Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Wednesday in the Fourth Week of Easter

Jeremiah, Chapter 26, Verse 21

When King Jehoiakim and all his officers and princes heard his words, the king sought to have him killed. But Uriah heard of it and fled in FEAR to Egypt.

Both Jeremiah and Uriah spoke of the destruction of Israel. Jeremiah stood his ground and said kill me my blood is in your hands. Uriah fled was captured and killed; Jeremiah lived. Face your fears! This is what Christ meant when he said we must become like little children again to enter the Kingdom of God. That is, we approach the pressures of life with all its troubles, fears and problems as an opportunity for belief. “Having moved through our fears we can begin to reach our hand into the gift of the fountain of God’s grace.[1]

Today might be a good day to plan to take your children or grandchildren fishing. According to Maude Farris-Luse, the oldest recorded living human being, fishing and mustard plasters were the secret to her longevity. Treat every day as a gift from God; each one is unique and unlike any other as it unfolds realize what happens today will only happen once in the entire history of the universe.

Amoris Lætitia[2] The Experiences and Challenges of Families-The Current Reality of the Family

The welfare of the family is decisive for the future of the world and that of the Church. Families are faced with the growing danger represented by an extreme individualism (which the world professes) which weakens family bonds and ends up considering each member of the family as an isolated unit, leading in some cases to the idea that one’s personality is shaped by his or her desires, which are considered absolute”. The tensions created by an overly individualistic culture, caught up with possessions and pleasures, leads to intolerance and hostility in families. Freedom of choice makes it possible to plan our lives and to make the most of ourselves. Yet if this freedom lacks noble goals or personal discipline, it degenerates into an inability to give oneself generously to others. It is easy nowadays to confuse genuine freedom with the idea that each individual can act arbitrarily, as if there were no truths, values and principles to provide guidance, and everything were possible and permissible. The ideal of marriage, marked by a commitment to exclusivity and stability, is swept aside whenever it proves inconvenient or tiresome. The fear of loneliness and the desire for stability and fidelity exist side by side with a growing fear of entrapment in a relationship that could hamper the achievement of one’s personal goals.

Abraham had 10 tests and he withstood all of them.[3]

Notice that the first event listed—Abraham’s being thrown into a furnace—is one that is not recorded in the Bible, but is known to us only by way of midrashic traditions.

1. He is thrown into a fiery furnace.

2. G‑d tells him to leave his homeland to be a stranger in the land of Canaan.

3. Immediately after his arrival in the Promised Land, he encounters a famine.

4. The Egyptians seize his beloved wife, Sarah, and bring her to Pharaoh.

5. He faces incredible odds in the battle of the four and five kings.

6. He is told by G‑d that his children will be strangers in a strange land.

7. G‑d tells him to circumcise himself at an advanced age.

8. The king of Gerar captures Sarah, intending to take her for himself.

9. G‑d tells him to send away Hagar and her son, Ishmael.

10. Abraham is told by G‑d to sacrifice his dear son Isaac upon an altar.