Faithful believers have been hated since the days of the Prophet Jeremiah. He spread God’s Truth in the forty years before Jerusalem was captured by the Babylonians and its people were sent to Babylon in 586 BC.
Today, we learn who turned the people and princes against God in Jeremiah 26:11-16, 24! False “priests and prophets said to the princes and to all the people, ‘This man deserves death; he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.'”
In every age, those who love God and our neighbors are hated by those whose love for themselves takes form in regulations and bureaucracies built by those who let themselves be possessed by the seven tribes of demons: pride, envy, greed, gluttony, anger, lust, and sloth. A new Catholic word, “peggalas”, helps us keep that in mind.
God told Jeremiah what to tell the false “priests and prophets”: “It was The LORD Who sent me to prophesy against this house and city all that you have heard. Now, therefore, reform your ways and your deeds; listen to the voice of The LORD your God, so that The LORD will repent of the evil with which He threatens you.”
Then, we meet the “unsung hero”! Ahikam is the example for all who believe in God! “Ahikam, son of Shaphan, protected Jeremiah, so tht he was not handed over to the people who would put him to death.”
Matthew 14:1-12 teaches of Herod, the self-loving “opposite” of Ahikam. He was so overcome by lust and status that he gave “the daughter of Herodias the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”
May we all be blessed to follow Ahikam’s example and defend the priests, religious, and people who obey the Church-Creating Word from He Who fulfilled the Prophecies to His first Catholic Pope:
“And I say unto you: ‘Thou art Peter and on this rock I build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I give you the keys to The Kingdom of Heaven.'”
May we all be blessed to make ourselves into living echoes of Ahikam, and not Herod, and be described in Today’s “Alleluia” from Mt. 5:10: “Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”
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Today’s Simple Rhyme: “The Loving Programmer lets us see / where we may spend eternity.”
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