All That God Has Done, He Has Done In True Judgement

Friday of the 26th Week in Course 2025

There are days when it is helpful to us, reading Scripture, to be reminded of what Bible the early Christians used in the congregations in Rome, Greece, Egypt and Asia Minor. The Roman empire at that time still used Greek for many purposes; Latin was the tongue of the vulgar, the rabble. That’s why Jerome’s Latin translation a couple of hundred years later is still called the “Vulgate.”

Today we read two prayers from that Greek Bible, and they have only come down to us in the Greek version, even though they probably were first heard in Hebrew or Aramaic. Our Introit antiphon from the Greek Daniel is a prayer of recognition and repentance: “all that you have done to us, O Lord, you have done in true judgement, for we have sinned against you and not obeyed your commandments.” It ends with a plea for mercy so that God would give glory to His name.

Our first reading is from the book of the prophet Baruch, who was the prophet Jeremiah’s secretary. It is also a prayer of admission and repentance. The people in exile begin by admitting that justice and righteousness are with the Lord, but shame over indecent behavior are with the people of Israel. They admit their sin, and specifically that they have not either heeded God’s voice spoken by the prophets nor followed the commandments set down in Torah. They admit that their exile was justly caused by their disregard for the warnings given in the Book of Deuteronomy by Moses. In summary, “we each followed the intent of his own wicked heart by serving other gods and doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord our God.”

Let’s not cluck our tongues at these sinful Israelites, not as long as we as a nation murder children before they are born, mostly by chemical warfare in the womb. Not as long as we pollute the marriage bond by pretending it can exist between two people of the same sex. Not as long as we sterilize children, pretending that male and female identities are interchangeable. Not as long as we ignore the homelessness that accompanies mental and emotional disorders. We have already incurred divine judgement; we risk divine retribution, just as the Israelites did.

And don’t retreat, please, behind the label “Christian.” The cities of Galilee, Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum, held up their Jewish identities as a substitute for true justice. But they turned their backs on the uncomfortable truths taught by our Lord Jesus, and He gave them what amounts to a curse for their lack of faith. Go look for these towns in Israel today; they are ruins.

We, too, are challenged to listen to Christ and His Church teaching us to do what is right and avoid what is evil, working daily in right worship, right living, and relief of the poor. And, as the last sentences of the Gospel say, not worry about the world’s judgement on our lives, because whoever rejects our righteousness and words rejects Jesus. That is a status nobody should want.