In the first reading, we witness the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt. The Psalm serves as a reminder of the two sides of God’s covenant. In the Gospel, Jesus laments over Jerusalem.
Lately, I find myself deeply aware of the injustices in the world. My recurring thought is simply, it’s not fair. I see friends, people of kindness and good works, suffer and die. The news shows images of the hungry, the homeless, and the forgotten. Hatred and fear seem to grow stronger. I recognize that I was born into privilege and opportunity, and as the divide between those with power and resources and those without widens, I know I cannot remain complicit. Yet, I struggle with not knowing the best way to respond.
Today’s readings present faithfulness from two very different perspectives. The Old Testament passage portrays a fierce and even violent defense of fidelity to God’s covenant. The Gospel, however, reveals another kind of faithfulness, God’s compassionate response to our blindness and stubbornness. Jesus’ tears over Jerusalem express a love that refuses to give up on us, even when we cannot yet see the way to peace. Still, I am reminded that Mattathias died in exile and Jesus died on the cross. Faithfulness does not always lead to comfort or immediate success.
I think of a group of retired nuns who I greatly admire. Their lives offer me a model of response. I see in them a deep lament for the world’s pain and for their own shortcomings in stewardship. Yet they remain steadfast as an aging group of women who are active in service, unafraid to openly speak against injustice, mutually supportive, and rooted in prayer. Their witness reminds me that faithfulness is both contemplation and action, grounded in love.
My prayer today is to seek my own faithful response.
Dear Lord, Give me a heart free from hardness.
Rooted in the Ignatian way of contemplation and action,
open my eyes, my ears, and my spirit as I pray,
and show me the path of faithful service.
Grant me the courage of Mattathias
and the compassion of Christ.
Mike Cherney
I grew up in Milwaukee and have lived in Madison, St. Paul, Hamburg, Geneva, Omaha and Boston. I taught for 27 years in the Creighton Physics Department. Now I am mostly retired and have returned to the Milwaukee area where my wife recently became President of Mount Mary University. I continue to work with Creighton students on projects in high energy nuclear physics at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island and at CERN just outside Geneva, Switzerland. We have two sons and three grandchildren who all live in the northern suburbs of Chicago.
I am a person who asks questions. This often leads me down a challenging path.
