God's Faithfulness

In today's first reading, Amos 2: 6-10, 13-16, the prophet Amos is speaking, I believe, directly to us today in the following message:  Thus says the Lord: for three crimes of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke my word; Because they sell the just man for silver,  and the poor man for a pair of sandals. They trample the head of the weak into the dust of the earth, and force the lowly out of the way....Upon garments taken in pledge they decline beside any altar; And the wine of those who have been fined they drink in the house of their god."  Some world leaders, including the U.S., I believe, are doing exactly what Amos states.  Just men and women are being sold for drugs, for sex, for loading the pockets of billionaires. Poor men and women are being sold for whatever some of the rich covet. By lowering taxes on billionaires and easing re taxes of the poor, profiteers "drink in the house of their god," that is unearned wealth, abused power and control. The "head of the weak" are being trampled "into the dust of the earth" and "the lowly" are forced "out of the way," put into cages, detained in detention centers, returned to a country where their lives and the lives of their children are in danger. 

Amos tells us that God "will not revoke" his word. Even though you and I are unfaithful, God remains faithful to His promises. We are told in the Gospels, that Jesus has come, not to condemn the world but to save it.  God does not go back on that promise.  Salvation is ours if we claim it by living in the the Light and in the Truth, cooperating with God's grace, living up to our baptismal promises. Salvation is ours by the choices we make to do good, act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with our God (see Micah 6:8). Salvation is ours when we respect each person's right to freedom and to a just wage; when we help all peoples experience liberty, justice and happiness; when we reach out to the needy and oppressed, the sick and deprived of this world; when, in short, we return evil with good.

What kind of choices am I, are you making? Am I, are you, living in the Light or have we chosen to live in the dark and spread darkness into other people's lives?  One comes leads to an eternity of darkness--not God' choice for you or me. The other choices leads to an eternity of light and love--God's choice for all of us.

God's Love and Compassion

"From heaven God looks down; he sees all humankind" we pray in today's responsorial psalm. God looks down with compassion. he knows the weaknesses of human nature, our struggles, heartaches, tragedies.  His own son was no spared the results of humankind's jealous rage that lead to his death. He knows the depth of sin and darkness into which any human being is exposed and into which pits of human misery a person can fall, either as a perpetrator or a victim.

God Himself became one of us to lead us out of darkness into the Light, to show us the depth of God's love, to reveal God's compassion and show us how to love tenderly, act justly and walk humbly with Him.  Such is what today's Gospel, Luke 4: 38-44, is about.  Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law, stands over over, rebukes the fever and it leaves her.  In the evening people pour into Peter's home.  These people, coming on their own or brought there by caring persons, are suffering from all kinds of illnesses. some are possessed by demons.  Jesus heals all of them. That is who God is--loving, compassionate, caring, ready to help those in need who take responsibility for themselves or allow others to help them get the help they need. 

Today, who am I? Someone  who needs to look for help to deal with an illness, an addiction? Or someone who has been given the opportunity to bring God's compassion to another person is who emotionally anguished, physically weak or tormented by "demons"?

The Tenderness of Our God

Today’s Scriptures speaks of  the tenderness of our God! I love to watch  parents hugging a child, stoking its hair, holding a child close to their bosom.  The tenderness between loving parents and a child reflects God’s tenderness toward each of us. The first reading of today’s liturgy, Is 49: 14-15, asks us: “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb?” And, “even should she forget, I will never forget you.”

The Gospel, Mt 6: 24-34, echoes this same theme of God’s tender, loving care, inviting us to ponder the flowers and the grasses of the fields, the birds of air, and how God watches over each of them and provides for all of their needs.  Certainly their splendor and their beauty does not come close to the beauty of any one of us created in God’s very image, male and female.  And if God provides adequately and sumptuously for every bird, every fish of the sea, every flower that graces our landscapes, every blade of grass that blooms in the morning and fades at night, how much more does God provide for us..  “Why,” Jesus asked, “are you fraught with worry? Your heavenly Father knows…[what] you need…”  Besides, he says, “tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil.”And no matter what today’s or tomorrow’s “evil” is, God, like any good parent,  knows how to help us deal with it.  Do I have the faith of a child who, no matter what, trusts its loving parents to provide what is needed as he/or she faces the day’s “evil”?  No wonder Jesus says to us,  in Mt 18: 3, that unless, we become like a little child, we shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.  Only when we face today’s “evil” with the trust of a little child do we experience  the presence of God’s Kingdom of Heaven right here and now.

How trusting am I? How believing am I that God will provide?