Saturday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 394

Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,
my beloved in whom I delight;
I shall place my Spirit upon him,
and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.


Today's gospel recounts the longest direct Old Testament quotation in the Saint Matthew's gospel; and, predictably, it's one of the "servant songs" from Isaiah. Although the message is a happy announcement about the coming Messiah, the setting is gloomy as we find Jesus retreating from hostile enemies into the wilderness. 
Someday I should check this out with a scripture scholar, but it seems to me that the Word of God, as found in both Testaments, is always a minority protest against a dominant, oppressive majority. Ordinarily, we suppose faithful Jews had control of the levers of power at least during King David's long reign, and that the ruling establishment in Jerusalem faithfully obeyed the Law's ethical and religious prescriptions for some time after David died. 
If that was true, I don't find it in the tone of these writings. A plaintive worry accompanies the law, prophets, wisdom writings and psalms most of the time. 
This should not surprise one who studies the history of American Utopian societies. From Plymouth Rock westward the Puritan preachers and elders grumbled that their towns and villages were not sufficiently observant or devout. American Protestant churches are also bedeviled with splits and factions as members quarrel with each other, accusing one another of laxity and heresy. 
Today the Catholic Church in the United States also suffers misgivings as not every Catholic is stridently anti-abortion, and few married Catholics observe the proscription against birth control. I have met some Catholics who call themselves "orthodox" without reference to Eastern Catholicism. They say their teaching is ortho-dox, meaning "right teaching." With that nomenclature they would separate themselves from the suspect majority. Meanwhile the unchurched majority expects orthopraxis -- right action -- from the churches and wonder why it's not forthcoming. 
Amid all this distress we follow Jesus into the wilderness with the poor, lame, blind, possessed and disabled. We look to him for healing, comfort, guidance and reassurance. We don't know where he is leading us; through what narrow passes, straits and cataracts, over which unbounded seas or open plains. But we believe in him and our hearts are not troubled.