Standing up for the Truth

In today’s Scripture readings, Jer 28: 1-7, the phophet Hannaih prophesizes that  that the Lord “will break the yoke of the king of Babylon” and that within two years the vessels of the Temple will be restored and that the people will be returned from exile in Babylon.  His prophesy is false. Yes, eventually the people will return from exile and the Temple of Jerusalem will be restored, but not in the time frame Hanniah gives.  In efforts to win the people’s favor and be popular among them he gives a false message that is not from the Lord. He raised false hopes, causing much pain among the people.

Am I like Hanniah, providing false promises,  painting rosy pictures, when, in the immediate future, there really is none.  Am I lying in order to avoid  coming into disfavor with  those who do not want to hear the truth, especially  when times are difficult, even treacherous, dangerous and extremely unpleasant and there is more of the same on the horizon unless hard choices are made?  Or, am I, like the prophet Jeremiah who speaks the truth, even though the consequences of doing so  were anything but pleasant. In fact, some people wanted Jeremiah put to death.

Let us pray, with the psalmist of today’s responsorial psalm: “Remove from me the way of falsehood, and favor me with your law. Take not the word of truth from my mouth, for in your ordinances is my hope” (Ps. 119).

Waiting upon the Lord

In today’s responsorial psalm, Psalm 27: 1, 4, 13-14, the psalmist reminds us that we “shall see the bounty of the Lord in the land of the living.”  He then encourages us to “[w]ait for the Lord with courage; be stouthearted and wait for the Lord.”    Waiting can be very challenging for those of us who have a difficult time when things do not happen in our timing, when answers are not forthcoming at the moment that we want them to be or in the manner that we think the answers should be revealed to us.  “Come on, Lord,” we may say. “Where are you? I can’t wait any longer!” So, what do some of us do? Take charge! Do our own thing or jump in and try to fix what seems very wrong, not that “fixing the wrong” is not the right thing to do but sometimes we jump ahead of God.  When we do that, either in  “fixing a wrong” or making a choice prematurely, we are likely to cause more problems.  Readiness is important. Timing is important. God’s time, many times, is not our timing.

Think of parents  with young children. One of the children lies down on the floor and proceeds to have a temper tantrum in the middle of a store.  If the child is not hurting anyone, wise parents wait until the child is finished screaming, kicking; those parents let the child vent. When the child is finished, a parent picks up the child, comforts him or her and moves on.  Another parent may interfere, demand that the toddler’s temper tantrum cease, yell at the child to stop the screaming and kicking, even hit the child or call the child names, labeling him/her a bad child. Consequently, the temper tantrum escalates and the calming down takes longer, not to mention the long term effects of the name-calling: a memory that can stay with the child long into adulthood.  God is like the wise parent. When we “lose it,” He simply looks on and watches us with patience, waiting for us to calm down before intervening. He knows that we are not capable of hearing Him while we are ranting and raving.  He also knows that getting one’s anger out without hurting another person or ourselves is an important step in being open to counsel and to experiencing “the bounty of the Lord”.

That Lord’s   “bounty” opens up to the person who, when calm,  humbly and courageously reflects upon the “temper tantrum” experience, seeks God’s counsel or counsel from another, and is willing to learn whatever lesson is hidden within the event. Furthermore, the person who bares his/her soul to the Lord, sharing the incident and feelings about the incident that led to the meltdown, prepares the soil of his/her heart to receive the “rain” of grace. By humbly and courageously waiting upon the Lord, the soft, gentle “rain” of grace soaks  the heart’s soil and, yes, God’s bounty burst through the formerly hardened soul.

Being real as Thomas was

Today is the feast of St. Thomas, the Apostle, a Martyr for his faith. It was Thomas who said to the apostles that he would not believe that the Lord had risen from the dead unless he put his hands in his side and his finger into the print of the nails.  We refer to Thomas as the Doubter. What if we took another look at Thomas as one who did not follow the crowd, was not a pushover,  did his own thinking, shared his own truth.  He did not hide his doubts, as did the other apostles.  The others doubted as much as he did, would not believe the women when they returned from the tomb and told them that they had seen the Lord and he was risen. Nor  did the other apostles believe the disciples from Emmaus when they, too, reported that the Lord  was alive and spoke with them.

 Who would you or I be? A pushover, one who says what everyone else says because they said it, one who says what “the authority” said (Peter was the one with the authority) because authority said it whether we believed it or not, one who hid his/her truth or his/her doubt, as most of the apostles did? Or would we have the humility to acknowledge our doubt as Thomas did? Would we change our position when the truth was revealed to us, as Thomas did when he fell to his knees and said: “My Lord and my God!” “You were right and I was wrong.”