Being Shown Salvation

In today’s first reading,  Micah 6: 1-4, 6-8, the prophet reminds us what God is asking of us”  “You have been told, O man/[O woman], what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: Only to do the right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.”

 We have examples of men and women  throughout the Old and New Testament, in our neighborhoods and parishes, in our families and schools, in our communities,  of people walking humbly with our God, doing what is right, and loving goodness within themselves and others.  Day in and day out, someone reaches out to the needy, clothes the naked, feeds the hungry. Every day a mother and a father do these things in their own family. Many mothers and fathers reach out to other children in need. Many dedicated men and women reach out to the sick, the addicted, the elderly to provide health care. Policemen and women throughout the world risk their lives every day protecting ours. Community workers provide garbage collection, fix our broken sewage systems and our potholed-ridden roads in beastly heat,   repair our battered homes, deliver mail in both pleasant and unpleasant weather, stock our grocery shelves or fix meals in our restaurants and fast-food places for workers “on the run”.  The majority of these people are not seeking praise but humbly doing what they believe God is asking of them, namely to love doing what is right and just, what is the good thing to do in this world.

Let us be grateful and loving in turn, doing good to those who do good to us and being humble in helping those who do not!  “Those who offer praise, [in these ways,] as a sacrifice glorify me; and to those who go the right way, [as persons mentioned above,]  I will show the salvation of God,” says the author of Psalm 50. May you be shown the salvation of God in your life and in the lives of those you serve humbly, justly and kindly.