Encourage Our Hearts August 29

Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man, and kept him in custody. When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed, yet he liked to listen to him. Mark 6: 20

Piety

Let us pray: God, source of all being, do not let this world deceive us or shake us from our resolve to follow you. May we have the strength of John the Baptist to go out into the world and proclaim the Good News, no matter what the consequences. Support those in missionary service where the risks are much greater than they are for us. May Jesus Christ, in loving and encouraging friendship with us, encourage our hearts and strengthen them in every good word and deed. Deliver us from evil and grant us peace today. Amen.


Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/082906.shtml

John the Baptist did not hesitate to speak “truth to power.” He knew that God spoke with constancy and equity to all people, no matter the apparent place in society or civil rank.

On August 9, the 61st anniversary of the U.S. nuclear bombing of Nagasaki, as well as the anniversary of the martyrdom of Franz Jagerstatter (the Austrian Catholic father of three who was beheaded for refusing to serve in Hitler's army), about 20 members of the Atlantic Life Community held a nonviolent witness at the Pentagon. Holding photos of burnt bodies and the destruction caused by the U.S. plutonium bomb dropped on Nagasaki, the Sermon on the Mount was read and prayers were offered remembering the victims of U.S. war making – past and present—from Hiroshima and Nagasaski to Vietnam, from Central America to Iraq. Five people were arrested at the southwest pedestrian bridge entrance of the Pentagon.

Four were charged with failure to obey a lawful order and one was charged with disorderly conduct. These people were there to witness to God's law and International law doing what they could to bear witness to the truth. (Court dates are set for Sept. 22 in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, VA.)

Based on the Gospel of Life, were they acting like John the Baptist and proclaiming the everlasting message of constancy and equity in God’s love for all the people of the world?

Action

Is there an injustice – war, abortion, capital punishment, euthanasia, racial discrimination, or other issue – that calls you to speak out, to send a message of “truth to power?”

Perhaps today's anniversary of Hurricane Katrina does that for you. How do you feel about this anniversary of Hurricane Katrina when so many people – especially the poor – remain displaced from their homes?