Being Instruments of God's Will

n today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 132, we affirm the covenant God made with David: The Lord swore to David a firm promise from which he will not withdraw: 'Your own offspring I will set upon your throne. If your sons keep my covenant and the decrees which I shall teach them, their sons, too, forever shall sit upon your throne. For the Lord has chosen Zion; he prefers her for his dwelling...In her will I make a horn to sprout forth for David; I will place a lamp for my anointed. His enemies I will clothe with shame but upon him my crown shall shine.'"

In today's first reading, 2 Kings 11; 1-4, 9-18, 20, we again encounter how enemies to Israel attempted to put their own kin on the throne or to usurp the throne themselves.  Athaliah did just that when her son lost his life. In retaliation, she killed the entire royal family. She did not realize, however, that Joash, the future  king, was rescued from her slaughter and hidden away in the Temple! At the appropriate time, Jehoiada, a priest of the Temple, brought him forth and had him rightfully crowned king.   Athaliah, the usurper of the throne and worshipper of Baal, a false god, was put to death! This priest of God also had all the altars to Baal destroyed and had the people recommit themselves to the covenant God had made with them.  And, as with Athaliah, "all who worship graven things are put to shame, who glory in the things of nought.... (Psalm 97).

You and I, when we choose false gods, when we put our faith in things or humans in place of relying on the Lord, our God and Savior,  also experience shame.  We do not lose our physical life, as did Athaliah, but, in abandoning God's Covenant with us, we suffer a diminishment of our trust and faith in the Lord. How is it restored? By our turning back to the Lord, our God, or by the intervention of another who calls us back to the Truth.