In today's first reading, Joshua 24: 1-13, Joshua summons the people and enumerates the many ways in which God blessed them: protecting them from evil, blocking their enemies from destroying them or doing harm to them, snatching them, so to speak, away from idolatrous behaviors or delivering their enemies into their power, so as to defeat them in battles. He even thwarts curses against them and causes the one asked to curse them to bless them instead (See today's first reading).
In the responsorial psalm, we pray: God's "mercy endures forever." As God showed great mercy to the Israelites, so, too, does he show such to you and me. We, too, are delivered and protected from evil, especially from evil within us: deceit, resentment, jealousy, pride, lust, laziness, hate, gluttony and so much more. When we do fall into the traps Satan sets for us, God is there to pull us out of the pit, so to speak, to save us, restore our integrity and make us whole again, healing our broken spirits and binding up our wounded self.
Let us, in the words of the psalmist, "[g]ive thanks to the Lord of lords, for his mercy endures forever....[he frees] us from our foes" (Psalm 136) every day and every night! Why? Because God is good and merciful, slow to anger and full of kindness! His love is infinite and unconditional!
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