Memorial of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, virgin

I am concerned about you
and about the way you are being treated in Egypt;
so I have decided to lead you up out of the misery of Egypt
into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, 
Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites,
a land flowing with milk and honey.


Soteriology is that branch of theology that considers the nature of salvation, which can come in many forms. We might be saved from slavery as were the Hebrews in Egypt and Africans in the slave states of the United States. There is deliverance from oppression, ostracism and poverty. On a personal level one might be set free from shame, guilt and illness -- physical, mental or spiritual. We might also be relieved of anxiety and fear, or painful memories and post-traumatic stress. And then there are all the addictions, too many even to begin naming! In short, we human beings are a tormented lot and often need help from above. 
The Book of Exodus presents the story of God's delivering his chosen people from slavery in Egypt. In doing so, it introduces the God who delivers us from every form of trouble. It presumes that we cannot deliver ourselves. The Bible is not a self-help book. Contrary to popular believe, the Bible nowhere says, "God helps those who help themselves." 
Occasionally I meet soft-brained Christians who feel sorry for the pharaoh and the Egyptians, and especially for their first born sons. In their muddle-headedness they miss the point altogether. This is a story of the mighty God who reveals himself as the supremely all-powerful One. There is none like him. Eventually the Jews will go further, understanding there is no other God period! 
Our God is the merciful God who chooses and favors His people. Again, the mud-heads think this is somehow unfair. Shouldn't God love everybody equally? But loving everybody equally is the same as loving no one at all. 
God chooses to love the descendants of Abraham, renewing the covenant he made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. There are serious signs of the erosion of that covenant on the Jewish side, as Moses saw when he witnessed a fight between two Hebrews. Salvation must begin somewhere and it begins with the chosen people. It will go out from the Jews to everyone, to the ends of the earth.
Some soteriologies begin with the assumption that God is implacably angry with all humankind, and has decided to destroy everyone but the faithful. This is not a Catholic doctrine. Rather, God has seen our helpless condition, indeed he has created us with our insatiable need for Him; and he has chosen to finish the work he began with our creation. 
Some soteriologies suppose that, had Adam and Eve not sinned, there would be no need for Jesus to be born, and we would not have needed to be saved. But Franciscan spirituality insists that God had intended from the beginning to complete the works of creation and salvation with the birth of Jesus. His passion and death reveal how far God will go to prove his undying, insatiable love for us. 
Do we deserve this much love? Certainly not. Can we earn it? Of course not. The very idea is absurd. Rather, we need it and God is eager to display his love. The Exodus is the story of God's "contest" with the gods of this world, the pathetic idols we create for ourselves.
Perhaps the most convincing "god" we ever created was the Pharaoh. Like Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein and countless others, the Pharaoh at least had an army to demonstrate and enforce his authority. At least he wasn't a wooden or stone idol carried on the backs of slaves! But this ridiculous man and his deluded followers were destroyed in the twinkling of an eye by the might of our God. 
Here in the United States we should remember that our God is greater than all the armed forces we might muster against the world. Our atomic weapons pale before the sun which God made, and our Sol is only a mid-sized star in God's universe. 

Our troubles too, are as nothing before the Goodness of our God who loves us for no other reason than he loves us. Turning to him with all our troubles, be they political or personal, financial, familial or physical, we find deliverance. 
...for his mercy endures forever.