In today's first reading, Jeremiah 1: 5-8, the Lord says to us: "Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his [her] strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord. [Such a person] is like a barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season, but stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth." In other words, if my trust is in human beings and not in God, that is, I have turned away from the Lord, I am in deep trouble! If I seek my help from human beings only and do not go to God, I will find myself eventually in a desert. That is what has happened to those who, having engaged in criminal activity, are in our prisons. This also happens for those of us who occupy the "prison" of non-life-giving, selfish, sinful choices, hurting ourselves and others. By repeatedly choosing such choices, our lives enjoy "no change of seasons." However, when, in hope, we turn to the Lord from the "lava waste" and from the emptiness, God is waiting to help us out of the mess into which we may have sunk!
"Blessed are they who hope in the Lord," we pray in today's responsorial psalm. "Blessed the [person] who follows not the counsel of the wicked nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, but delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on his law day and night. [Such persons are] like a red planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due seasons, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers. Not so the wicked, not so"!
What kind of choices am I, are you, making?
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