Enduring Joy

In the  first reading of today’s liturgy, Baruch 4: 5-12, 27-29,  Baruch tells the people not to fear but to remember that the reason that they were conquered by other nations was that they had abandoned the covenant God made with them.  This did not happen, Baruch tells them, because God wanted them to be destroyed, but that they had provoked God by sacrificing to “demons, to no-gods; you forsook the Eternal God who nourished you, and you grieved Jerusalem who fostered you.”  Further on in the reading,  the holy city of Jerusalem—where God dwelt, as God dwells in our Tabernacles--says that with “joy I fostered them; but with mourning and lament I let them go.”

I could not help but think of the times the Lord is directing us and we simply ignore the Spirit’s direction and do our own thing. “With joy,” God says, “I fostered them; but with mourning and lament I let them go.”  God deeply respects our free will and does not ever force us to embrace His will.  God lets us  go to experience the emptiness, if you will, or the frustration of not having followed the way to which God was calling us. It may be as simple as calling a friend, reaching out to someone we slighted and saying “I’m sorry,”  spending some leisure time in the evening with family or community members, listening with an open mind and heart or taking time to study the Scriptures or to do some substantive reading that nurtures our spiritual lives. Or, it may be more serious, like not getting involved with the wrong crowd that leads us into selfish pursuits  or that leads us into violating the rights of another person or of doing that which violates our own personal integrity.  Baruch says to us, then:  “As your hearts have been disposed to stray from God turn now ten times the more to seek him; for he who has brought disaster [frustration, emptiness, pain] upon you will, in saving you, bring you back enduring joy.”