Friday, September 5, 2014

Committing our ways to the Lord

In today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 37, the psalmist advises us to:

        "[c]ommit to the Lord your way;
        He will make justice dawn for you like the light;
        bright as the noonday shall be your vindication.
        Turn from evil and do good,
        that you may abide forever;
        For the Lord loves what is right
        and forsakes not his faithful ones.
        Criminals are destroyed
        and the posterity of the wicked is cut off.
        The salvation of the just is from the Lord;
         he is their refuge in time of distress."

Many of us are appalled at the execution of two American journalist within the last two weeks.   I was amazed at their calmness, kneeling at the side of a criminal about to behead them.  My thoughts went to the faith of these two men. Within the hour, for sure, they would enter eternal life, abiding with the Lord forever. For them justice would dawn like the light--not that they had done any wrong--but in the hands of their executioners they were perceived as the enemy, the one who wronged them.  My conclusion of how they could kneel there and not be sobbing or filled with terror that would have reflected on distorted faces was that "the Lord...[was] their refuge in...[this] time of distress." We have learned since James Foley's death that he took refuge in our Blessed Mother, that praying the rosary was his shelter during his imprisonment.

To whom to you look when overwhelming injustice enters your life? Do you resort to prayer only in time of distress or are you spending time with the Lord daily, even when things are going well for you.  Now might be the time to open the Bible and discover its power. You might want to begin with a favorite psalm.

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