Word to the Wise
Thursday, March 3, 2016 - 3rd Week of Lent - Thurs
[Jer 7:23-28 and Luke 11:14-23]THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2016. THURSDAY IN THE THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME [St. Katherine Drexel] [Jeremiah 7:23-28 and Luke 11:14-23] "This is the nation that does not listen to the voice of the Lord, it's God, or take correction. Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself is banished from their speech." [Jeremiah] The colorful and contentious election saga unfolding in our country at the present time is giving rise to every kind of feeling from anger to alarm to hope to thrill - you name it. It is a time when history and facts take second place to feelings about current situations and which candidate makes the claims that the particular voter wants to hear -- never mind whether or not this or that candidate can get any of his or her promises through a deadlocked Congress or evenly divided Supreme Court. The Statue of Liberty disappears under the fog of fear. We would do well to heed Jeremiah's words about faithfulness even if it is only to our secular civic values about freedom, let alone to our religious faith. Our best moments as a nation have not been reflected in the Chinese Exclusion Acts, the internment of citizens of Japanese descent, the Know Nothing party inspired anti-Catholic riots, the destruction of Native American life, the enslavement of thousands of African men and women and children and the subsequent denial of fundamental liberties to them in "Jim Crow" laws. All of these terrible acts were born of fear and anger. Is any candidate appealing, as did Abraham LIncoln, to "the better angels of our nature?" Jeremiah warned Judah against putting hopes anywhere but in God. He was ignored and thrown in a cistern. The appeals of demagogues like Huey Long and Adolf Hitler (both of whom were elected to their positions of power) led to disaster. Asking ourselves about faithfulness to the gospel and our best traditions, instead of fear, is our best guide through the current chaos. AMEN
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