Liberation from Slavery to Oppressive Behaviors, that is from Sin

Liberation from Slavery to Oppressive Behaviors, that is from Sin

In today's first reading, Exodus 14: 21-15:1, we are given the story of the Israelites being freed from the oppression of the Egyptians.  God divides the waters of the sea, "with the water like a wall to their right and to their left," the Israelites are able to cross the sea on dry land.  Once safely across, God instructs Moses to stretch out his hand over the sea, "that the water may flow back upon the Egyptians."   None of them survive.  "When Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the seashore and beheld the great power that the Lord had shown against the Egyptians, they feared the Lord and believed in him and in his servant Moses."

This story is not only about the Israelites. It is about you and me, as well!  God also frees us from our oppressors: the oppression of selfishness, prejudice and hatred that holds us back from being a true disciple of Jesus.  It is about the ways, through baptism and the other sacraments that Jesus frees us from the oppressing blindness and deafness that deprives us of the ability to recognize Jesus in others and from hearing the voice of the Spirit guiding us to do good and avoid evil.

The story of God freeing the Israelites from the slavery of Egypt is a precursor of Jesus freeing us from sin as He offered His life for our salvation and rose from the dead, death and sin having absolutely no power over Jesus.  In baptism we died with Christ and rose with Him to new life, a life in which we are empowered to live as brothers and sisters and mothers of Jesus, that is as persons doing what the Father wills of us (see today's gospel, Matthew 12: 46-50).

Courage, Truth, and Liberation

In today’s first reading, 1 Samuel 1: 9-20, Hannah pours out her soul to the Lord, telling the Lord of her agony in being barren and the pain of repeatedly being insulted and disrespected by Peninnah, her husband’s other wife, who has borne him children.  She is devastated by her inability to conceive and begs the Lord to grant her a male child. Eli, the priest, observes her prayer, hears her sobbing inconsolably, sees her lips moving and concludes that she is drunk.  Brashly, he says to her: “How long will you make a drunken show of yourself? Sober up from your wine.”  Hannah, a courageous woman, a women of integrity and inner strength, stands up to him, not allowing him to get away with abusing her verbally and emotionally.  She puts right his wrong, telling him that she has “had neither wine nor liquor; I was only pouring out my troubles to the Lord.”

Who am I in this Scripture story? Penninah, Hannah, or Eli?  Do I insult and degrade others, speak down to them, treat them with disrespect, “step upon” them with rude words, drive them to the depths of despair?  Am I Hannah, a person of integrity, a woman of faith, a person who takes his/her sorrow, his/her agonizing moments to the Lord, asking for God’s help, trusting in the Lord, knowing God personally and intimately in such a way that I keep nothing from Him? Or am I Eli, who misjudges others, looks down upon them, verbally and emotional abusing them without knowing or seeking the truth from them?

May I have the courage to acknowledge when the Penninah and the Eli in me. And, like Hannah, may I have the strength and the wisdom to develop an intimate relationship, a friendship with God, that holds nothing back from Him.

God, our Deliverer

In the antiphon of today’s responsorial psalm, Psalm 34, we are told that  “From all their distress God rescues the just.”  Our journey here on earth is one of learning that fact by seeking  the Lord above all else: to seek the Lord in our joys and sorrows, in our triumphs and failures, in our anxieties and our moments of confidence, in sickness and in health.  We need to discover that to which the psalmist gives witness, namely, that when we seek the Lord, the Lord answers us and delivers us from all our fears.  The psalmist reminds us that “[w]hen the poor one called out the Lord heard and from all his distress he saved him.” 

 Do  I approach the Lord as “a poor one”?  Do I even recognize my poverty (my spiritual poverty, that is)?  Do I come to the Lord in my distress or do I medicate my distress with addictive use of drugs and alcohol, food and sweets, gambling and shopping, Internet surfing or watching TV, running from one relationship to another and another and another, or whatever addictive behavior I use to numb out?  It is easier to run from our discomfort than to examine it in prayer.  The choice is ours: to call upon the Lord of hosts, a warrior, a comforter, a redeemer  or to seek comfort in ways that simply repress the pain, a pain that resurfaces with a vengeance the next time we are hurt.

What is your choice?

"The Kindgom of God is at hand"

“The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:14), we read in the opening lines of today’s Gospel.  The Lion King comes to mind as I read that passage.  Remember how relieved the residents of Nardia were when liberation from evil was in sight.  That is what Jesus is telling us in today’s Gospel. John has just been arrested. The situation looked as though evil had the upper hand.  It looked that way, too, when Jesus was crucified and put to death 2000 years ago.  So, too, today. Evil seems to be galloping out of control and seems to be dominating all of creation: human trafficking, the disappearance of innocent children, murders by persons seeking to become rich or seeking revenge, corruption of our political systems, nations threatening to do harm to other nations, discrimination against women and blacks and other minorities, injustices of every kind, racism, sexism, individualism, consumerism, materialism,  natural catastrophes and so much, much more that is not of God.  “Repent,” Jesus says, “the Kingdom of God is at hand.”  Do I believe Jesus? Am I looking for Jesus? Am I a collaborator with Jesus in the work of the Kingdom and in the confrontation of evil? Or am I a perpetrator, a collaborator, a bystander, watching the collapse of our nation, our Church, our society, our families, our own integrity, believing that I am helpless to make a difference? Or, like the four apostles in today’s Gospel called to become one with Jesus and His mission, do I believe that I am  called to be one of His disciples sent into the world to spread the Good News, to be the Light that the world needs to overcome its darkness?  Armed with the Word of God, with the Eucharist, with the graces of the sacrament of Reconciliation, I can and do make a difference, as do the Tim Tibows of this world who are unafraid to rely on God and express their faith.  What about you?