1st Reading, 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

From: Isaiah 55:6-9

Epilogue: Invitation to Partake of the Banquet of the Lord's Covenant

[6] “Seek the Lord while he may be found,
call upon him while he is near;
[7] let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
[8] for my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
[9] For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
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Commentary:

55:6-9. The Israelites are called to conversion. In order to return to their homeland, they must return to God, must “seek” him (vv. 6-7). And the Lord, who allows himself to be found and who does not judge in the way that men do, is willing and able to grant forgiveness (vv. 8-9). In other words, the call to repentance is grounded on the goodness of God who “will abundantly pardon” (v. 7). Man, for his part, should grasp this opportunity that God offers him. So, the words in this passage are a constant encouragement to begin and begin again in the pursuit of virtue: “To be converted means to ask for forgiveness and to seek out the strength of God in the Sacrament of reconciliation, and thus begin again, advancing step by step every day, learning to overcome ourselves, to win the spiritual battles that we face, and to give of ourselves joyfully, ‘for God loves a cheerful giver’ (2 Cor 9:7)” (John Paul II, Novo incipiente, 8 April 1979). And St Augustine, apropos of conversion, wrote: “Do not say: ‘Tomorrow, I will he converted; tomorrow, I will give thanks to God; and all my sins, today’s and yesterday’s, will be forgiven’. It is true that God promises forgiveness for your conversion; but He does not promise tomorrow for your delays” (Enarrationes in Psalmos, 144, 11).

The words of v. 8 are echoed by St Paul in Romans 11:33, and are a reminder to us of just how narrow-minded we can be and how we can fail even to imagine the great things that God has in store for us.
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.