Homily, 7-17-23; Monday of the 15th Week in Ordinary Time:
Our country is a nation that has been at peace within its borders for all of my lifetime. While our military has had to participate in battle in other places around the world to protect our freedom and that of our allies, we have not had an enemy on our soil trying to oppress us. And it can be easy to have a good relationship with God when everything is going well, when there is peace.
But Jesus does not promise us peace. Sometimes our peace will be taken away from us to test our relationship with God by how we respond. Sometimes we voluntarily give up our peace to stay true to our relationship pitting us against friends and family. But we can reflect on how we would respond if the peace in our country was completely taken away, if we were oppressed by a foreign power. Ten years ago, I would have never considered that a possibility. But now, with the weakness in our military, with government leadership that is weak and possibly compromised, with communist enemies that openly declare their intentions to defeat us, I fear that anything might be possible. We can consider how quickly we could be brought to our knees by an engineered human or computer virus. How would we respond if all of our freedoms were taken away, if we essentially devolved to a state of slavery? Would we still honor and praise God?
The Israelites were oppressed with forced labor and cruel slavery, but they didn’t turn away from the God of their fathers. The more they were oppressed, the stronger they grew. God was with them, even though He didn’t immediately come to their aid. They persevered and were ultimately rescued as recounted by the psalmist in today’s responsorial psalm: “We were rescued like a bird from the fowlers’ snare; Broken was the snare, and we were freed. Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.”
Is God ready to test us and make us stronger? Would our faith pass the test in the face of cruel oppression, the likes of which none of us has ever experienced? Now is the time to make sure your faith is strong, that you are in close relationship with God. Now is the time to pray for the Church in our country that it might grow stronger in the face of oppression, hoping in a God that can rescue us.
Very true.