Piety
Lord, make our hearts true to you, not to things we construct and constrict in the world. Help us to seek always your face, not to just seek to “get ahead” in life. Guide us to places where we will encounter you in the faces of the lost sheep, the poor, the elderly and the powerless. Bring down your justice and your love upon us now and forever. Amen.
Study
http://www.usccb.org/nab/071206.shtml
“Sow for yourselves justice,reap the fruit of piety;break up for yourselves a new field,for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain down justice upon you.” Hosea 10:12
What is your favorite book? Movie? Article of clothing?
Are you surrounded by “lifestyle enabler” devices? Are you attached to that I-Pod, car, cell phone or computer? Technology has supposedly freed us to do many things while still staying “connected.” Yet are we connected to each other or are we connected to the AC adapter or USB cable? Are you tethered to the people in your home port or to some printer connected to your serial port?
Think of the hours wasted on the phone with tech support. Think of all that time spent wondering if the world would end at the stroke of midnight back in Y2K when all of our computerized clocks would screech to a halt. After all, this is just stuff, junk in a few months when they are made obsolete by the next generation.
Hosea underscores the dichotomy between the permanent love of the Lord and the wandering people of the world. He contrasts the justice of the Lord with the evil and wickedness of humanity. Such evil and wickedness must be driven out for the Kingdom of God to reign.
Please don’t think I am implying all technology is bad…heck, without technology, I wouldn’t be writing this message, I wouldn’t have a fast method to sending it to you daily and you wouldn’t be reading this.
But does all this technology estrange us from the work God wants us to accomplish. Technology for technology’s sake doesn’t advance us in love. The altars, sacred pillars and kings that we build up are nothing in comparison to the justice that the Lord will rain down upon us.
Through the prophecy of Hosea, we see Israel estranged from a loving God because of Israel’s actions. Yahweh, however, can not stay estranged from the spouse He cares for so deeply. Despite the betrayal, Yahweh seeks to patch up this relationship. To do so, we get hints that God will send his son on a mission to do that.
That sense of calling, mission and vocation comes through then in today’s reading from Matthew’s Gospel. Just as Jesus worked among the sinners and tax collectors, He sends out the Apostles to continue to do the work He was engaged in while on earth.
“Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” Matthew 10:6-7
Action
Instead of trusting in the things of this world, Matthew and Hosea pack a one-two punch of a message to trust in the Lord and his justice. “Seek always the face of the Lord.” If you get your eyes off that I-Pod screen, maybe you can see the face of the Lord in those people surrounding you.
Recently, we have been hearing a lot about the debate on embryonic stem cell research as a pathway to cure everything from diabetes to brain and spinal cord injuries. In the just the last three days, the news has been filling up with stories on this topic once again.
Stem Cells Back in Political Spotlight
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/08/AR2006070800506.html
Bringing the Church to the Courtroom
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/09/AR2006070900903.html
Rove: Bush Would Veto Stem Cell Bill
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/11/AR2006071100098.html
Jesus did not empower the scientists with power over life. Technology and science lay before us many possibilities. However, technology does not trump morality. In today’s Gospel, Jesus gave power over illness to the Apostles. (Jesus “gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness.”)
Even if you skip over the articles linked above, check out this next one. This month in the Columbia magazine, is a great background article by Archbishop Donald Wuerl, our new shepherd in Washington, D.C., entitled “Saving Lives Now and Later: Why the Church champions the use of adult stem cells and opposes the use of embryonic stem cells.” http://www.kofc.org/publications/columbia/detail.cfm?id=93858
When you have a moment, read this and begin to be better informed when this debate hits the media again…and it surely will.
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