A World in Need of Transformation

In the Collect of today’ liturgy we pray: “Stir up your power, O Lord, and come to our help with mighty strength, that what our sins impede the grace of your mercy may hasten.”  As you pray that prayer, think of the Holy Spirit, who intercedes for us continually according to God’s Holy Will. The Spirit within us, when we do not know how to pray, prays for us and for the entire world, a world which has aggressively impeded the grace of God’s mercy. How? By becoming Satan’s tool, it seems, by ensnaring people in hatred toward one another, toward other religions, other cultures, the disabled, people of other colors, against women, against the unborn,  seemingly doubting God’s power to give them the strength and help they need to raise that child honorably, justly, and lovingly, or not considering the option of putting that child up for adoption for those who desperately want a child and are barren.

 In the first reading of today's liturgy, Is. 26:1-6, the prophet prays as follows: “Open up the gates to let in a nation that is just, one that keeps faith. A nation of firm purpose,” the prophet states, “you, [oh, God,]  keep in peace, in peace, for its trust in you.” My sense is that, in many instances, our country, the people of the U.S. and particularly those in “high” places, so to speak, have lost trust in the Lord and have sought, or are seeking, security in God substitutes: addictions of any kind, accumulation of material things, a piling up of wealth and getting such by any means possible at other’s expense, and also by running from one relationship to another and another, seeking divorces rather than seeking reconciliation with one another and getting whatever help is necessary to restore trust in one another and in oneself, when differences are reconcilable.

Let us remember, as Isaiah says, that “the Lord is an eternal Rock. He humbles those in high places, and the lofty city he brings down; He tumbles it to the ground, levels it with the dust. It is trampled underfoot by the needy, by the footsteps of the poor.” Is that what could be happening to the U.S. and to other parts of the world? Are the neglected poor and needy bringing judgment upon us and, especially, upon those governed and addicted to narcissistic pursuits, slaves to out-of-control egos, and guided by false ideologies?