Readings:
Isaiah 51-52
Proverbs 23
Romans 13

Isaiah 51-52

God provides some comforting words through Isaiah to the people of Jerusalem. He reminds them of things he’s done in the past for those who he’s called and chosen, and he won’t forget his people in Zion. He also rhetorically asks them who they put their trust in, and then lists a bunch of people such as the sons of the city, and shows how in the end nobody can save you but God.

The message of chapter 52 is a very straightforward call to awaken from their spiritual slumber. They’ve been sleeping and not doing what they were supposed to do, now this time of trial and exile should be a wake up call to them and the ones that make it back should remain vigilant and awake.

The last three verses of 52 shift in content back to the servant and seem to be prophetic words about Jesus when you read it in light of his passion.

Romans 13

Paul tells the Christians in Rome to respect the political order of their government and its officials, because government is an exercise in order and authority and that is granted and ordained by God. By extension we are all supposed to be model citizens in the places we find ourselves.

This doesn’t mean that everything a given government does and promotes, or commands it citizens to do in more authoritarian systems, is a good a moral thing. Sometimes governments do evil, and I’d argue that’s more often than not. There’s been far more tyrants than saints in positions of power over the last 2000 years, but that’s a subject for another time. We don’t have to obey government dictates when they go against natural law, divine law, our conscience or the teachings of the church. In fact, we are obligated to resist such laws and regulations.

The citizen is obliged in conscience not to follow the directives of civil authorities when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order, to the fundamental rights of persons or the teachings of the Gospel. Refusing obedience to civil authorities, when their demands are contrary to those of an upright conscience, finds its justification in the distinction between serving God and serving the political community. “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” “We must obey God rather than men”: “When citizens are under the oppression of a public authority which oversteps its competence, they should still not refuse to give or to do what is objectively demanded of them by the common good; but it is legitimate for them to defend their own rights and those of their fellow citizens against the abuse of this authority within the limits of the natural law and the Law of the Gospel.” –GS 74 § 5.

CCC 2242

After his commands to obey just authority, he turns to our conduct towards one another and says it’s all summed up in love. If we love our neighbors the commandments against doing them harm will be kept easily, because they’re all about loving our neighbors as ourselves.

Tomorrow’s Readings:
Isaiah 53-56
Proverbs 24