First Reading:  Isaiah 55:1-11

Celebration Without Logic

Have you felt the weight of the world lifted from your shoulders? Why did you feel that way?

These passages from Second Isaiah can be divided into three sections: an invitation to a royal (divine) feast, a general amnesty, and a statement on the power of God’s word. The last section justifies the first two. God can do what he wants, and he wants to forgive.

Written in the time heady times of Babylon’s conquest by the Persians, rumors began to circulate that the Jews would be allowed to return home. The author of Second Isaiah picked up on this thought and addressed a skeptical audience. Their liberation was an invitation to celebrate. Their exile was over. Their judgment was past. Even the morally questionable were invited to the feast. The people would be as one again. And they would be with their God again.

The invitation and amnesty were a declaration of liberation and return (5:1-7). But why did God now show his face? Why did he return his compassion? These questions were the flip side to the questions the exiles asked when they were first dragged off. Why us, Lord? Why did we receive your wrath? The question revealed the context of the exiles’ psychology. At the beginning of the exile, surprise, dismay, and remorse were widely shared. In the end, depression and resignation were community-wide attitudes; they had accepted their status as alien residents.

But were those attitudes acceptable in the current climate? Second Isaiah did not think so. He answered their questions about God with an answer that might have escaped common logic at the time, but revealed the power of God. He freed his people because he wanted to. He showed gracious forgiveness. His ways were not their ways. His thoughts were not their thoughts.

In many ways, this reading celebrates the power and logic of God present in the Easter Vigil. The shamed preacher from Galilee is now revealed as the victorious Messiah. He died show we can live. This is reason enough to celebrate, to forgive the sinner. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts transcend our poor logic. Thank God!

What do the mysteries of the Easter Vigil show you? How do they give you hope? And a feeling of freedom?