“Fear not, my people!
Remember, Israel,
You were sold to the nations
not for your destruction;
It was because you angered God
that you were handed over to your foes.
For you provoked your Maker
with sacrifices to demons, to no-gods;
You forsook the Eternal God who nourished you,
and you grieved Jerusalem who fostered you.”
Back then, the Twelve Tribes were “sold”, deported to different nations. Today, we are being destroyed in our own nations by invaders from the outside.
We whine. We complain. We ask, “Why are we ‘handed over to our foes’?”
Right here, and now, we are being threatened with destruction. Why is this threat rising over us? Invaders threaten to destroy because we have “provoked our Maker with sacrifices to demons, to false gods; We forsook The Loving Programmer Who downloaded us and we hurt The Church that still waits to nurture us.”
Today’s Reading Also Tells Us What To Do About the Threat:
We can keep the destroyers from destroying us. The end of Today’s Reading has one of those rare, quantifiable Scriptural programming instructions that are dear to Catholic Fundamentalism. It gives us The Loving Programmer’s Operating Instructions to tell us exactly what we must do to be saved from coming destruction:
“Fear not, my children; call out to God!
He who brought this upon you will remember you.
As your hearts have been disposed to stray from God,
turn now ten times the more to seek him;
For he who has brought disaster upon you
will, in saving you, bring you back enduring joy.”
Stopping our imminent destruction is simple. All we need to do is pray ten times more than we are. Most who say, for instance, one Rosary a day, are going to have a hard time praying ten Rosaries.
There’s an easier way: If we get ten people who aren’t praying at all to say even one Hail Mary or one Our Father every day, we will have fulfilled the Programming Instructions that Baruch has passed to us 2,600 years ago: “Turn now ten times the more to seek Him”
