The Lord Will Not Abandon Us

I wrote this reflection on the July 17 Mass readings for Give Us This Day back when the war in Gaza began last fall. The war still rages, with no peace in sight for the land of the prophet Isaiah and the psalmist David, the birthplace of Jesus. And yet, we, with David, continue to sing and to proclaim, "The Lord will not abandon his people." This is not a comfortable message. The psalmist is not patting our hands and saying, "There, there." The psalmist makes no promise that we will not continue to fight and to kill the widow and the stranger and the orphan. We continue to be fools and "senseless ones among the people." But God also continues to be God, and God will not abandon his people, even as we continue to abandon God. And one another. It is not the guarantee I want, but it is the promise to which I cling. The readings for July 17 are Isaiah 10:5-7, 13b-16; Psalm 94:5-6, 7-8, 9-10, 14-15; Matthew 11:25-27

Poor Assyria. They believe themselves to be the intelligence that directs the axe, when they are just the axe. Poor Judah. They believe themselves to be God’s favorite, when they are under God’s wrath. Assyria seeks to destroy Judah, but God intends only to chastise her. What Assyria imagines as its blaze of glory will be the fire of its defeat. Poor them. And poor us, who do not, cannot, understand the ways of God. How can we see men and women trodden down like the mud of the streets and find God’s mercy there?

The Psalmist does not attempt to reconcile what seems to us the irreconcilable. Will God’s people be trampled down? Yes. Will the widow and the stranger and the orphan be slain? Yes. The Psalmist sings only this refrain, “The Lord will not abandon his people.”

As I write, war rages, again, in the land where Assyria and Judah met. I am fearful and sorrowful. I look to the peace of the small children in my care. I recall when my oldest grand­son would spend the night with me. As I closed the door and turned out the light, he would say, “If I call you, MaMaw, you will come.” It wasn’t a question.

Jesus’ words calm me. “No one knows the Father except the Son.” I can put away my quest to understand and accept the invitation to stand under, as a child hides in her mother’s skirts or leans against his father’s shoulder. We are children of God, not peers. I am to learn as children learn, by trusting, and fol­lowing the steps of the Trusted One. Following, I will learn with the Psalmist, “The Lord will not abandon his people.”

[CREDIT]   from the July 2024 issue of Give Us This Day, www.giveusthisday.org (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2024). Used with permission.