Lord, Save Us!

In today's Gospel, Matthew 8: 23-27, Jesus gets into a boat  with his disciples "and suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves; but [Jesus] is asleep."  Terrified for their lives, the disciples awaken Jesus. "Lord, save us! We are perishing!"  Jesus calmly says to them:  "Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?" Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm."

Right now, we are dealing with a violent storm, the coronavirus sweeping the country. Thousands are dying across the country every day. Our hospitals in some States are reaching their capacity. ICU beds are at a premium. Healthcare workers are stretched to the breaking point. Last night news claimed that we are at a very dangerous point in dealing with this pandemic. Another news this week stated that the virus is out of control in this country!  Also, foreign countries have banned anyone from our country to travel to theirs.  "Lord, save us! We are perishing!"  Jesus asks to us:  "Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?" With the psalmist in today's responsorial psalm, we expectantly bring our plea for the end of this virus to the Lord.  

We know that God can, at any point in this horrible experience, get up, rebuke the virus, and save us from further attack! However, we also  need to realize that, I think, God expects us to do our part to stop its spread and not expect God to miraculously destroy a virus whose spread we are not willing to stop by appropriate measures within our power! Let us not put God to the test because we are unwilling to discipline ourselves!

Do the harsh words in today's first reading, Amos 3: 1-8; 4: 11-12, apply to us?  Yahweh says to the Israelites: "I brought upon you such upheaval as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah: you were like a brand plucked from the fire; yet you returned not to me, says the Lord." 

Blessed Are Those Who Trust in the Lord

In today's first reading, Jeremiah 17:5-10, the Lord says to us through the prophet: we pray: "Blessed is the [person] who trust in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord. [That person] is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: It fears not the heat when it comes, its leaves stay green; In the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit...."  Those who trust rather in human beings or who put their trust in the flesh, "whose heart turns away from the Lord" is cursed, not blessed.

Those are strong words from the Lord but are they not true? How can there be any blessing coming to me when I turn away from the Lord? I then enter a desert, a parched land, and become distressed and anxious!  On the contrary when I turn to the Lord, seek His face, call upon Him for the help I need to meet the difficulties of the day, to get through the rough times, to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit, I then am unafraid. Why? I then realize that the Lord takes me by the right hand, leads me to right choices, and gives success to the work of my hands. I then bear fruit. I then stay "green," that is hopeful and experience the goodness and the kindness of the Lord!

The Gift of Free Will Given us at Birth

In today's first reading, Judges 2: 11-19, we are reminded of how Israel became ensnared in worshiping false gods, Baals. The consequence was that God "allowed them to fall into the power of their enemies around about whom they were no longer able to withstand."   God likewise respects our free will, even when we use it to make poor choices.  As we choose the false gods that society offers us or that our "friends" convince us will increase our freedom and/or prove our adulthood--when we are deceived into believing that God substitutes will give us the peace we crave--we, like the Israelites, will get to a point where we are unable to withstand the power of Satan! With the psalmist, let us cry out:  "Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people" (Psalm 106). And, with the good thief on the cross, let us turn to the Lord and ask to be remembered by Him in His Kingdom!  God, the psalmist tells us, has "regard for [our] affliction" when we cry out to Him, come to our senses and abandon our false gods.  

What delights our God!

In the second reading of today's liturgy, Hebrews 10: 5-10, St. Paul reminds us of when Jesus came into the world, God wanted obedience to His will, not sacrifices of thousands and thousands of animals to appease for sin.  As explained by St. Paul to the Hebrews and to us about Jesus becoming human and what God wanted of him: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; in holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight. [Jesus' response:] Then I said, 'As is written of me in the scroll, behold, I come to do your will, O God.'....[Sacrifices and offerings, holocausts and sin offerings] are offered according to the law [and the law cannot save anyone]. Then he [Jesus] says, 'Behold, I come to do your will.'"

We cannot save ourselves. Only Jesus can! By His obedience to God's will we are saved and sanctified. The gift of salvation is freely given to us!  As with Jesus, God does not want sacrifices from us. He wants our obedience to the Spirit's promptings to do good and avoid evil, to forgive those who hurt us and not hang on to resentments,  to ask for pardon, to love and not hate, to act in justice and mercy and not out of revenge exacting demands, such as an eye for an eye.

In  today's responsorial psalm, we pray: "Lord, make us turn to  you; let us see your face and we shall be saved" from Satan's lies and the ways he lures us to turn away from You.

Consecrated to the Lord from Baptism

Both readings of today's liturgy, Judges 13: 2-7, 24-25a and Luke 1: 5-25, tell the story of two women who were barren and were about to become fertile.  The stories also reveal that both Samson and John the Baptist will be consecrated in the womb and chosen as key persons in salvation history. Concerning Samson, the messenger of God said that he is the one "who will begin the deliverance of Israel from the power of the Philistines." John the Baptist, Zachariah, his father, is told "will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb, and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God."

