God, Our Refuge in the Day of Distress

Today's first reading, Jeremiah 15: 10, 16-21, the prophet expresses his despair.  He is deeply depressed and expresses anger at his mother for giving him birth. He describes himself as "a man of strife and contention to all the land! I neither borrow nor lend, yet all curse me."  He can't figure out how this can be! "When I found your words," Jeremiah reminds God, "I devoured them; they became my joy and the happiness of my heart, because I bore your name, O Lord, God of hosts. I did not sit  celebrating in the circle of merrymakers; under the weight of your hand I sat alone because you filled me with indignation." God does not let Jeremiah off the hook.  "If you repent, so that I restore you, in my presence you shall stand. If you bring forth the precious without the vile, you shall be my mouthpiece. Then it shall be they who turn to you and you shall no turn to them.  And I shall make you toward this people a solid wall of  brass. Though they fight against you, they shall not prevail, for I am with you, to deliver and rescue you...I will free you from the hand of the wicked, and rescue you from the grasp of the violent."

What is true for Jeremiah is also true for us.  As God's mouthpiece, we need to stand up to evil. Doing so will not win us brownie points among others. In fact, as with Jeremiah, we may be cursed by others.  Devouring God's words, however, is not enough. We need to live a pure, holy life as well as stand up to evil, knowing that God is with us "to deliver and rescue" us!  God will free us, as He did Jeremiah, "from the hand of the wicked, and rescue [us] from the grasp of the violent," including the violence of Satan prowling the world, seeking someone to devour.

Remember, as we pray in today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 59, that "God is [our] refuge on the day of distress."

Justice to a Fallen World

In  the entrance antiphon to today's liturgy, we pray:  Your merciful love, O God, we have received in the midst of your temple.  Your praise, O God, like your name, reaches to the ends of the earth; your right hand is filled with saving justice."

God's right hand is filled with saving justice for the U.S.--for all nations.  Right now, given the probability of  immoral, unethical and possibly criminal activities surrounding the presidency of the U.S., some members of the President's cabinet as well as of our Congress, we desperately need God's saving justice to be brought upon those who are violating the values of our Constitution, the commandments of God and the teachings of Jesus given in the Gospels.

In today's first reading, Gen. 41: 55-57; 42: 5-7a, 17-24, in which Joseph demands justice of his brothers who come down to Egypt seeking food for their family, we are given an example of God's justice. In fact, when Joseph threw his brothers into prison for three days, they believed it was God's justice being meted out to them for what they had done to their brother. Justice, in our day, will also come to those in powerful positions who are treating others cruelly so they can line the pockets of the rich at the expense of the poor--yes, even possibly to the unnecessary loss of lives.

"O God," we pray in the Collect, "who in the abasement of your Son have raised up a fallen world, fill your faithful with holy joy, for on those you have rescued from slavery to sin you bestow eternal gladness."  Raise up our President, members of his cabinet and of our Congress from their "slavery to sin"--the sin of greed, the idolatrous worship of wealth.  Raise all us  up from that which enslaves us to Satan's allurements.  I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen