God at Work in the World and within Ourselves

In today's first reading, 2 Kings 17: 5-8, 13-152, 18, the king of Assyria occupied the Israelite's whole land, attacked Samaria, which he besieged for three years.  The Israelites were deported the  to Assyria. We are told that this "came about because the children of Israel sinned against the Lord, their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt, from under the domination of Pharaoh, king of Egypt,  and because they venerated other gods....Though Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and seer, 'Give up  your evil ways and keep my commandments and statutes, in accordance with the entire law which I enjoined on your fathers and which I sent you by my servants the prophets,' they did not listen, but were as stiff-necked as their fathers, who had not believed in the Lord, their God....[T]he Lord put them away out of his sight. Only the tribe of Judah was left."

We are being beseiged by the coronavirus and are being warned that the disease is on the up-rise. Are we listening? Or do we simply dismiss the warnings as foolishness? Do we downplay Covid-19 or simply deny it: "Stop testing," our leaders say. If one of our children's temperature were rising to a dangerous level, would we simply say: "Stop taking the child's temperature. He/she will be okay!

Not only do we need to look at how we are responding to the threat of a serious physical illness  but  how are we responding to the spread of serious spiritual illnesses: racism, sexism, immorality, passing of unjust laws or support of unjust laws; engaging in acts  corruption or supporting or denying corrupt actions; engaging in slander against our neighbors, being jealous of others and so on.

Closer to home, how am I, how are you, growing in holiness? In what ways are we spreading God's love, God's justice, God's mercy, God's compassion, God's forgiveness? Am I looking for God's Spirit at work in the world, especially in its "dark" places where sin seems to be getting the upper hand?  Am I looking for God's Spirit at work within ourselves, directing our every move?

Making Poor Choices and Restoring Relationships

In today's first reading,1 Kings 12: 26-32; 13: 33-34, we encounter Jeroboam, who is fearful that the kingdom that he has been given will return to David's house and that, if the people go up to Jerusalem (David's kingdom), he will be killed. That fear drives him to erect false gods--two calves of gold-- in two locations: in Bethel and in Dan. He invited the people to worship these gods and consecrates anyone who wants to be a priest.  Not giving up his evil ways, the house of Jeroboam was "cut off and destroyed from the earth."

The consequences of our sins also include destruction of sorts and being cut off in some way. Our sinful ways may alienate us from those we love, causing intense pain to our spouses, our children, our parents and friends. Such may also cause us to lose our livelihood, as we may be fired from our jobs.  When we commit sin, we are the first ones to know because we feel the alienation within ourselves. We know when we do wrong and many times "beat" ourselves up for the wrong we have done.  Instead of shaming ourselves "to death" we need to acknowledge our wrongdoing, ask forgiveness of those hurt by the mistake we have made, make restitution and move forward with ways to restore our reputation, regain employment, if such is lost, and make good again.  God will not ever forsake us and awaits our return, as we learn from the parable of the Prodigal Son in the Gospels.

Lord, give us the grace to be honest about what we may have done wrong and the ways we may have caused alienation, unrest and disunity in our families, our community or our workplace.  I ask this in Jesus' name.

Rejecting God's Covenant and the Consequences

Our salvation history begins in the Old Testament and is culminated in the New Testament with the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, who, unlike Israel, was obedience to and trusting the Father unto death.  The pattern of sin, of disobedience and lack of trust ,  which dominates the Old Testament stories continues to this very day: silence (not passing one’s faith on to one’s children),  sin (choosing one’s own will over God’s will), punishment (suffering the consequences of sin, of abandoning God’s ways), supplication (begging for help to be freed from one’s slavery to sin, to worshipping one’s own will, the will of other people when that will is opposed to God’s ways),  God’s mercy and forgiveness, and a return to the Lord.  The cycle repeats itself over and over and over again.  We read in today’s first reading, 2 Kings 17: 5-8, 13-15a, 18, that the Northern Kingdom, the ten tribes of the Israelites “rejected …[God’s| statues, the covenant which he had made with their…[ancestors], and the warnings which he had given them ,[through the prophets], till, in his great anger against Israel, the Lord put them away out of his sight. Only the tribe of Judah (the  two tribes known as the Southern Kingdom) was left.

