God Listens to the Poor

In today's first reading, Baruch 4: 5-12, 27-29,  Baruch reminds the people that they "were sold to the nations not for [their] own destruction... [but]because [they] angered God...[Y]ou provoked your Maker with sacrifices to demons, to no-gods; You forsook the Eternal God who nourished you....[C]all out to God. He...will remember you. as your hearts have been disposed to stray from god, turn now ten times the more to seek him; for he...will, in saving you, bring you back enduring joy."

The responsorial psalm, Psalm 69, reminds us that "[t]he Lord listens to the poor--[that is, to those who  know their weaknesses and their need for God's help and ask for that help.]  See, you lowly ones, and be glad; you who seek God, may your hearts revive! For the Lord hears the poor, and his own who are in bonds he spurns not."  And all of us are in bonds that only God can loosen, as Jesus loosened the bonds that bound Lazarus, for instance.

The message of Baruch applies to us today.  Like the Israelites, we, too, have sacrificed to demons-- greediness, selfishness, jealousy, gluttony, envy, narcissism, sexism, prejudice, hatred and so on--and to no-gods (wealth, hedonism, consumerism, materialism, sexism, and so on); we forsook the Eternal God who nourishes us in the sacraments, in the blessings of each day, in the love we give and receive from family and friends, in acts of altruism, generosity to the poor and oppressed, in honest living, and in faithfulness to what God asks of us in the ten commandments, in the Scriptures, through the Church and through the Holy Spirit at work in all of the events of our lives. 

May we come back to Jesus, serve the Lord and others in self-sacrificing love, in fidelity to our faith, and in building up the Kingdom of justice, love and truth. If we do so, as did the seventy-two disciples (see today's Gospel, Luke 10: 17-24), we will hear Jesus say to us as He said to them on their return from the mission Jesus sent them on: "I have observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky. Behold, I have given you the power 'to tread upon serpents' and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy..."  Do we believe that Jesus has given us this power?  Or have we stopped believing in the power of the Spirit given to us in baptism and confirmation, in any of the sacraments?

A Listening God and a God in Disguise

In today’s first reading, Exodus 16: 1-5, 9-15, the Israelites grumble against God, angry that they are out in the desert, fearful of dying of famine.  “Would that we had died at the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!”  Through Moses and Aaron, God tells the Israelites to “[p]resent  [themselves] before the Lord, for he has heard [their] grumbling.”  He tells them that “[i]n the evening twilight you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread, so that you may know that I, the Lord, am your God.” 

God always comes through, responding to our needs in ways that far exceed our expectations.

The psalmist, in Psalm 78 of today’s liturgy, states “They tempted God in their hearts by demanding the food they craved. Yes, they spoke against God, saying, ‘Can God spread a table in the desert?’”

As I prayed over these Scriptures, I, too, had to admit the many times I have grumbled against the Lord and how many times have I not demanded “the food” that I craved--whatever that “food” might have been: sometimes the healing of a loved one, at other times a smooth interaction with someone, still at other times that I triumph over my weakness almost miraculously without a struggle or that I find, instantaneously, that for which I am looking. And on and on and on!

How many times have I not, like Mary of Magdalen, in today’s Gospel, gone looking for something, not even Jesus, and found the “tomb” empty and when God in disguise stood before me, entered my “desert,” responded to my desperate cries, I did not recognize Him.

In what ways do these Scriptures resonate in your life?

The Power of Intercessory Prayer

In today’s first reading, Ex 32:7-14, we learn of how fed up God is with His people and is ready to eliminate them from the face of the earth.   Did God forget the covenant He made with His people following the flood when He said that He would never destroy the people again? Or is God simply voicing the depth of His disappointment in the Chosen People?  Imagine, they have made a golden calf and are worshipping it, stating that this is the god who saved them from the Egyptians.  Can they be that stupid, I ask?  A golden calf? A God? Are they crazy?

Before I go too far, let me stop and think!  When I depend totally upon myself or another human being or something another person or I have created to save me from my despair, am I not doing the same thing?  When I forget who has the power to transform that which is contributing to my frustration and anger, that which is rendering me hopeless and forlorn, am I not also forgetting the God who brings me out of the “Egypts”  of my life?

How often do I not look to things not of God to “make my day”! 

The author of Exodus 32: 7-14 reminds me that, through the intercessory prayer, in this case, of Moses, God relented of “the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people.”   Moses cries out to the Lord, “Let your blazing wrath die down!”  And it does!  All of us are brought back into God’s graces by the intercessory prayer of others and vice versa. Let us never forget the importance of asking for prayers and being an intercessor for people around the globe.  Let us, too, remember that Jesus is continually interceding for us and, when we do not know how to pray, the Spirit prays within us in accord with God’s holy will for us (Rom 8:26).

No wonder miracles of grace continue to surface throughout the world of today. Open my eyes to them, Lord!