It is true for all of us that life is busy, full of multiple duties and countless distractions. As adults, we often feel burdened by our many duties to family, work, and our social and political lives. It is also true that we live in a world that surrounds us with the noise and fascination of countless distractions. With the advent and instantaneity of the internet, cell phones, and social media, all of which are designed to get and to keep our attention, indeed, to addict us to “information” and “entertainment,” is it surprising, then, that we give little to no measure of time or attention to God and his Word during most of our days?
Because of this, we easily forget that God is always present and that he holds us in his mind and his heart at every moment, in every place. We are often too distracted by the world, we get caught up in the maelstrom of our desires and self-interests, and we forget, or we become indifferent to God’s presence, his love for us, and our need for him. It is in this forgetfulness, in our habits of indifference, that we become more vulnerable to sin, small and great. We forget that God is God and we are not. We forget or become indifferent to God’s justice and his mercy. We begin to think and act as though we are our gods. But every word and deed has its consequences. This is reality. It is undeniable. So is God’s justice, and God’s promise of mercy.
The Jews of the Old Testament were no different from us in these things. The Old Testament is full of stories of their getting caught up in sinful ways. We see what happened to them as well. We see their suffering, and more importantly, we see that when they come to realize their errors and turn back to God, we also see that God responds with absolute faithfulness, love, and mercy toward them in every case. It was so with the Jews who were defeated and exiled to Babylon in the 6th century before Christ. The Book of Daniel is a product of this time. It was composed during the bitter times of this period of persecution and was written to strengthen and comfort them in their ordeal. The moral of the stories in this book is that people of faith can resist temptation and conquer adversity. This is a moral we need to consider and contemplate in our day, too.
“I prayed to the Lord, my God, and confessed, ‘Ah, Lord, great and awesome God, you who keep your merciful covenant toward those who love you and observe your commandments! We have sinned, been wicked, and done evil; we have rebelled and departed from your commandments and your laws. But yours, O Lord, our God, are compassion and forgiveness” (Dn. 9:4-5, 9). In these words, we are reminded, once again, that it is our sins that are the cause of our suffering, both individually and communally. Through our pride, or our forgetfulness, or our indifference, we break our covenant with God all too often. But we also see that God’s promise of compassion and forgiveness is unbroken. We see this again in Luke’s Gospel, when Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, confirms that his son is to be named, John, and regains his ability to speak, he utters these words, “He has come to the aid of his servant Israel for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and to his children for ever” (Lk. 1:54-55). This is a word of comfort, as well as of challenge.
In the Beatitudes, we are told that “Those who mourn will be comforted” (Mt. 5:4). When we grow more self-aware of our stubbornness of heart, our angers against one another, our greed in all of its forms, our unwillingness to forgive those who have sinned against us; when we admit the harm we have done to others, and we begin to mourn for our sins, God will quickly comfort us with his faithful compassion and forgiveness. History unrolls under the watchful eye of God, who does not abandon those who trust in him, and he will deliver and re-establish those who turn back to him with infinite compassion and total forgiveness.
If we pray over this, if we come to see its wisdom and begin to practice it, it can become ever more possible for us to trust in the faithfulness of God’s compassion and forgiveness. We are challenged by these words to learn to live our daily lives ever more aware of God’s loving presence. We need to pray for his grace to strengthen us in our efforts to remain faithful to him. When we learn to give ourselves to him with faithfulness, we will find the peace, the comfort, and the joy that our hearts so deeply desire and need. Thanks be to God!
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