Thursday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 326 

You have not approached that which could be touched
and a blazing fire and gloomy darkness
and storm and a trumpet blast
and a voice speaking words such that those who heard
begged that no message be further addressed to them.
Indeed, so fearful was the spectacle that Moses said,
“I am terrified and trembling.”


This twelfth chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews presents the sharpest contrast between "the Old Testament God" and the "New Testament God." Most biblical scholars, Christian and Jewish, agree that the "Old Testament God" has suffered bad press. There are innumerable passages between Genesis and Malachi to assure us of the Lord' s tender love for his people. 

But people have ways of shaping their own god from the Sacred Scriptures and it's not hard to base one's image of God on the baneful verses. Much of that, I think, is founded on our life experience. We expect of God what we learn from life. 

And, for the last several centuries anyway, life in the western world for the poor and disenfranchised, has been very hard. Violence has saturated our experience from the slap of the baby's bottom to the wars to end all wars. I grew up in the 1950's, shortly after World War II. After the wholesale slaughter of millions of people, after the shock of bodies shredded and incinerated by aerial bombardment, what was slapping around a kid? Or wife-beating? And who would blame a man who just wants to escape into alcohol or drugs or suicide? When people struggle to feed their own children who would blame them for shorting minorities, or entertaining themselves with "necktie parties?" 

How could we expect  the Lord of All, the Almighty God to be merciful when there was so little mercy among us? 

So I grew up with an intimate familiarity with the god of blazing fire and gloomy darkness and a voice speaking words such that those who heard begged no message be further addressed to them. 

I learned to avoid the eyes of authority, to keep my head down and my opinions to myself when authority hove into sight. It has taken most of a lifetime to disbelieve what I learned about God.

No, you have approached Mount Zion
and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and countless angels in festal gathering,
and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven,
and God the judge of all,
and the spirits of the just made perfect,
and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant,
and the sprinkled Blood that speaks more eloquently
than that of Abel.

In many ways we are still caught in this conundrum, unsure of whether we should trust a Benevolent, Provident God or not. 

The Lectionary of the Catholic Church has been prepared to help us make the transition to faith in a Merciful God. Although the Hebrews Prophets, with their rage against injustice in Israel, Judah and Jerusalem, are certainly represented; we also hear their gentle reassurances to the Virgin Daughter Zion. God's preferential option for the poor -- the anawim -- enjoys an active voice in our daily and Sunday readings. 

Hearing the readings and poring over them daily can help us rebuild our confidence in the Lord of Life. Contemplating the psalms -- like Psalm 130, Out of the depths -- has helped me to meet the Word made Flesh who is Jesus. Meditating on the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles and the writings of Saint Paul has persuaded me that I need not live in continual dread of authority. 

It's not an easy conversion. It doesn't happen in the twinkling of an eye and I suffer many relapses. 

But I will call this to mind, as my reason to have hope: The favors of the LORD are not exhausted, his mercies are not spent; They are renewed each morning, so great is his faithfulness. My portion is the LORD, says my soul; therefore will I hope in him. Good is the LORD to one who waits for him, to the soul that seeks him; It is good to hope in silence for the saving help of the LORD.