The first reading from Thursday’s Mass (of the 4thWeek of Lent) features the golden calf incident. God, likely trying to draw mercy from Moses, threatens to destroy the people for their infidelity. But as the text says,
But Moses implored the LORD, his God, saying, “Why, O LORD, should your wrath blaze up against your own people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with such great power and with so strong a hand? …Let your blazing wrath die down; relent in punishing your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, and how you swore to them by your own self, saying, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky… (EX 32:7-14)
The Responsorial Psalm (106) for Thursday summarizes things well.
Our fathers made a calf in Horeb
and adored a molten image;
They exchanged their glory
for the image of a grass-eating bullock.
They forgot the God who had saved them,
who had done great deeds in Egypt,
Wondrous deeds in the land of Ham,
terrible things at the Red Sea.
Then he spoke of exterminating them,
but Moses, his chosen one,
Withstood him in the breach
to turn back his destructive wrath.
And all this, in our current crisis inspires also a model for prayer. I want to be clear that I am not concluding that God is directly punishing us, but he has permitted this. And, as we know, the people of Bible used times like these to repent and call on God. As I prayed these readings today at a private Mass the following prayerful thoughts came to mind:
Lord God we are in a great crisis, a worldwide crisis. I am going to guess we probably had this coming. For, we have collectively forgotten you, we have been ungrateful and done every sort of wicked deed. We have been greedy, wasteful, worldly, unchaste, unfaithful to marriage and family life, and have aborted our own children by the tens of millions. Yes Lord we have sinned and been stubbornly unrepentant. But Lord, I am, like Moses, asking your mercy. Even though we may not deserve it, I ask it anyway. Please Lord spare us from this disease and the economic collapse that will cause additional lives and harm. A miracle Lord, yes, we need a miracle. Please Lord, as you once did for King David and stopped the pestilence of that day at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, please do this now for us. Save us also from our excessive fears which have so seized many of us. For the sake of Christ’s sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world; Have mercy.
As yet the world as a majority of the whole has not called on God’s mercy. They seek to blame cultures, governments, institutions and political charges for their misfortunes and sufferings while expecting them to resolve the errors of it’s ways. God shows mercy to the repentant who call upon His mercy but how can He offer mercy to those who turn a deaf ear? Our Moses has yet to come down from the mountain and too may people are still worshiping at the golden calf. Who this man could be I just don’t know.
That is a beautiful,heartfelt prayer you offered Msgr. Thank you.
Why might I ask is everyone so afraid to say that God does punish, out of His mercy? What is the fear? If it is the Truth, there should be no fear of speaking it, and it is clearly biblical. How will anyone be CALLED to repentance? If no-one knows, and no-one will speak it, then where is the “call”? People will remain in darkness. It seems they should come to the conclusion on their own, but sin has blocked their understanding and discernment, as well as the false image of Jesus that winks at our “humanity”. Tell the truth, boldly. You do such an excellent job of teaching the truth of the gospels, be not afraid. Your prayer also reminds me of Azariahs prayer in the furnace…Daniel 3. I have prayed it often over the last couple years as society and the Church degraded.
One other thing…in praying for the sick with the virus, I felt strongly to pray it as a deliverance prayer as well as healing. I have a breaking curses prayer I’ve used for many years. Each time we feel something stirring..throat, etc. I pray this prayer over us and it stops.. a suggestion only, but you have spoken of your involvement in deliverance. God has permitted this, yes, but He is also still Faithful Love.
I am very surprised you don’t realize this is directly willed Divine punishment! Look at Fatima and WWI being punishment for sin. Compare then and now. Sodomy and rampant heresy in the clergy. The culture at large; sodomy, abortion, the entire sexual revolution, mass (pun intended) apostasy and violence and rebellion everywhere. And you think God is acting like a disappointed kindly old Grandfather?
Apparently nobody can deal with God as He is instead of the Mercy without repentance God we want.
As we know from the Old Testament, personal and national sins will defile the land (see Ezekiel 36:16-37 for just one example). I believe at least two national sins are defiling our nation and many other nations at this time. The first is the decision, in 1973, of the US Supreme Court to legalize abortion, resulting now in the deaths of over 60 million growing babies in their mothers’ womb, and promoting genocide in our Black and minority communities. We know from the Old Testament how God regards child sacrifice. The second is the Supreme Court decision in 2015 to change the definition of marriage, a definition that had existed since Adam and Eve. I believe that these two decisions alone, and their practices, are defiling our land because they are greatly offensive to God. If this pandemic, allowed by God, is a judgment coming from Him upon the nations of the world, and I believe this is a good possibility, then the way to deal with it is first through repentance, by turning from sin and seeking God’s forgiveness and mercy. However, I do not see other nations, nor our Supreme Court, reversing these two decisions any time soon, (or the allowing of the practice of euthanasia), and so we all will continue to suffer the consequences of our national and personal sins. The Lord told Israel to chose life, not death. Too many nations and individuals today have chosen death.