic and materialistic lifestyle contributes to the growing number of people suffering from serious physical and mental health issues. And our high-rise apartment buildings and the jungle of cement deprive us of experiencing the healing power of nature.
Finally, there is the issue of the environment. The ancient Israel was an agricultural society. The majority of people worked in the field that provided them with food. And so, they were in a constant relationship with nature. We are not. Most people nowadays live in the cities and many have never seen an agricultural field throughout their entire life. They go to supermarkets to buy food unaware of where this food comes from. But, the growing number of cities, highways, railway tracks, and factories mean less land for cultivation. And what are we going to do when there is not enough land to provide food for us? A wise man from one of the Pacific Islands once said: "When we eat the last fish and cut the last tree, we will realise that money cannot be eaten". But that will be too late.
Isaiah offers us a message of hope and restoration where everything depends upon the grace of God. The Bible has no hope that human beings alone are capable of creating a just and livable world. We need the Lord to do for us what we cannot do by ourselves. Only He can transform our minds and hearts in such a way that we will be able to listen to His voice and do His will.