God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son:
everyone who believes in him has eternal life. JN3:16
EXODUS 32:7-14
My Soul's Beloved,
Every age seems more wicked and decadent than the last. How much longer, O Lord, will You tolerate us? When will Your rage, O Lord, burst forth and annihilate us as we deserve? How long will You hold the Father's hand against His faithless children who refuse to understand the depths of His love for us? So greatly has the Father loved us, Beloved, that He gave us You, His only Son, and all who believe in You are guaranteed salvation. It is through You, O Lord, that the Father has saved the world that was lost by Adam to Satan. By the power of Your redeeming Sacrifice, You won it back for God.
We worship idols in a variety of ways by becoming enslaved by the passing things of this world. We are obsessed by things that ultimately age, wither, decay, and die, but the things of God, which are eternal and life-giving, we ignore or despise. Abysmal ignorance of God, insidious laziness that lacks a healthy curiosity to study, understand, and explore all that is good, true, noble, and beautiful, and an all-consuming desire for lusting after the things of the flesh and the world are taking us to bring of total destruction. We are unwilling to see the looming evil that is slowly but terrifyingly drawing ever nearer. Soon, it will be too late to draw back from the crumbling edifice of hubris that will annihilate us if, in Your mercy, O Lord, You do not intervene to rescue us.
Listen to the prayers of Your anawim, O Lord, as You heard the pleas of Moses. Heed Your faithful remnant who cry out to You ceaselessly to withhold Your righteous anger against us. Do not punish and destroy us as we deserve, but for the sake of Your sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and forgive us.
The Lord said to Moses, ‘I can see how headstrong these people are! Leave me, now, my wrath shall blaze out against them and devour them; of you, however, I will make a great nation.’
But Moses pleaded with the Lord his God. ‘Lord,’ he said ‘why should your wrath blaze out against this people of yours whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with arm outstretched and mighty hand? Why let the Egyptians say, “Ah, it was in treachery that he brought them out, to do them to death in the mountains and wipe them off the face of the earth”? Leave your burning wrath; relent and do not bring this disaster on your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, your servants to whom by your own self you swore and made this promise: I will make your offspring as many as the stars of heaven, and all this land which I promised I will give to your descendants, and it shall be their heritage for ever.’
So the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.
PSALM 105(106):19-23
O Lord, remember me out of the love you have for your people.
They fashioned a calf at Horeb
and worshipped an image of metal,
exchanging the God who was their glory
for the image of a bull that eats grass.
and worshipped an image of metal,
exchanging the God who was their glory
for the image of a bull that eats grass.
They forgot the God who was their saviour,
who had done such great things in Egypt,
such portents in the land of Ham,
such marvels at the Red Sea.
such portents in the land of Ham,
such marvels at the Red Sea.
For this he said he would destroy them,
but Moses, the man he had chosen,
stood in the breach before him,
to turn back his anger from destruction.
stood in the breach before him,
to turn back his anger from destruction.
O Lord, remember me out of the love you have for your people.
JOHN 5:31-47
My Soul's Beloved,
My Soul's Beloved,
You performed great signs and wonders before many. They witnessed Your power. They heard the authority with which You taught them. You pointed out to them from Scripture how everything recorded in it spoke of You and Your coming. But their hearts were closed. Their eyes refused to see. Their ears refused to hear. They preferred the darkness to the light.
We are no different, Beloved. We have the benefit of the great advances made to make Your Word accessible to all who desire to know it. We have the lives of great saints over the centuries who show us that it is possible to live good, holy, pure lives pleasing to God. We have the Church, which never ceases to be a good mother, a good shepherd, a good teacher to all who are her members. Too many of us prefer our own wisdom rather than leaning on the wisdom of the Church, and we stray from the Way that leads to the Kingdom.
Do not allow the world to stray much further, O Lor,d from the Way of Life and Truth, but grant that wisdom may prevail as we begin to see that the only way to be truly happy in this life is to believe in You and be grafted on to You. Save us, Lord, save Your people, and be not angry with us forever.
Jesus said to the Jews:
‘You study the scriptures,
believing that in them you have eternal life;
now these same scriptures testify to me,
and yet you refuse to come to me for life!
As for human approval, this means nothing to me.
Besides, I know you too well: you have no love of God in you.
I have come in the name of my Father
and you refuse to accept me;
if someone else comes in his own name
you will accept him.
How can you believe,
since you look to one another for approval
and are not concerned
with the approval that comes from the one God?
Do not imagine that I am going to accuse you before the Father:
you place your hopes on Moses,
and Moses will be your accuser.
If you really believed him
you would believe me too,
since it was I that he was writing about;
but if you refuse to believe what he wrote,
how can you believe what I say?’
