Saturday of Week 14

Isaiah 6.1-8; Psalm 92; Matthew 10.24-33

By contrast to Hosea, Isaiah prophesied to the southern kingdom (Judah). He was evidently of priestly descent. He began his career ‘in the year that King Uzziah died’. Uzziah had been the hope of his people, and he embarked on a meteoric career. The nation prospered. But hubris struck Uzziah. He presumed to offer incense in the Temple, the prerogative of the priesthood. Uzziah ended his reign in quarantine as a leper. [II Chronicles 26.16-23] His death brought a sigh of relief to Jerusalem. Yet disquiet and apprehension remained. Isaiah went to the Temple, and in an extraordinary vision he felt its very foundations tremble. He felt deeply his own sin and that of the nation. In the midst of it all he saw the Lord who at once cleansed him of his sin and called him to the life of prophecy. Isaiah’s vocation was the making of him, called out of darkness into light, out of slavery into freedom, out of every deceit into life worthy of the name.

Posted in Daily Reflection.