To God, differently

Our sacred writers almost always challenge us to go beyond the restrictions which organized religions impose on God's actions in our lives.

Deutero-Isaiah's successor, Third Isaiah, continues to confront his people in Sunday's first reading (Is 60: 1-6). Prophesying after the return of some of the exiled Israelites, he tries to talk the remainder into leaving Babylon. He invites them to come back and rebuild Jerusalem.

Safe and secure

Isaiah is convinced these returned Israelites won't be reconstructing just a copy of the past; they'll be building for a future quite different from anything Judaism had experienced before. What had once been a city and a temple for Jews alone, will now be a source of salvation even for Gentiles.

"Nations (Gentiles) shall walk by your light," the prophet proclaims, "and kings by your shining radiance." If these rebuilding Jews live their faith in Yahweh correctly, they'll be a light for all people, not just for their fellow Jews.

Five centuries later, Paul, a Jew born and raised in a Gentile environment, discovers how Gentiles can take part in the salvation Yahweh offers: by imitating Jesus' death and resurrection (Eph 3: 2-3, 5-6). This is "the mystery made known...by revelation...: the Gentiles are co-heirs, members of the same body, and co-partners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel."

The Gospel -- the good news of Jesus' death and resurrection -- breaks through the limits of all religions, even Christian religions. We're saved not by following rules and regulations, or by adhering to a specific set of rituals, or by constructing a special authority structure, but by giving ourselves completely over to Jesus. We imitate His death so we can receive His life.

Paul the Jew

No road is more "different" from that followed by Matthew's magi (Mt 2: 1-12). They represent the antithesis of Judaism. They fly in the face of all Jewish tradition. In a Gospel written for Jewish-Christians, they're star-following idolaters who travel a long way to find a newborn king of the Jews, while Jews living just a few miles from Bethlehem ignore their own Scriptures and miss an event they were anticipating for centuries.

The challenge is clear. Following the insights of our scriptural ancestors, we're being called to experience a God who constantly breaks through the limits and restrictions which our specific religions place on Him. If, on this Feast of the Epiphany, we refuse to discover the acknowledge the different roads people take to find God, we probably don't appreciate and understand the salvation God offers us through Jesus.

(01-04-01)