Isaiah, Chapter 54, verse 4
Do not fear, you shall not be
put to shame; do not be discouraged, you shall not be disgraced. For the shame
of your youth you shall forget, the reproach of your widowhood no longer
remember.
Isaiah
here is speaking of the Eternal Covenant of Peace from God. Our shame was that
we as a people by our transgressions killed Christ, who was the messiah and our
spiritual spouse, thus becoming widows, as a people. Isaiah tells us in advance
that God in his love will no longer remember our reproaches. He will make us
free, He will give us peace.
The next verse of Isaiah
makes this clear, “For your husband is your Maker; the LORD of hosts is his name, Your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel,
called God of all the earth.”
Does
our nation not realize that if we are the spouse of the God of all the earth,
that we are committing murder of God’s own spiritual children through the
legalization of abortion?
Jesus declared “I am the truth”
(John 14: 6) and told Pontius Pilate “For this I was born and for this I came
into the world, to testify to the truth” (John 18: 37). Because he is the Son
of God, Jesus is the truth about who God is, and, because he is fully human, he
is the truth about the human person.
What is that truth? First, that God
is Love, love that is willing to give all, even life itself, for the good of
the beloved. Second, that the human person is precious to God, precious enough
to die for.
When this truth is denied, the
human person becomes subhuman, an object, or a threat. It becomes easy to
destroy a mass of cells viewed as a threat. The human person may seem like a
cancer on humanity and be treated as such, rather than as an individual for
whom Jesus suffered and died.
Almsgiving[2]
When
we consider God valued the human person as so precious enough to die for we
should make a concerted effort to aid others.
The
giving of Alms has everything to do with devotions and piety. Almsgiving is a
powerful form of prayer. “Prayer and
fasting are good, but better than either is almsgiving accompanied by
righteousness…It is better to give alms than t store up gold; for almsgiving
saves one from death and expiates every sin. Those who regularly give alms
shall enjoy a full life” (Tob 12:8-9) To give alms is to give to God. If we
are giving alms righteously then most likely we are doing it though some form
of fasting giving from our substance. The giving of Alms should not philanthropy
with a smiling photo op and boost to our pride. The earliest Christians knew
they could not make a good Communion if they neglected the poor. St. Ignatius
noted that the twin marks of heresy are the neglect of the poor and neglect of
the Eucharist. “The mystery of the poor is this: that they are Jesus and what
you do for them you do to him.” (Dorothy Day) The Eucharist is the key to a
civilization of love. It saves us from misguided tenderness and feel-good
philanthropy, because it gives us the grace to sacrifice as Jesus did. Our main
focus must be widows and orphans. (Single parents and children) “Widows and
orphan are to be revered like the altar of sacrifice.” (Pope Paul VI) We should
give as much as we can and we should give it responsibly making sure the alms
are not wasted.
Mormons
in their almsgiving, for example, do fast offerings in addition to tithing.
This offering accompanies a monthly 24-hour fast. All the money that would have
been spent to buy food during those 24 hours is donated to the Church for the
purpose of feeding the hungry and caring for the needy.
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