Food for Thought---III

The Psalms certainly contain food for thought as we navigate through the threat of the corona virus. Here are some possible helps:

Come back, Yahweh, rescue [our] soul[s] (Ps 6:4).
Our strength,come quickly to [our] help (Ps 22:19).
Rise, Yahweh, save [us, our] God (Ps 13: 7).
Our soul awaits Yahweh; he is our help and shield       (Ps 33:20).
Now, break your silence, Yahweh....Do not let them     say, 'Now we have got him down' (Ps 35:22).
Assign your Love and Faithfulness to guard [us] 
  (Ps 81:7.
Verily,God is our shelter, our strength, ever ready         to help in time of trouble (Ps 46: 1).
I rely on you, do  not let me be shamed (Ps 25:2).
Relieve the distress of [our] heart[s], free [us] from     [our] suffering. See [our] misery and pain 
   (Ps 25:17).
Up,wake up, come to [our] defense, Lord, [our]          God, side with [us] (Ps 35: 23).
See, Yahweh is a stronghold when times are hard.       Those who acknowledge your name can rely on         you. You never desert those who seek you,               Yahweh (Ps 9-10: 9-10

The Pressures to Please Others and Abandon our Beliefs

As I bring a week's retreat to close, I am ready to glean the results of that retreat in my daily living--back to ordinary time, so to speak!  Today's Gospel, Mt. 14: 1-12, brings us the story about Herod, Herodias and their daughter, who pleased Herod so much by her dance for him on his birthday that he promises to a give her anything she asks of him. Little did he know that, prompted by her mother Herodias, who wanted John dead, she would ask for the head of John the Baptist, a prisoner of Herod's at the time.  He certainly does not want to kill John but he also does not want to break his promise in front of his friends.  His integrity is at stake!  So he gives in to her!

How often do we betray ourselves, afraid of losing face with our friends, so we do what we really do not want to do, even if that means committing a grave sin.  Doing so, I believe, means that I have been unfaithful in small ways and thus am more vulnerable to committing graver offenses!  Without grace, without God, we are apt to go astray, to betray our innermost self that is one with God. We are likely to do this, not once, but often. St. Paul struggled, just as we do, to do what is right.  He describes that struggle, in part, in Romans 7:21-25: "...[E]very  single time I want to do good it is something evil that comes to hand [as with Herod and Herodias]. In my inmost self I dearly love God's Law [and so did Herod and Herodias, I believe], but I can see that my body follows a different law that battles against the law which my reason dictates. This is what makes me a prisoner of that law of sin which lives inside my body....Who will rescue me from this body doomed to death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord." 

Lord, you know my weaknesses. You know that often I give in to the dictates of sin within me rather than following the guidance of the Spirit within my deepest self. Have mercy on me, Lord, when I fall into sin and give in to pressures outside of me, as did Herod's daughter and Herod himself.  Temptation is everywhere but so, too, are You, O Lord! I ask for the grace to call upon you, especially when I am tempted to follow the voice that opposes at the Holy Spirit at work within me. I ask for these graces in Jesus' name. Amen.

"If God is for Us, Who Can be Against Us" (Rom. 8:31)

Today the Church celebrates the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul.  We read, in the first reading of the liturgy, Acts 12: 1-11, about the miraculous intervention of Peter being freed from prison.  “He had been taken into custody and put in prison under the guard of four squads of four soldiers each…. [P]rayer by the Church was fervently being made to God on his behalf….Suddenly the angel of the Lord stood by him and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and awakened him, saying, ‘Get up quickly.’ The chains fell from his wrists.”  The angel then asked that he follow him out of the prison and they did so in front of all of the guards who were rendered powerless.

We are told in the Gospel of today’s liturgy that Christ built His Church upon “rock,” the rock of Peter and “the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.”   The Church is built upon God’s plan, a Foundation that will stand forever.  Hell shall never prevail against God’s will!  We need to hear, I believe, what God said so often to the Chosen People: “I am God; there is no other” (Is 45: 5

God’s plans will never be destroyed. Those who attempt to relegate such into oblivion will never succeed any more than did the Egyptians succeed in making powerless God’s plan to deliver Israel from slavery in their day.  The Egyptians certainly tried! Neither was the plan of God destroyed during the Chosen  People’s wanderings in the desert or their mingling with pagan gods or during their exile from Jerusalem, from the Presence of their God in the Temple. God is God; there is no other.  The Chief Priests and Scribes and leaders of the Jewish people attempted to destroy the will of God by putting Jesus to death—God raised Jesus from the dead: the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church, against God’s plan for our salvation.    Neither will the plan of God be obliterated today by the false gods of our times: possessions, pleasure, power.  God’s authority will not be usurped by the authority of those in power today. God says to us, as He did to the Egyptians: “I am God; there is no other.”

Christ, our Mediator

The entrance antiphon to today’s liturgy reads:  “Christ is mediator of a New Covenant, so that by means of his death, those who are called may receive the promise of an eternal inheritance.”

Imagine that that which you created, cherished, to whom you gave life, blessed, nurtured, supported; that to which you have given a guarantee of an eternal inheritance rebelling against you, choosing death over life, choosing one’s own will, choosing self,  over God and God’s will.  That is what Adam, Eve, Cain, the myriad of people building the Tower of Babel, the people around Noah’s time, the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah and the Israelites did repeatedly on their journey to the Promised Land; that is, each time they engaged in pagan worship of created things, of man- made things, of  sex and pleasures, wealth and power.  That is what we are doing in erecting false gods out of accumulative wealth used for selfish ends, the use of power to control and do violence to each other and against other nations, and when we engage in pleasure to violate our own and others’ dignity and integrity as children of God.

 “Who will rescue [us]…doomed to death? God—thanks be to him—through Jesus Christ, our Lord”  (Rom 7: 14-25).

On Easter, we will celebrate that restoration of humankind to its Creator!  Jesus, the New Adam, the One who is obedient to God the Father even unto death and who trusts the Father’s plan of our redemption, His will to make us one with the Trinity, will crust Satan’s head from the cross.