We are less thank God

A theme of the texts in the Roman Catholic Lectionary today is difficult for modern ears to hear. We are less. The passage from Deutero Isaiah is one wherein Jacob is addressed as a worm and Israel as a maggot. Friar Jude Winkler develops the theme of a redeemer for the lowly exiles in Babylon by using the term goel, a special person to whom rabbinic tradition gives important roles to release family from slavery and distress. In the Gospel from Matthew, Jesus identifies John the Baptist as being among the least who have not yet seen the fulfillment of the Kingdom. The message of the intimacy that God desires to have with seemingly insignificant people is expressed in Isaiah by the use of the first person pronoun, as noted by Friar Jude, and by George Butterfield in the image of God grasping us by the hand. John Piper argues that the modern “gospel of self-esteem” is robbing us of understanding of our true position as worms. From the position of least we can know the working of the hand of God in our lives. Conversion is experienced by those who come to know how little they contribute to the joy in their lives and how much is sourced in the “Amazing Grace” of God.