Aug 23, 2020 - 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
(Is 22:19-23; Rom 11:33-36; Mt 16:13-20)
Sometimes God decides He has had enough of human infidelity, and He takes action Himself. That is what happened as God spoke to Isaiah in today's first reading. Hezekiah was king of Judah and Shebna was his scribe. Hezekiah tried to ward off an attack from the Assyrians by paying a tribute in gold, while Shebna, his scribe, tried to form an alliance with Egypt to defend Judah. Isaiah tells Shebna that God will remove him from his powerful office because of his corruption and will install Eliakim in his place because Eliakim was faithful to the Lord. He calls Eliakim a “fixed peg in a sure spot.” This indeed is what happened, as recounted in 2 Kings 19. 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp were struck down one night by an angel of the Lord, and the Assyrians abandoned their attack before reaching Jerusalem. It was the Lord Himself that saved Judah. It was not the Egyptians or the paying of tribute.
The image of Eliakim as a “sure peg” is echoed in today's Gospel by Peter's appointment as the rock on which Jesus will build his church. The keys to the kingdom which he gives to Peter are like the authority God gave to Eliakim in the time of Hezekiah. Peter's appointment is notable because Peter was not a learned man, not a great student of the Law, not a man of influence or eloquence. We see that God's decisions are inscrutable, as Paul says in today's second reading. Yet by His wisdom (not ours) those decisions always work out to extend God's mercy to as many as possible. We must trust God's wisdom and mercy over our own.