Deus Misereatur

  In last week’s letter I began talking about joy, drawing from Psalm 43:4, “ to God my exceeding joy ” (Psalm 43:4). That then led us to Augustine and his prayer in his “Confessions”. After I wrote that last week, I began thinking: Since God himself is that joy itself, then how do we enter into the solidarity of that joy? The answer is that having the joy that is God himself, comes from God. As Paul declared when talking about laying down our rights for the good of one another, “ For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit ” (Romans 14:17). The kingdom of God is not about us flaunting our expressive individualism, asserting our prejudiced self-priorities – “ eating and drinking. ” Rather, the reign of God is exhibited, displayed, experienced, and made clear by three virtuous qualities: righteousness, peace and “ joy IN the Holy Spirit .” The location or address of joy is the Holy Spirit himself (thus th...

  O Lord God, unlike us in your very being, unlimited by space, unrestrained by time, untouched by mortality, and unmarred by sin; yet you made us to bear and reflect your image in some way so that we might have warm communion with you! And even more, after our open rebellion you sent your Son who became as full-bloodedly and full-bodily human as we are to bring us back into communion with you! What an astounding thought! O Lord, we adore you and thank you! In grateful communion with you we plead with you for the world and the Church. Look upon the nations of this world, including our own country. See all of the spite, uprisings, commotions, mayhem, wars, droughts, flooding, wild-fires, government-approved barbarity, orchestrated impoverishments, socially sanctioned human-sex-and-drug trafficking, as well as tribal and racial bigotry. Therefore we implore you to steer, steady and stabilize all nations; restore and renew sound justice; bring substantial relief; provide help to the o...