The Glory of God's Voice within our Hearts

In the Entrance Antiphon to today's liturgy, we are reminded that "the Lord will make the glory of his voice heard in the joy of [our] heart[s]."  Am I hearing that voice? And, if not, what is blocking me from hearing it? Am I keeping myself too busy? Are my thoughts clouded with the noise of anger, jealousy, or worry?  Have I shut God out in my pursuit of security in material things? Have I hardened by heart by a lack of gratitude, by pride, by hatred and prejudice?  Have I chosen people, possessions and power as my gods?

It is never too late to turn back to the Lord, to seek the Lord above all else, to repent and be saved! If we have gone astray, God, like the father of the prodigal son  (Luke  15: 11-32), waits for our return with arms open in mercy!  His love for us never wavers! God who, as St. Paul says to us in today's second reading, Philippians 1: 4-6, 8-11,   "began a good work in you [and me on the day that we were baptized and He] will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus."  Yes, it is God's will that we enter into His glory when we die, that is, that we accept the free gift of salvation!  Is that your will/my will? Let us prove it by living lives of integrity, honesty, purity, love, mercy and justice.

God Comes with Power to Save Us

In today’s first reading, Is 40:1-11, the prophet shares with us God’s desire to give comfort to us, to “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.”  Never is sin left without   a price being paid for going astray. There are consequences to whatever sin I commit, whatever sin anyone commits, any sin the nation commits, any sin members of the government commits, any sin Isis commits, any sin committed by those perpetuating human trafficking, slave labor, drug trafficking, abortion, any sin committed by those exploiting the poor for their own profit, and so on.  “A voice,” the prophet Isaiah tells us, “cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland (created by sinful actions) a highway for our God! Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill (of humankind’s hardness of heart and pride-filled, greed-driven behaviors) shall be made low; the rugged land (traveled because of injustices) shall be made a plain, the rough country (over which  refugees and immigrants and the poor are forced to walk) a broad valley. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all people shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Are we listening? Are we aware of Isaiah proclamation: “Here comes with power the Lord God, who rules by his strong arm (an arm much stronger than those of the rich getting richer on the backs of the poor; much stronger than the arms of the arrogant).  Here is his reward with him, his recompense before him.” Yes, our God, “like a shepherd…feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs (those too weak to walk on their own, crushed by the oppressor), carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care.”

With the psalmist in today’s responsorial psalm, Psalm 96, we “[s]ing to the Lord a new song; [we] sing to the Lord, …, bless his name; [we]announce his salvation, day after day.”   Sin shall not prevail! Satan and all the evil he promotes deceptively shall be destroyed by the One who “comes to rule the earth,” (Ps. 96), who “shall rule the world with justice and the peoples with his constancy” (Ps 96).