Our Real Security
Friday of the Third Week of Lent (A)
My dear encountered couples:
To preserve themselves from disaster the Jewish people were often tempted to make alliances with other countries and worship false gods. The prophet Hosea told the people, “Return, 0 Israel, to the Lord, your God; you have collapsed through your guilt... Say to him, “Forgive all iniquity...Assyria will not save us...We shall say no more, ‘Our god,’ to the work of our hands.”
Hosea wanted the people to realize that security and protection are only found in the one, true God, certainly not with pagan nations nor in false gods of their own making.
We can be tempted to rely on people and things other than God for our security and protection. There are clubs, organizations, political parties, alliances of all sorts to make us feel secure. (Owning the nuclear bomb was supposedly for our security.)
There is some good in joining with others, but there can also be much bad. Street gangs and Ku Klux Klan type organizations are examples of the bad. To join with others to live lives of love for God and other people is good.
That is what Jesus wants: “Love God with your entire being,” he says, “and your neighbor as yourself.”
We must learn to do that — individually and together. There is only one God, and there is only one way of loving – his way. Let’s truly believe in him and learn what love is all about. For therein lies real security.
