The first reading today from the Prophet Isaiah is a companion piece with yesterday’s first reading from Ezekiel. Both readings speak to a people in exile and both offer visions of restoration to the covenant people of God. Yesterday, Ezekiel offered a vision of living water flowing from the Temple to restore life to the land and the people. Today Isaiah offers a similar vision that the Lord “leads them and guides them beside springs of water. I will cut a road through all my mountains, and make my highways level.” (Isaiah 49:10-12) Isaiah reminds the people that the Lord will never forget them.
The gospel text is the fallout from Jesus’ healing of the lame man at the pool of Bethesda. The Pharisee and their scribes are again challenging Jesus, not for the miracle but that He did it on the Sabbath. “The man went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who had made him well. Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because he did this on a sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.” (John 5:15-17) God at work? We often think of “On the seventh day God completed the work he had been doing; he rested on the seventh day from all the work he had undertaken.” (Gen 2:2) But Jesus tells us that God is at work even now. Amazing…. But then one might ask, “doing what?”
Even until now God is at work sustaining the world in existence. This belief is rooted in both Scripture and the theological tradition of the Church. Consider the following passages from Scripture:
- Colossians 1:17 – “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”
- Hebrews 1:3 – “He sustains all things by His powerful word.”
- Acts 17:28 – “In Him we live and move and have our being.”
These passages emphasize that God’s sustaining activity is not a one-time creation event but an ongoing action that keeps the universe in existence. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 301) offers: “With creation, God does not abandon His creatures to themselves. He not only gives them being and existence, but also, and at every moment, upholds and sustains them in being, enables them to act, and brings them to their final end.”
Think about the implications. This means the universe is dependent on God at all times, not just in the past. It speaks to the presence of divine providence—that God actively governs creation. It should remind us that all of existence is a gift from God.
In one sense the story of God and His creation is a story of rescue after rescue. God saved Noah and his family, kept Abraham and Sarah safe, liberated the promised people from slavery in Egypt, and gave them a land of their own. All the while, the covenant people had its ups and downs – especially the exile in Babylon; just the current calamity faced by these unruly and hard-hearted people.
From Creation to now humankind has had its ups and downs – .to put it mildly – yet all the while the Father is at work. And in the “now” of the Gospel, so too is Jesus. In the now of our time, so too is the Holy Spirit. Always holding the world together, ever supporting the covenant people, people of faith.
The prophet Isaiah gave the word to a people beset with self-inflicted calamity:
In a time of favor I answer you, on the day of salvation I help you; and I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people, to restore the land and allot the desolate heritages, saying to the prisoners: Come out! To those in darkness: Show yourselves! (Is 49:8-9)
Yesterday, Ezekiel received a vision and spoke to the people about the promise of rescue and restoration. Isaiah offers the same basic message. And the people were returned to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, the Temple was built, and the covenant people had its ups and downs. Then and in the time of Jesus and in our time also. The prophets and Jesus remind us of the words of today’s psalm: “The LORD is faithful in all his words and holy in all his works. The LORD lifts up all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.” That divine work never ends and has no limits. It is why Jesus can say: “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.”
Father, Son and Holy Spirit will always do the “heavy lifting.” Our part? It is as we said on the first day of Lent: Repent and believe in the Gospel.
The Lord is gracious and merciful.
Image credit: The Creation of Adam, Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel, Public Domain