Listening to Isaiah

Each week in July we are meeting a prophet in the first reading. So far we have had a week with Amos, the prophet of social justice, then with Hosea and his teaching on the love of God for us. Now this week we listen to Isaiah. The book of Isaiah is a composite work probably written by 3 different writers over several centuries. The readings that we will hear this week come from first Isaiah (chapters 1-39) written in the 8th century before the birth of Jesus. In today's reading (1:10-17) Isaiah unleashes a fierce attack on the practice of attempting to win God's favour by sacrificing animals. ''What are your endless sacrifices to me says the Lord. I am sick of holocausts of rams and the fat of calves. The blood of bulls and goats revolts me.'' He then explains what true religion should be in words that could have been spoken by Jesus himself. ''Learn to do good, search for justice, help the oppressed, be just to the orphan, plead for the widow.'' We know that Jesus said, ''My peace I leave you' but in today's gospel, Matthew sees the divisions that were occurring in the community as some members of the same family accepted Jesus and others did not. On this feast of St Bonaventure who became the head of the Franciscans let us pray the prayer of St Francis that we may be instruments of peace in our families and that true peace may come to our war torn world.