10 October 2019 - there will arise the sun of justice

Today's Readings

(Audio)

You have said, "It is vain to serve God,
and what do we profit by keeping his command,
And going about in penitential dress
in awe of the LORD of hosts?
Rather must we call the proud blessed;
for indeed evildoers prosper,
and even tempt God with impunity."

Can one ignore God and have a good life? It often seems like it is possible, doesn't it? We see many in the world whose choices defy not only God but even basic moral decency. Yet they seem to succeed. We're are forced to retract the boundaries of our definitions of blessedness until it is so purely spiritual as to lose meaning.

What evildoers and the proud have, that which they seem to enjoy, is something which they cannot keep. They chose to take for their treasures the temporary things of this world that will eventually be taken from them.

For lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven,
when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble,
And the day that is coming will set them on fire,
leaving them neither root nor branch,
says the LORD of hosts.

The blessedness of the just may seem fragile, but it is really being built on a rock. It seems fragile, perhaps, because we allow it to be refined again and again, loosening our grips and that which doesn't matter. But that which remains is what remains forever.

But for you who fear my name, there will arise
the sun of justice with its healing rays.

We can experience more of the blessedness of the just here and now. We don't have to be people who secretly envy those with money and power. We can rejoice in heavenly blessings. But in order to do so we need to ask and keep asking.

And I tell you, ask and you will receive;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives;
and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

When we keep asking our desires our refined by the purifying fire of God's love. We find ourselves more and more asking for the one thing necessary. And God himself is delighted to provide.

how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit
to those who ask him?"