Please read this passage before reading the homily.
The book of the prophet Isaiah is a collection of his writings or sayings. The collection is not necessarily arranged in chronological order.
The ancient Hebrews, or Israelites, looked to the Lord’s presence in Zion. Zion for them meant the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem or the Temple Mount, the area beyond the Western Wall, and sometimes it meant Jerusalem. It did not mean the Zionist movement of modern-day Israel. Let us go up to the house of the Lord, to the place where his glory dwells. This is an exhortation to go up, not to the set of government, but to worship the Lord in the Temple of his glory. Let us seek the Lord while he may be found.
Our nation’s capital has two domed buildings, one housing our legislators and one dedicated to God under the title of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. In our modern days we may encourage to go the House of the Lord, not to the domed Capitol building, but to the Church represented by the domed Church building. It is in the Church, that the Lord dwells for us.
Experts tell us that all politics is local, but all politics also has national and international repercussions. We do not live in vacuums. If politics is how we relate to one another, then how we relate to one another will also influence how we relate to God. Do we seek to know God, or do we seek how to use people? Our politics influences the rest of the world, producing wars most of the time and peace sometimes. If our politics produce wars, then our seeking God can bring peace because seeking God gives ease to our lives, comfort to our neighbors and, therefore, peace to our world.
Let us go up to the Lord, climbing the Lord’s mountain, beyond our front doors and beyond our national international boundaries, announcing peace proclaiming happiness in the Zion of the Lord’s presence.