How One Is Vindicated

In today's first reading, Isaiah 58: 1-9a God asks the prophet to tell the people their wickedness, and the house of Jacob their sins. They seek me day after day and wonder why I do not answer their prayers when, in fact, they have abandoned my law. They fast but continue to carry out their own pursuits. You  "drive all your laborers. ...[Y[our fast ends in quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw." The kind of fast which God wants of them and us is the following:

• "Releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke.
• Setting free the oppressed
• Breaking every yoke
• Sharing your bread with the hungry
• Sheltering the oppressed and the homeless
• Clothing the naked when  you see them
• Not turning your back on your own"

Have we  turned our backs on our own by gossiping, by being indifferent to the needs of one's spouse to be helped with the ordinary burdens of caring for the children, cooking the meals, cleaning the house, doing grocery shopping, helping the children with their homework, teaching and modeling the faith to the children and maintaining one's job so as to help support the family?  Are we actively involved in building relationships within the family, within one's religious community, within the diocese and/or parish?  When the opportunity presents itself, do we "share bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless, clothe the naked"?  At work, in our communities and in our families and parishes,  do we  "set free the oppressed, release those bound unjustly, untie the thongs of the yoke"?  If we do these things, God says to us:  "Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound [of sin] shall quickly be healed; your vindication shall go before you,  and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then  you shall call, and [I] will answer, you shall cry for help, and [I] will say: Here I am!"

God Desires Life and Wellness

In today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 30,  we thank the Lord because He "changed my mourning into dancing."  In the Gospel, Mark 5: 21-43, Jesus did just that for the woman "afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years" and for Jairus, a synagogue official, whose  twelve-year-old daughter was dying.   Both were healed and restored to life and wellness. The faith of the woman, Jesus tells her, "has saved you." And he says to the distraught father: "Do not be afraid; just have faith."

God does not delight in you or I, or anyone, contracting a disease; nor does he rejoice in any one's death! We are told in today's first reading, Wisdom 1: 13-15; 2: 23-24, that "God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living....But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world, and they who belong to his company experience it." 

Jesus' actions reveal the truth that God desires our well-being and delights in each one of us being fully alive.  Jesus does not hesitate to restore individuals to robust health, physically, emotionally, or spiritually. He delights in inviting us into make choices which lead us to greater wholeness and to deeper communion with one another.  Choices that fragment us or cause us to be separated from one another cause God as much pain as they do us. God weeps with  us when we make such choices and stands by to rescue those who call upon Him.

Lord, do not let my enemies--Satan and his helpers--rejoice over me. "Preserve me from going down into [any] pit" (Psalm 30) that causes me to lead a fragmented, separated life that defies that I have been created to live life in a way that fosters union with others and leads to ever greater and greater wellness and wholeness!

To what choices am I being invited today that will lead to deeper union with others, especially with family members--one's spouse, children, grandchildren, relatives--community members, coworkers, parishioners, persons of other cultures, races religions? Which choices am I making that are causing division and fragmentation?

Heeding the Voice of our God

In today's first reading, Isaiah 58: 9b-14, the Lord says to us through the prophet Isaiah:  "If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for you in the darkness and the gloom shall become for  you like midday; then the Lord will guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched land. He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails...."  In the responsorial psalm we acknowledge our human situation, saying to the Lord: "I am afflicted and poor....Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I call upon you all the day....[Y]ou are good and forgiving, abounding in kindness to all who call upon you...[A]ttend to the sound of my pleading" for all enslaved by sin, selfishness, greed, lust, leveling false accusations at others, engaging in malicious speech, and oppressing the poor and needy of this land --all who are enslaved in Satan's lies, who have fallen into his traps!

In the Gospel Acclamation, God says to us through the prophet Ezekiel, "I take  no pleasure in the death of the wicked,...but rather in his [her] conversion, that he [she] may live!"  May each of us be open to being converted by God's grace to abandon evil and do good and to know when we are being deceived by Satan and embrace the truth.

God's Expectations

In today’s first reading, Jeremiah 7: 1-11, we are asked to not put our “trust in…deceitful words: This is the temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord!’ Only if you thoroughly reform your ways and your deeds; if each of you deals justly with his/[her] neighbor;  if you no longer  oppress the resident alien, the orphan, and the widow; if you no longer shed innocent blood…, or follow strange gods to your own harm, will I remain with you in this place, in the land I gave our fathers/[mothers] long ago and forever.”

That I raise a bible in the air repeatedly and am able to quote myriad of or write eloquently about Scripture passages does not mean necessarily  that I have reformed my ways or my deeds, that I am dealing justly with my neighbor and no longer oppressing the resident alien, the orphan, and the widow.  Nor does it mean that I am not following strange gods to my own harm and the harm of others!

Honestly, how have I reformed my sinful, selfish, arrogant, pride-filled, deceitful attitudes and behaviors this past week? How have I reached out to my neighbor, to the person I do not like, to whom I do not want to listen, to the person who thinks and believes differently than I do, who does not share my enthusiasm about a significant person in my world or a recent book I read and enjoyed? What am I doing to lessen the oppression of the resident alien, the orphan, the widow?  What strange gods am I worshiping. How surprised I was this past week to discover that I was seeking to be honored, glorified, appreciated—yes, to be the center of other people’s lives? Is that not what is due to our God?