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Homily for Wed of the 15th Wk in OT, 17 July 2024, Isa 10:5-7, 13b-16; Mt 11:25-27
Our first reading today is a grim warning to modern-day world powers who bully their neighbors. It is a good reminder for nations that have become economically prosperous and militarily powerful to the point of throwing their weight around, refusing to follow international laws, and behaving with arrogance and impunity like entitled pre-modern colonial masters, blatantly disrespecting the sovereignty of smaller nations. You can reread the same oracle of doom and judgment pronounced by Isaiah against Assyria two thousand eight hundred years ago, and replace Assyria with the names of modern-day imperialist nations and the message remains just as fresh as if it was meant exactly for them. They should be reminded of that famous saying that goes, “Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.”
In those times, it was the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians and Egyptians who lorded it over the Ancient Near East. They had their own versions of megalomaniac rulers who behaved like the later Alexander the Great who established the Hellenistic empire that was eventually replaced by the Roman empire. Then came the Byzantines and the Ottomans. Where are they now? The monarchs of Spain and Portugal once divided the world between themselves, and the Dutch, the British, the French and the Italians also followed suit and enjoyed the benefits of plundering their colonies in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Europe had its later share of leaders like Napoleon, Hitler, Mussolini and Franco. What has become of them? And who was it that said it was the “manifest destiny” of their mighty nation to expand its borders and occupy new territories? What is happening now to their great nation? Reread the oracle and fill in the blank space with modern-day world powers. (Isa 10:5-7,13-16)
“Woe to you (fill in the blank)! My rod in anger,
my staff in wrath.
Against an impious nation I send him…
To seize plunder, carry off loot,
and tread them down like the mud of the streets.
For he says:
“By my own power I have done it,
and by my wisdom, for I am shrewd.
I have moved the boundaries of peoples,
their treasures I have plundered…”
Will the axe boast against the hand that holds it ?
Will the saw exalt itself above him who wields it?
As if a rod could sway him who lifts it…
Therefore the Lord, the LORD of hosts,
will make these fat ones starve,
And instead of his glory there will be kindling
like the kindling of fire!
In the Gospel, Jesus is pronouncing the same prophetic words praising the Father—“because you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned and you have revealed them to the little ones.” (Mt 11:25) The same prophet Isaiah once announced that a child, a little one, will be anointed by the Lord, and shall be called “Wonder-Counsellor, God-Hero, Father Forever, Prince of Peace.” (Isa 9:5) Long before we made the icon of the Santo Niño, the Infant Messiah, Isaiah already proclaimed an oracle of hope about a child who would be entrusted with dominion, who will put an end to war, conflict and violence. He spoke about a time when “the child will play by the viper’s den and lay hands on the adder’s lair,” (Isa 11:8) that he will invite the nations to the Lord’s mountain to seek wisdom and instruction, to learn to “beat their swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks,” so that no nation shall ever “raise the sword against another nor shall they train for war again.” (Isa 2:4)
