In today's first reading, Baruch 4: 5-12, 27-29, the prophet says to the people of Israel: "Fear not, my people! Remember, Israel, [that] you were sold to the nations not for your destruction; it is because you angered God that you were handed over to your foes. For you provoked your Maker with sacrifices to demons, to no-gods; you forsook the Eternal God who nourished you and you grieved Jerusalem who fostered you. She [Jerusalem], indeed, saw coming upon you the anger of God...."
Is it possible that we, too, today, have "angered God"? Is it possible that we, too, today have "provoked [our] Maker with sacrifices to demons, to no-gods"--to money, to wealth, to power, to domination, to militarism, materialism, consumerism, sexism, hedonism, relativism and, any other "isms,"?
To what, I ask myself, have I turned for the "life in abundance" that Jesus promises us in the Gospels and, as a result, have "provoked" my Creator God, forsaking "the Eternal God who [nourishes me]? Do I seek happiness, comfort, love, wisdom, counsel only in "no-gods"? Or do I seek God in the solitude of my heart, in the Scriptures, in communal worship, in personal and familial prayer times, in honest dialogue with fellow disciples of "the Eternal God," who nourishes us with "the true bread that comes down from heaven"?
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