A Failure to Listen

Homily for Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

The protagonist in our first reading, King Ahaz, gets mentioned a few times in Scripture. We hear his name at Christmas when we proclaim St. Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus. Then his role in history is also recorded in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, II Chronicles, and II Kings.

King Ahaz is known as the only King not afforded a burial in the tomb of the kings, alongside King David and the others. Among his many failings was his inability to trust in the Lord and his lack of faith in the guidance of the prophet Isaiah. Having succeeded to the throne of Judah (the Southern Kingdom) in 732 B.C., King Ahaz immediately found himself drawn into regional political intrigues. By refusing to enter a military coalition with the kingdoms of Israel and Aram, by siding with the Assyrians, King Ahaz allowed his own kingdom to be reduced to the status of a vassal state of the Assyrian Empire. Had he listened to the prophet, trusted in the Lord, and stayed out of the struggle, Ahaz might today be remembered as a man of faith. Instead, he dithered and tried to sit on the fence and so is remembered for his failure.

So, too, with the three cities listed in today’s Gospel text, places where Jesus preached and showed himself mighty in word and deed. Despite having heard his Gospel of repentance and seeing his power to heal and save, their populations refused to change and repent and so incurred Jesus’ wrath and condemnation. Like King Ahaz, they, too, preferred to rely on their own wisdom and ignore the guidance of the one sent by God.

Part of our human brokenness is our propensity toward self-reliance and inflated self-trust. Despite having also heard the Gospel challenge to repent and the mandate to love God and neighbor, we, too, can find ourselves picking and choosing those parts we find convenient and easy and ignoring the parts that call us to real change. Unlike King Ahaz, however, we have a remedy in Christ. As we hear in today’s Scripture, let us ask for the grace and courage to change, to hear the call to repent anew, and to embrace this call fully in our lives.