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1 Maccabees 11: Alliance and War

1 Maccabees 11: Alliance and War

Thursday, December 18, 2025

200px-Jonathan-Maccabaeus[1] — *Jonathan Maccabeus*

Ptolemy VI, Demetrius, Alexander and Trypho – we watch these rulers exchange lies as easily as they shake hands. Nothing and no one stand for what they say they do; the world into which we step with this Noontime is one of deceit and triple-speak. It is a world that may seem familiar to us.

In this portion of the Maccabees story, Jonathan knows that his tiny kingdom is a simple pawn in the chessboard of the region yet he persists in his struggle to retain and hold secure the sacred city of Jerusalem and some districts of the former kingdom. He seems to achieve and hold his goal, at least for a while.

Alliance and war, promise and conflict, peace and confrontation – these larger battles are reflections of the personal battles we wage each day. The Euro-zone struggles, personal freedom is or is not guaranteed in Egypt, the debt crisis in the U.S. causes financial markets to totter; corruption in political and financial arenas is blamed for personal, national and global failure and depression. War persists in Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, and in more than 100 hot spots around the planet. News headlines today read much like this Maccabees accounting. What has changed?

We like to think that humanity makes progress and our inventions might give us the impression that we do. We communicate with one another across the globe in an instant; but do we hear one another any better? We cure diseases that previously devastated entire nations; but do we cure the disease of greed and alienation, and do we defend the use of science when making medical decisions? We have world-wide conferences that give the appearance of ecumenism and openness; but do we tend to the soul any better than we did two thousand years ago?

Amid the hurley burley of human activity there is only one place to go when headlines distress us or when family and friends become prickly or insensitive. The last verse of the chapter tells us where to go and what to do . . . Then Jonathan returned to Jerusalem. High Priest-Warrior who follows in the footsteps of his slain brother Judas, Jonathan makes it clear where his center lies . . . he returns to Jerusalem. Steadfast diplomat who manages to maneuver the tricks and fall backs of his opponents, Jonathan refuses shady deals and shaky terms to make clear where he focuses his energy . . . he returns to Jerusalem. Through alliance and war, despite political setback and personal failure, Jonathan Maccabeus shoots like an arrow straight and true. He homes toward the epicenter of his faith and hope . . . he returns to Jerusalem.

And so we pray . . .

Good and faithful God, abide with us as we worry our way through our days. Keep us true to you as we avoid the temptation to give in to a false and passing alliance that brings nothing but death. Teach us how to remain in touch with you when the clamor of the day and the fear of the night dull our senses and attacks our resolve. Speak to us loudly and clearly when the road signs that point toward you have been washed away by slick talk and deceitful hands. Pull us to you and hold us close when our inner turmoil and fear erode our confidence and hope. Keep us ever mindful of your care and love, and remind us that when the stricture of alliance clouds our vision or when the fog of war numbs our good judgment, we have only to cry out to you and ask that you return us to the safety of Jerusalem. For it is there that we find eternal rest and boundless peace in you. Amen.

A re-post from November 23, 2011.

Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Apphus

For more information on Jonathan Maccabeus you might try these sites:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/353845/Jonathan-Maccabeus

http://www.jewishhistory.org/the-hasmoneans/

December 18, 2025

Demetrius, Jerusalem, Jonathan Maccabeus, Ptolemy, Trypho

2 Chronicles 26: Pride and Fall

2 Chronicles 26: Pride and Fall

Wednesday, December 17, 2025

*Rembrandt: King Uzziah Stricken with Leprosy*

My mother warned us often: Pride goeth before a fall; she as likely referring to Proverbs 16:18: Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Today we are presented with a detailed story of how Uzziah takes so much that God has given to him – wealth, power and fame – and quickly loses it: But after he had become strong, he became proud of his own destruction and broke faith with the Lord, his God. Was it the flocks and vineyards he owned, the soldiers he commanded or the city fortifications he built that fogged his vision? We will never know what urged him to take over the office of the temple priest, but we do know his fate: leprosy broke out on his forehead . . . [and the priests] expelled him from the temple. He fled unwillingly, for the Lord had afflicted him. King Uzziah remained a leper until the day of his death. He lived in exile, in a segregated house, excluded from the Lord. We can imagine how difficult it must have been for Uzziah to process what had happened to him; and we can appreciate how difficult it must have been for him to deal with his heavy loss: a man who has all suddenly is separated from all that makes him powerful, rich and famous.

coronation_napoleon[1][1] — *David: The Coronation of Napoleon*

I remember an historical novel my mother gave me to read; it was by Annemarie Selinko and was later made into the film Désirée. It is the intriguing and convoluted story of Napoleon Bonaparte told from the point of view of a young woman he met, wooed and left behind. It was valuable to me as a young girl and it is valuable to me today as I recall its latent message of pride going before a fall, and I also recall a conversation I had with Mother about humility and gratitude being the antidotes that will inoculate us against the insidious, deadly workings of pride.

