Word to the Wise
Wednesday, September 26, 2018 - Wednesday in the 25th Week in Ordinary Time
[Prov 30:5-9 and Luke 9:1-6]Two things I ask of you, deny them not to me before I die: put falsehood and lying far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches; provide me only with the food I need; lest, being full, I deny you, saying, "Who is the the LORD," or, being in want, I steal, and profane the name of my God.
The Book of Proverbs, as always, gives us something to think about. The prayer here is for enough to live on so that we don't become self-satisfied with too much or desperate with too little. Either state of being can separate us from God. Statistically and sadly, the desperate are in the great majority of the human race. And there is a cruel irony in this because the world is producing enough food but political and economic obstacles abound that prevent the hungry masses from receiving it. These obstacles are all human-made and can be human-removed. In the meantime, the "full" in many cases lose all sight of the "empty" and of the connection between faith and social justice.
Thousands of times in our lives we repeat the words of Jesus' in the Lord's Prayer which say, "Give us today our daily bread!" It may not occur to us that we can be the agents of God's mercy in feeding the hungry. An intentional effort in doing this can help us to realize both sides of the prayer in Proverbs! AMEN