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Isaiah 33:24. "And no inhabitant will say, 'I am sick'; the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity."

 

Isaiah is speaking of Jerusalem, "Zion, the city of our appointed feasts" (Isaiah 33:20), but the Jerusalem that will exist after the Lord is established in His majesty as King. (Isaiah 33:21). "Then prey and spoil in abundance will be divided; even the lame will take the prey." (Isaiah 33:23).

 

The people who dwell in this new Jerusalem will be forgiven their iniquities, and will never again say "I am sick." So how will that work, when we are all sinners? Even in the new Jerusalem, the ones who dwell there are human beings, they will sin again. In one way, we can read this as describing Heaven, where there will be no more sickness, sin, or pain. But Isaiah seems to be describing a hopeful fate for the city of Jerusalem, one that will come to pass after its fall and struggles.

 

I think another way to read this prophecy is of the coming of Christ and the establishment of the Church. Christ will come as King, as the Lord in majesty. He will not be recognized as such at first, but He is King nonetheless. Christ will establish the Church, promising that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, while Isaiah describes the new Jerusalem as "an immovable tent, whose stakes will never be plucked up, nor will any of its cords be broken." (Isaiah 33:20). Christ will be raised in Majesty on His throne, first at His Crucifixion, and later in glory at His Second Coming. Christ will establish the Sacraments, including Reconciliation, in which all of our sins and spiritual sickness are forgiven again and again.

 

We who dwell in the Church are the inhabitants of the New Jerusalem that Isaiah describes. We are made citizens by Baptism, and remain citizens by participating in the Sacraments and the life of the Church. Our sin and sickness are forgiven each time we go to Confession, so that through God's mercy and power we are always kept in the protection of our citizenship under the rule of our King.