[ Today's Readings ]
The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples,
“Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
He heard this and said,
“Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.
Those who think they are well are the ones who are truly at risk. Those who realize their state of dependence on Jesus are the ones who are open to receive the consolation and healing of his presence. If we think we're doing fine we do have a tendency to feel like the feasts of God are just obligations keeping us from more important things.
When will the new moon be over,” you ask,
“that we may sell our grain,
and the sabbath, that we may display the wheat?”
After all, this is our livelihood. Isn't that the main thing on which we really need to focus? It is not. When we put things other than God first we fail to see the ways in which we fail without him.
We will diminish the containers for measuring,
add to the weights,
and fix our scales for cheating!
We will buy the lowly man for silver,
and the poor man for a pair of sandals;
even the refuse of the wheat we will sell!
When God isn't first the darkness of our hearts evades our notice. We are too selfish and don't care enough to actually notice it. Yet God does not abandon us even then. He takes action to help those who believe they are well but who are in fact perishing.
I will turn your feasts into mourning
and all your songs into lamentations.
I will cover the loins of all with sackcloth
and make every head bald.
I will make them mourn as for an only son,
and bring their day to a bitter end.
There are all sorts of reasons why spiritual desolations come upon us. They come upon us due to our own sloth, or to see how much we are willing to do selflessly and without reward, or to help us to see that whatever we have or want to have in terms of devotion and love is not from us but is all the gift and grace of God our LORD. Desolations are not without purpose. They are not mere punishment. Any dessolation can teach us to hunger for God.
Yes, days are coming, says the Lord GOD,
when I will send famine upon the land:
Not a famine of bread, or thirst for water,
but for hearing the word of the LORD.
Then shall they wander from sea to sea
and rove from the north to the east
In search of the word of the LORD,
but they shall not find it.
It can all serve to bring us back to God. It can all serve to show us just how much we need him and increase our desire in proportion. Let us be docile so that we can be transformed. Let us realize our sickness so we can be healed.
I gasp with open mouth
in my yearning for your commands.
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