Sodom and Gomorrah and the Mercy of God--
During this time of the year, every other year, passages from the book of Genesis are read at the weekday Masses.  One of the many interesting scripture accounts is the story of Abraham and his encounter with The Lord regarding Sodom and Gomorrah.  I find it most intriguing that The Lord  was willing to not destroy Sodom and the other cities in the plain if only 10 innocent people could be found.  (Genesis 18:16-33)

I have been unable to find the approximate population of Sodom at the time; but if the population was only 100 people, ten people would only represent 10% of the population, if 1,000 people only 1% and if 10,000 people only .1%

This incident tells me how loving and forgiving God is.  Not only that but that the faithfulness of good persons influences the mercy of God.  It supports what Saint Paul wrote in Colossians 1:24 that "In my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's affliction."  Thus it leads me to conclude that good people through the merits of Jesus' suffering and death are able to join Him in His redemption of others.

This conclusion supports the value of good people offering up  their pain and suffering for Christ, in union with Christ for the benefit of others.  After all, if a person is in the "state of grace", i.e., in union with God their is life flowing between God and the person.  As Jesus stated, He is the vine, we are the branches.    

"Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.  The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, 'O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity---greedy, dishonest, adulterous---or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.'  But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, 'O God, be merciful to me a sinner.'  (Jesus added) I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted."  Luke 18:10-14

Isn't it remarkable how relevant the parables of Jesus from approximately 2,000 years ago are to us today.

The above parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in the temple really hits me.  I like to think that I'm like the tax collector but to be honest, unfortunately I often catch myself---my thought process----to be too much like the Pharisee's.  Too often I come to church self-satisfied rather than contrite!  Too often I catch myself judging others, forgetting my own failures!  Too often I think of God as being a God of Rules rather than a God of Love!  I forget that God really wants mercy not sacrifice and I pat myself on my back for the little I do.  I forget that what God wants from me is a relationship with Him.  I forget that when I pray the "Our Father", I ask God to forgive my trespasses as I forgive others and as written in Matthew18:35 that I must forgive from my heart!

Being that in the Latin Rite the Lenten Season is half over, now is a good time for me to reflect on my own repentance, my outreaching of friendship and forgiveness to others and my relationship with God.  Hopefully through the grace of God, someday in the future I'll be able to honestly state that I am closer to being the tax collector than the Pharisee in the parable. 

The Book of Tobit--A Book of Love

During this past week, the reading of exerts from the Old Testament Book of Tobit (Book of Tobias) was part of the Liturgy of the Word for the weekday Masses. This book is a beautiful love story. A love of a man and a woman, the parents and their son and daughter-in-law, and the providential Love of God. One of my close friends who is a devout Bible reading Catholic and a daily communicant finds this book as one of the most beautiful in the Bible. He recommends this book to whomever he meets. His piety and evangelization efforts outshine most of us.

Unfortionately for our Protestant friends, the Book of Tobit is a "Deuterocanonical" book and therefore is only found in the "Apocrypha" of Protestant Bibles. In this book the Archangel Raphael plays a major role--and archangel I have a special devotion toward. For many Catholics the Archbishop Raphael is an angel to turn to when petitioning for healing and safety in travel. With the recent murder of the late term abortionist Dr. Tiller, I am reminded to ask this great archangel to bring my prayers for those in the medical profession to the feet of Our Lord.