Word to the Wise
Friday, October 6, 2017 - Friday in the 26th Week in Ordinary Time
[Bar 1:15-22 and Luke 10:13-16]FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2017 FRIDAY IN THE TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME [Baruch 1:15-22 and Luke 10:13-16] For we did not heed the voice of the Lord, our God, in all the words of the prophets whom he sent us, but each one of us went off after the devices of his own wicked heart, served other gods, and did evil in the sight of the Lord, our God. [Baruch] The prayer of the exiles in Babylonia from the book of the prophet Baruch, which forms the first scripture today, is a collective prayer but it is a remarkable example of individual responsibility. "Each one of us went off, etc.". During the exile, it would be understandable that the Jews would be asking, "Why did this disaster befall us?" On a geo-political level one might simply say it was a matter of a Middle Eastern superpower swooping down on a smaller entity to create a vassal state. But to the Jews, it was a result of their failure to be faithful to the covenant. Baruch was the "secretary" to the prophet Jeremiah and knew well the hostile reaction of the community to Jeremiah's warnings about fidelity and foreign alliances. Great disasters have a way of searing a collective soul. The terrorist attack that we now refer to as 9/11 left us wondering why a small group would attack one of the great symbols of American commercial/cultural strength? What did we do to "deserve" such a terrible thing? Perhaps what left many unsettled (and still does) is our vulnerability. We are not invincible as a nation, but we do have a collective strength that can come from shared values. That is what sustained the Jews during their exile. This is strengthened even more by a faith in God and not just in abstractions like liberty and freedom. The prayer from Baruch can serve to remind us of the importance of faith in the time of disaster. The people of Houston, Florida,Puerto Rico and Mexico can tell us about that! AMEN
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