Will we heed the prophets in our day, prophets like Pope Francis, our pastors, those in our midst who do heed God’s laws, who do  listen to God’s voice? Or will we, like the 10 Northern tribes, reject God’s ways> Will we  risk being “put…away out of…[God’s] sight”  forever? With the psalmist in today’s liturgy’s responsorial psalm , Ps. 60, we pray:  “O God, …rally us! You have rocked the country and split it open; repair the cracks in it, for…[our world, our country, society as a whole] is tottering. You have made your people feel hardships; you have given us stupefying wine. Have not you, O God, rejected us, so that you go not forth, O God, with our armies [of destructive weapons or with our idolatry of money and economic security that is used to crush poorer nations and poorer people]? Give us aid against the foe [of materialism, capitalism, individualism, selfishness, and greed], for worthless is the help of [other human beings, other nations].”

"Made sin for us"

In the second reading of today’s liturgy, 2 Cor 5: 20-6:2, we are confronted with the following truth:  “For our sake…[God] made…[Jesus] to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”  As I meditated on this passage, my heart clung to the statement “He was made sin for us.”  “Made sin!” The Son of God Incarnate, the Holiest of Holy, in His incarnate nature is “made sin” for us. No wonder Jesus said in the Garden of Gethsemane, “My soul is sorrowful unto death.”   The ugliest of the ugly: sin itself for “one who knew no sin.” 

Recently, in a magazine entitled “The Week,” I read a brief article about George Zimmerman, who killed Travon Martin and was acquitted of that murder. He was bemoaning the fact that he is scorned by society, his life has been threatened repeatedly, he is not safe and carries a hefty financial debt for legal fees.  Jesus was scorned.  Jesus was a hunted man, threatened by the Pharisees repeatedly as they sought  a way to justify killing him. Jesus was not acquitted but put to death for our sakes. “He was made sin for us.”

Every sin throws us into the darkness of shame and guilt.  The more hideous the sin, the uglier are the consequences.  Jesus bore those consequences for us so that we might “become the righteousness of God in him.”  What love! What mercy!

O, God, have mercy on me for the part I played in the burden you carried to the cross for me

Redeemed, Restored, Resurrected to Glory

In today’s first reading,  Ezra 9: 5-9, the prophet is bowed down in grief as he considers the ways in which the Chosen People have sinned against the Lord, our God.  “From the time of our fathers even to this day great has been our guilt, and for our wicked deeds we have been delivered up, we and our kings and our priests, to the will of the kings of foreign lands, to the sword, to captivity, to pillage, and to disgrace, as is the case today.”   How true all of this is in our day as well. Our country, our families, our society, our church and the world at largehave been delivered up to sin, to the slavery of selfishness, to the lust for power,  control, for pleasures of all sorts at other people’s expense.  Our lands are pillaged by earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, fires, tornadoes, tsunamis.  The lives of our children are ruined by human traffickers, drug traffickers, perpetrators of domestic violence and wars within and between nations, violators of human rights, especially those of the poor and even those of the unborn.  We are brought low on all sides.   

Ezra, not only acknowledges his peoples’ sins but also recognizes God’s incredible mercy, saying:  “And now, but a short time ago, mercy came to us from the Lord, our God, who left us a remnant and gave us a stake in his holy place; thus our God has brightened our eyes and given us relief in our servitude.” Do you and I  realize that, in our day, Jesus has given us “a stake in his holy place,” by His death and resurrection, by the Eucharist and the Word of God in our midst, by each of the sacraments that restore us to right relationships with each other, with our deepest self--our God-self-- and with the world around us? By God’s mercy, you and I are being transformed every day into vessels of His grace and mercy as we carry the Good News and are “Good News” people to those we encounter! Oh, may that be so in an abundance today, as God blesses our efforts to experience our redemption and relate as the redeemed!