Every child that God brings into the world,  including you and me, though not consecrated in the womb but first at our baptisms, has a key role in the salvation of the world.  We, too, are called to turn to the Lord ourselves and thereby turn other people to the Lord.  We are also to cooperate with God in our deliverance from that which overpowers and distracts us from the one thing necessary: the Lord our God and His Spirit at work in our lives!

As we pray in today's responsorial psalm, Ps. 71,  God is our refuge, "a stronghold," the One who "rescues [us] from the hand of the wicked".  On God we depended "from birth; from [our] mother's womb [God had been our] strength."  It is God who makes it possible for us to carry out the purpose for which He created us. It is God who consecrates us to be a significant person in the salvation of the world in which we live! It is God who transforms our barrenness into fertility for the good all!

How Will We/You/I Be Saved?

In today's first reading, Hosea 14:2-10, the prophet says to Israel: "Return, O Israel, to the Lord, your God."  We, too, burdened with guilt are asked to seek God's forgiveness and receive from God the goodness in which we have been created. The Israelites are warned that "Assyria will not save...[them] nor shall...[they] have horses to mount; [...They] shall say no more, 'Our god,' to the work of [their] hands...."

To what have we said "Our god"? To which works of our hands have we attributed divine qualities, qualities to save us from ourselves, from our selfishness, our sinfulness, our pride, our avarice, our envy and jealousy?  When stumbling, to what do I look for help? What success do I think will save me this time?  To what  project  do I turn to as a means to be lifted out of my prideful self?  What accolades am I seeking as a means to be "transformed"?

Hosea, speaking in the name of the Lord, tells the Israelites that only the Lord "will heal their defection." Only the Lord "will love them freely; for [God's] wrath is turned away from them." So, too with us--we are the Israelites stumbling around in the desert of life,  falling into sin over and over again, erecting idols for our salvation. Let us repent and turn to the Lord for our salvation. God alone can save us, save you and save me!  No one else. Nothing else. No political leader or successful business person. No prestigious job or degree, no work of our hands, no human being: Only God!

I am learning that! What about you?

Preparing the Way for the Lord

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. John the Baptist.  John’s mission was to prepare the way for the Lord, “to turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God” (cf. Luke 1: 5-17). John would go before Jesus and turn people’s “hearts toward their children and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to prepare a people fit for the Lord.” 

The Lord says to us:

(Insert your name), that, too, is your mission.  As a I turn your heart back to me when you stray in disobedience, so, too,  are you--more so by example than by words—to be an instrument of grace by which others turn back to me as well.

(Insert your name),  just as I was at work in the lives of Zachariah and Elizabeth, who were faithful Jews and were looked down upon by their own people—not having children was considered a punishment for sin—so, too, am I working as Savior and God in the lives of people today who are committed to their faith.

Just as I sent John into the world to “prepare a people fit for the Lord,” so, too, do I send people today into the church of today, into families, into government, into all segments of society to prepare a place for Me.  I continue to raise up prophets today.  I continue to send “John the Baptists” into today’s wilderness to prepare for my coming, my presence in the world in order that my Father’s  will is accomplished.

I call you to be a significant part of this mission.  How you live--what you say or leave unsaid, what you do and do not do, prepares the way for Me to enter into another  person’s life. You are a means of salvation, a light that shines in the darkness, a voice that sounds in the wilderness of today, as much as  John the Baptist was in his day.

What is my response to the Lord’s invitation?

Turn to the Lord

In the first reading of today's liturgy, Joel 2: 12-18, the prophet invites us to "[r]end our hearts,not our garments..." during this holy season of Lent.  We are reminded that Lent is a time of conversion, of interiority, a time to "return to the Lord...For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger and rich in kindness..." (Joel 2: 12-18).

I thought of a small child who begs mom and dad to visit "Grandpa and Grandma?"  Why? Grandmas and Grandpas are "kind and merciful," loving and caring.  Hence, the child wants to be with his/her grandparents.
That thought led me to Jesus' words: Let the children come to me because of such is the Kingdom of heaven and unless you become like little children you will never enter the Kingdom. If our image of God is of Someone who is "gracious and merciful," "slow to anger" and "rich in kindness", what keeps us from turning, or returning, to the Lord every day to bask in that love? Why do we not, everyday, sit with the Lord, gazing upon the Lord with love and letting the Lord gaze back at us in love (God knows no other way to relate to us because God is love)? What restrains us from taking time to be with the Lord in an empty Church or in the quiet of nature or in the silence of  our hearts--all noise silenced--to simply rest with God, commune with God, love God in the depth of our being?

What if our resolve this Lent would be to "rend our hearts, not our garments"?