20 March 2020 - return, O Israel

Today's Readings

(Audio)

We shall say no more, ‘Our god,’
to the work of our hands;
for in you the orphan finds compassion.

We must decide to stop seeking fulfillment on our own terms and through our own effort. We aren't building idols in the shapes of men and beasts in order to worship them. But we are seeking the same level of fulfillment from many things which are not God. We are seeking to fulfill our desires in things which are not only less than God but which are less than ourselves. We act as though we are creatures that are not destined for immortality, seeking our hope in things that perish. We need to look beyond all of these things in order to find that which truly satisfies.

The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these.

The commandments are true guides to lasting joy. Often, they don't seem like it to us. We seek our joy in ways that range from hedonism to psychological tested practice for self-help. Yet none of these can answer the question that we are implicitly asking, the question that is every human life. That question is our purpose and our meaning. The answer is that we are made for God and made to love.

We've heard before that love should be first and that God should be first. Yet we don't seem to take it to heart. How can we internalize it? What can we, creatures that we are, do?

I will heal their defection, says the LORD,
I will love them freely;
for my wrath is turned away from them.
I will be like the dew for Israel:
he shall blossom like the lily;
He shall strike root like the Lebanon cedar,
and put forth his shoots.

Before we do anything we need to recognize that the LORD is the one who initiates, who indeed already has begun to draw us to the healing we need. When we realize this we can respond in a way that opens ourselves to the action of our Divine Physician. We don't make the mistake of trying to initiate a healing work apart from the one in whom alone is found wholeness and health.

An unfamiliar speech I hear:
“I relieved his shoulder of the burden;
his hands were freed from the basket.
In distress you called, and I rescued you.”

Today we are called to assess our current priorities. Even in this call the LORD is already moving to heal us. We need not experience this as motivated by his desire to condemn where we were. Rather it comes from his desire for us to move into the lives we are created to live.