Reflection on Sunday's Readings

Our first reading this Sunday (Isaiah 45:1, 4-6) reveals to us how surprisingly God can intervene in peoples’ lives. The prophet is recounting how God is using a pagan ruler to function on behalf of the people of Israel who had been driven from their homeland into exile. Rather ingeniously, Isaiah weaves together how God takes this person, Cyrus by name, by the hand and directs him to free the people of Israel. God has called Cyrus by name even though Cyrus does not know God. Through this unique individual people will come to know God as the One and only God. If Cyrus can be a faithful servant of God given his situation, then we ought to be all the more capable of doing marvelous things in praise of God.