The Readings
First Reading: Isaiah 56:1, 6-7
Thus says the Lord: "Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed."
"And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, every one who keeps the sabbath, and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant, these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples."
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, that thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise thee, O God; let all the peoples praise thee!
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for thou dost judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Let the peoples praise thee, O God; let all the peoples praise thee!
The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us. God has blessed us; let all the ends of the earth fear him!
(The Lectionary citation follows NAB numbering, which counts the superscription as verse 1. The RSVCE verses printed here are 67:1-2, 4, 5, 7.)
Second Reading: Romans 11:13-15, 29-32
Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?
For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may receive mercy. For God has consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all.
Gospel: Matthew 15:21-28
And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and cried, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely possessed by a demon." But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, "Send her away, for she is crying after us." He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me." And he answered, "It is not fair to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Then Jesus answered her, "O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed instantly.
Scriptural Analysis
Isaiah 56: A House Of Prayer For All Peoples
Third Isaiah opens at exactly this verse. Chapters 56 through 66 are the last part of the book, oracles and visions about the new Zion and the nations, and the sacred writer put 56:1-8 and 66:18-24 at the two ends deliberately, since both press the universality of justice and worship.[1] Historically these oracles belong to the years after Cyrus issued his decree of repatriation in 539 BC. It was a time of beginning again for Judah, and the returnees, confronted with devastation, had to learn that peace and salvation were now tied to conversion and the practice of righteousness.[2]
Verse 1 gives a command before it gives a promise. Aquinas splits it in two: keep judgment, you superiors, to whom it belongs to judge; do justice, you subjects, meaning every virtue insofar as the precepts of the law conform it to others, with Micah 6:8 standing underneath the whole line.[3] Worth saying out loud in a parish, since the universalism people hear in verse 7 rests on the moral demand of verse 1.
Verses 6 and 7 do the heavy lifting. The older rulings kept eunuchs and foreigners out of the assembly of Israel (Leviticus 22:25; Deuteronomy 23:2-9), and Ezra and Nehemiah press that line harder still. This oracle opens the door: no objection to eunuchs or foreigners, provided they keep the sabbath and the covenant, so that blood ties stop being the criterion for membership in the people of God.[4] The condition gets stated three times over (vv. 2, 4, 6), the detail most homilies drop.
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