2022-Jan-16: Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
2022-Jan-16: Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Isaiah 62:1-5 The situation in the passage from "third Isaiah" grew out of the frustration between promise and reality. The Jewish faithful had abandoned their God and as a result their land was laid waste by Nebuchadnezzar who not only destroyed the Temple but took many into slavery to Babylon. Some 50 or 60 years later, the Persian King Cyrus in 539 BC proclaimed an end to captivity, and allowed the Jews to return back to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple (allegedly he gave back some of the Temple treasures and provided some funds for the rebuilding). The change in name from forsaken/desolate to myDelight/Espoused indicates a change not only in name but also in status, as name changes often did in scripture (Jacob/Israel, Abram/Abraham). But the returning Jews came back to a desolate landscape - they were still subjects of foreign rulers — first the Persians, then Greeks, and finall...