Is 48:17-19 / Mt 11:16-19
We Americans aren’t noted for our fondness for rules and regulations. Anything that even hints of restraints on our freedoms engenders instant hostility and opposition. Today’s gospel suggests that we’re not alone in this aversion to being told what to do and how to live, no matter how gently or wisely it is done.
Jesus came, not to impose another set of rules, but to help us understand that there’s only one way of living that really works, only one way of living that will fill all our hearts desires by putting us at peace with God and one another. But, no matter what Jesus said or how he said it, far too many of his listeners resisted him. If he said “black”, they’d say “white”, and the sniping was continual.
In today’s reading from Isaiah, the Lord pleads with us. “If you would hearken to my commandments, your prosperity would be like a river.” God’s commandments aren’t a kind of arbitrary obstacle course that we have to survive in order to arrive at the promised land. They simply tell us how to live if we want to be happy and live in peace.
The commandments are God’s gift to us. They have in them an inner truth, and they give us a roadmap to true freedom.
Listen to that inner truth, find a deeper wisdom, and be free.
