Choosing the One True God and His Will for Us

In today's first reading, Hosea 11: 1-4a, 8e-9, the Lord confronts His people for placing strange gods before Him: "When Israel was a child I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the farther they went from me, sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, who took them in my arms; I drew them with human cords, with bands of love; I fostered them like the one who raises an infant to his cheeks; Yet, though i stooped to feed my child, they did not know that I  was their leader."

The Israelites abandoned God and followed other nations in their worship of false gods.  They wanted a king, rejecting God as their king, and fell into idolatry like so many others around them.  We, too, have a tendency to worship idols: wealth, pleasure, sex, consumerism, materialism, power and control, technology, TV, entertainment--anything that we allow to consume our attention and occupy our time above God is idol worship.  With what, we need to ask ourselves, do we spend most of our time to the extent that we do not take time to pray, to study the Scriptures,  to meet out responsibilities to build up God's Kingdom on earth, to foster unity among those with whom we live, to save those suffering starvation--starving physically, emotionally, spiritually, socially--in ways we are able to bring relief?  To and from what do I seek comfort and peace more than I do from God, my Creator?

Let us heed the words of today's responsorial psalm: "Let us seek your face, Lord, and we shall be saved"(Psalm 80) from our misguided pursuit of happiness in place of seeking happiness in You above all!  Save us, Lord, from pursuing security in accumulating more and more material things, in increasing excessive wealth, that crowds out our awareness of You and of our responsibilities to love
others as we truly love ourselves and to love them above material comforts.

God Rules with His Strong Arm

In today's first reading, Isaiah  40: 1-11, Isaiah asks us to "comfort, give comfort to my people. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated.  Indeed, she has received from the hand of the Lord double for all her sins....A voice...[cries] out [that] [a]ll flesh is grass, and all their glory like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower wilts, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it. So then, the people is the grass. Though the grass withers and the flower wilts, the word of the God stands forever....Here comes with power the Lord God, who rules with his strong arm; here is his reward with him, his recompense before him. Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms her gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care."

We belong to God. Because we are God's creation, God's cherished children, God did not hold anything back in His love for us.  His recompense is our salvation secured for us by the death of
God's only begotten Son, by God in human form put to death as a criminal!  As on Calvary, so, now, God "rules with his strong arm." God gathers us in his arms, carries us in his bosom, leads us with care now and always until that moment with "the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken....A voice....[that] says...."Here is our God! Here comes with power the Lord God, who rules by his strong arm."

My faith tells me that God is always in work in our world: in the earthquakes, the fires, the disasters, the mud slides, the floods, the rescues, the surfacing of truth, the generosity of persons reaching out to help those in need, the divisions caused by greed, dishonesty, injustice.  What looks like disaster, as on that very first Good Friday, will at some point give rise to new life!  Why? because God "rules with his strong arm."

A Merciful, Forgiving God

In today's first reading, Isaiah 49: 8-15, the Lord says to us through the prophet Isaiah: "Along the ways [you] shall find pasture, on every bare height shall [your] pastures be. [You] shall not hunger or thirst, nor shall the scorching wind or the sun strike [you]; for he who pities [you] leads [you] and guides [you] beside springs of water. I will cut a road through all my mountains, and make  my highways level...." 

Today I scorched others by my impatience and anger. The "sun" of my hot temper "burned" others, as I found myself in a position of powerlessness and helplessness.  I reacted like a child having a temper tantrum when not getting his/her way. When I entered into prayer this afternoon and told God how frustrated I was with myself, God made my "highway  level."  God "took pity on me and [led me to] springs of water."  He "cut a road through...my mountains" of pride.  The Scripture passage  "Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart" came to my mind.  The Lord also reminded me that He does not condemn me and asked me not to condemn myself either.

What a grace this was for me, as I usually "beat" myself up mercilessly when I do wrong, as my need for perfection rears its head!  Over and over again, I need to come to the "springs of water" and let God smooth out my mountains of pride!  What about you?