In today's first reading, Isaiah 41: 13-20, the Lord says to us: "I am the Lord, your God, who grasp your right hand; it is I who say to you, 'Fear not, I will help you.'....[Y]our redeemer is the Holy One of Israel....[T]he afflicted and the needy seek water in vain, their tongues are parched with thirst. I, the Lord, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open up rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the broad valleys; I will turn the desert into a marshland, and the dry ground into springs of water....That all may see and know, observe and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it."
God grasping us by the right hand brings to my mind Facebook images of men rescuing animals that have sunk into the mud or fallen into a frozen lake! From time to time, you and I lose our footing and also fall into muddy sinkholes of sin and corruption, narcissism and greed, sloth and lust. We literally are unable to save ourselves. God alone is God and God alone can save us! Or, our desperate need for God's intervention may appear because we have walked away from the table of the Lord, the Eucharist. Thus, our tongues have become "parched with thirst" for the Living Water that alone can quench our thirst, not material things, not a second home, a yacht, another car, a different spouse, a job on Broadway, or for whatever we might be frantically searching!
No matter how far from the Lord we may have strayed, the Lord is near and shows us his compassion, as we pray in today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 145: The Lord is good to all and compassionate toward all his works." God reveals His power to save us, no matter how far we have fallen or into what "swamp" we are trying to crawl out of. Let us, the psalmist prays, "give...thanks...and bless" the Lord. "Let [us] make known to [others God's] might" and His strong arm around our waist guiding us to safety all the days of our lives.
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