God's Law is Not Man's
Oct 6: Friday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Culpability, guilt, and punishment are complicated issues that we tend to not want to think about. If that’s how you’re feeling, you might want to skip today.
If you’re up for some challenging readings, though, let’s dive in!
Reading 1
Bar 1:15-22
During the Babylonian captivity, the exiles prayed: "Justice is with the Lord, our God; and we today are flushed with shame, we men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem, that we, with our kings and rulers and priests and prophets, and with our ancestors, have sinned in the Lord's sight and disobeyed him. We have neither heeded the voice of the Lord, our God, nor followed the precepts which the Lord set before us. From the time the Lord led our ancestors out of the land of Egypt until the present day, we have been disobedient to the Lord, our God, and only too ready to disregard his voice. And the evils and the curse that the Lord enjoined upon Moses, his servant, at the time he led our ancestors forth from the land of Egypt to give us the land flowing with milk and honey, cling to us even today. For we did not heed the voice of the Lord, our God, in all the words of the prophets whom he sent us, but each one of us went off after the devices of his own wicked heart, served other gods, and did evil in the sight of the Lord, our God."
The book Baruch was written by Jeremiah’s assistant, Baruch. While Jeremiah witnessed the Babylonian conquest from Jerusalem, Baruch was sent to the Israelites in captivity to read God’s Word, so his book gives us a different perspective.1
The captives realize that they were in the wrong, not obeying God’s law for many generations. Worse, only in slavery do they recognize the blessing God had given them.
That’s the way it is with us, sometimes.
Gratitude keeps us in the right headspace, whether things are going well or ill for us.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 79:1b-2, 3-5, 8, 9
R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.
O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;
they have defiled your holy temple,
they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
They have given the corpses of your servants
as food to the birds of heaven,
the flesh of your faithful ones to the beasts of the earth.
R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.
They have poured out their blood like water
round about Jerusalem,
and there is no one to bury them.
We have become the reproach of our neighbors,
the scorn and derision of those around us.
O LORD, how long? Will you be angry forever?
Will your jealousy burn like fire?
R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.
Remember not against us the iniquities of the past;
may your compassion quickly come to us,
for we are brought very low.
R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.
Help us, O God our savior,
because of the glory of your name;
Deliver us and pardon our sins
for your name's sake.
R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.
This is a communal lament, sung by those in exile. They call on God to see that His holy temple has been defiled in the worst way imaginable. Bodies are literally being eaten by birds, rather than being buried. There’s no one around to do the burials, because they’ve been taken into captivity.
That’s the first two verses, calling on God’s judgement. But then there’s a turn at the next verse—the singers recognize that this is happening because of their own sins. They ask for compassion and forgiveness.
And so in the last verse, they turn back to God. They ask to be saved for God’s name’s sake, not their own. They messed up, and they need God to fix it.
Which again, although we may not be held in captivity by a foreign empire, we often find ourselves in this same type of situation. We can also ask God for His help, to show his own glory to the world.
Alleluia
Ps 95:8
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
If today you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Some people literally heard Jesus’ voice, and still didn’t listen, as we’re about to hear in today’s Gospel.
Gospel
Lk 10:13-16
Jesus said to them, "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And as for you, Capernaum, 'Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld.' Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."
Tyre and Sidon were regarded as wicked cities, and were conquered by Babylon at the same time Israel was. They were gentiles, though, and had never heard the word of God. Here, Jesus points out how much worse it is if you have heard the good news, and still decide not to follow it.
This, of course, raises the question of why someone would be punished if they’ve never received Jesus’ message. It’s because there are some things that everyone, all human societies, know are wrong.2 We can only do the best we can with what limited knowledge we have, but that doesn’t mean someone who’s sacrificing babies to Ba’al is innocent.
None of that applies to us, though. We have to follow the admonition in today’s alleluia—If today you hear His voice (which you definitely have, if you’ve read this far), harden not your hearts.
I think. Honestly, the chronology is very confusing here, especially because protestant sources consider this book apocryphal.
We call it the Natural Law.