
HOMILIES – YEAR C ! 2019
I enjoy the sheer poetry of tonight’s First Reading from Isaiah, and I love its message even more. To me it’s saying, “Forget about the good old days. They’re gone. What is exciting is what is about to happen.” Isaiah had God saying, “See, I am doing a new deed, even now it comes to light; can’t you see it?” Well, no, I can’t. Can I feel any hope as I look towards the future? But then, hope, real hope, is not a factor of my anticipation of the future. Real hope springs from reading the heart of God.
I have no idea what the Church’s future will be. From our present vantage point it looks bleak – ranging from loss of confidence in the hierarchy [with the exception, perhaps, of Pope Francis], to an unprecedented level of negativity in the population at large towards most things catholic.
When Isaiah, way back in his day, had God speaking of doing a “new deed” for his Jewish people held captive in Babylon, I wonder if its beneficiaries thought of it as good or bad news. As we think of our Church tonight and its possible future, will any [thoroughly necessary] new deed on God’s part take the shape of a general cosmetic overhaul or something much more like drastic surgery? And then, how might we recognize God’s Will, God’s dream? And, unless we recognise it, how can we cooperate with it?