God, who am I?

Devotional Thought of the Day:

Long ago you went to Egypt where you lived as foreigners. Then Assyria was cruel to you, 5 and now another nation has taken you prisoner for no reason at all.
Your leaders groan with pain, and day after day my own name is cursed.
6 My people, you will learn who I am and who is speaking because I am here.  Is 52:4-6 CEV

2195 Every Christian should avoid making unnecessary demands on others that would hinder them from observing the Lord’s Day.

447    After seeing how many people waste their lives (without a break: gab, gab, gab—and with all the consequences!), I can better appreciate how necessary and lovable silence is. And I can well understand, Lord, why you will make us account for every idle word.

The last question I want to be asked in all this COVID19 time is, “Where is God in all of this?” And the reason I don’t want it asked, is because if it is, then we, as the church, haven’t done what we are called to do. We have failed to love both God and our neighbor who asks!  Let me explain…

The people in Isaiah’s day must have felt like the balls in a game of pool at the break. Assaulted by force from one direction, they were bouncing off the walls and each other. After watching the 10 tribes get taken into captivity, then being attacked themselves. Going through leader after leader, some who followed God sometimes, others who did so in name, and others who turned the entire nation away from God, they knew how the balls felt, and their tight community was shattered.

I think we are in a similar time, as we just start to adjust to getting smashed when we bounce off another wall, and then another, and crash into each other.

We are all tired… weary…broken… and at times, getting on each others’ nerves.

Our leaders, both religious and secular are struggling, groaning, and in their pain, yes, they often curse God. Or they curse those people (including themselves ) who God has created. There is little difference, for cursing God’s creation is cursing Him.

That is where the point from the Catholic Church’s catechism comes into play. These things we do, they stop people from finding the rest they need in Christ, they block people from finding the peace that gathering with fellow believers would encourage. Our complaints, our cursing, our inability to be still and silent, and know He is God prohibits others from finding the same.

If people are asking where God is, we have to ask ourselves if we are blocking their view of Him. They can’t see Him because we are in the way, with our griping, with our complaining, or protesting how we are treated, or in the way we react to those who do.

We need to find the promise at the end of Isaiah’s quote.  We need to remember who God is, as He reveals himself and we see His love for us. He did this at the cross, and yet the Spirit does it each and every day.

He is here… with us,

Here is here… and will heal us.

He is here…

Slow down, stop talking – and point people to Him, and let them know the love and healing that is happening in our lives.

Let them know God is with them, show them His work done by your hands, His words said by your lips, as you go to them.  Then rejoice, for they will show you His work in them as well.

Lord Jesus, help us reflect Your love into the darkness of our time, as You have in the past. Help us not to block people’s view of You, but show them Your work in their lives. Bless us, as You have promised with hearts and minds captivated by Your inexpressible peace.  AMEN!

Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Ed. (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997), 529.

Escriva, Josemaria. The Way . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.