Pride can make us ugly. It can warp and distort our vision and hearing. It makes us the people we have pledged to never be. Gratitude puts us in proper relationship with self, God and others. It reminds us gently that we are not the alpha and omega. It whispers to us quietly that we have much to learn and that we cannot foresee or control the future. Humility reminds us to take the last seat at the table rather than the first. It gives us time to think, restrains us from making fools of ourselves and saves us from impulsiveness. Together, gratitude and humility can steer us away from the fall of pride but ultimately, we must be the ones who save ourselves from the hubris that stalks any successful man or woman.

Napoleon crowns himself king, I learned in high school, and when I saw the painting by David in our textbook, I remembered the story of the young girl who found out that the disaster of her inconstant suitor was salvation in disguise. Uzziah is king and enters the temple to act as a priest and make an offering on the altar. These are stories worth remembering. They are lessons worth learning. As we prepare to celebrate the coming of the Christ Child, let us call upon the twin angels of gratitude and humility, and keep them close at hand.

More details about Uzziah can be found at the following sites: http://www.christianlibrary.org/authors/John_L_Kachelman_Jr/kings-ot/uzziah.html and http://bibleencyclopedia.com/uzziah.htm

Images from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rembrandt_King_Uzziah_Stricken_with_Leprosy.jpg and http://biblicalgenealogy.kavonrueter.com/Pictures-Ozias.htm

December 17, 2025

gratitude, humility, Napoleon, Proverbs 16:18, Uzziah

Psalm 65: Sacred Rest

Psalm 65: Sacred Rest

Sunday, December 14, 2025

Several weeks ago, we celebrated Thanksgiving in the United States, a time when we traditionally set aside time for family and friends, a time when we traditionally acknowledge the goodness of the Creator and the generosity of Creation. It has also become a time for bargain shopping. Somehow we always manage to clutter up the time God gives us for refreshment and recuperation. It is as if we cannot stop ourselves from the neurotic filling up of time and space with meaningless objects and activity. A few brave souls have begun to push back against the opening of stores at midnight on Black Friday and we applaud this effort. For some of us to bargain shop, others of us must leave family and home to wait on us. I think we as a people are missing something. Rest.

An excerpt I recently read from Richard Rohr’s has set me to thinking. Today’s Noontime Psalm moves me further along in the same direction. Rest. We need to rest and reflect.

“The final experience of mysticism, after the optimistic explosion that we usually call hope, and the ensuing sense of safety, is of deep rest. It’s the verb I’m told that is most used by the mystics: ‘resting in God.’ All this striving and this need to perform, climb, and achieve becomes, on some very real level, unnecessary. It’s already here, now. I can stop all this overproduction and over-proving of myself. That’s Western and American culture. It’s not the Gospel at all.

“We’ve all imbibed the culture of unrest so deeply. We just cannot believe that we could be respected or admired or received or loved without some level of performance. We are all performers and overachievers, and we think ‘when we do that’ we will finally be lovable. Once you ride on the performance principle, you don’t even allow yourself to achieve it. Even when you ‘achieve’ a good day of ‘performing,’ it will never be enough, because it is inherently self-advancing and therefore self-defeating. You might call it ‘spiritual capitalism’.”

Rohr is telling us what we really know: we must step back from the high velocity life we have constructed for ourselves and we must give time over to God. We need to rest, reflect, and give thanks.

The psalmist intones: To you we owe our hymn of praise . . . to you our vows must be fulfilled . . . to you all flesh must come . . . There is no denying this truth. We owe all that we are and all that we have to God. For this we must give thanks. We all physically return to God. This is a truth that cannot be avoided.

You answer us with awesome deeds of justice . . . you are robed in power, you set up the mountains by your might, you still the roaring of the seas . . . the tumult of the peoples . . . There is no avoiding this reality. We might throw ourselves against our problems with childish anger but in the end it is child-like petition that brings us to our senses. This is a truth that cannot be ignored.

You visit the earth and water it, make it abundantly fertile . . . you adorn the year with your bounty, your paths drip with fruitful rain, the untilled meadows also drip; the hills are robed with joy . . . There is no tricking ourselves into believing that God has no interest in us whatever. God’s generosity is too enormous to reject; God’s kindness is impossible to refute. We may give ourselves credit for earning what we have gathered but it is God the Creator who makes the panoply of Creation available to us. This is a truth that cannot be argued away.

The pastures are clothed with flocks, the valleys blanketed with grain; they cheer and sing for joy . . . There is no evading these simple facts. God creates. God provides. God rests. If we hope to rest at all . . . we must first rest in God . . . We must call our friends and loved ones to join us in this sacred resting . . . and we must together give thanks to the Creator for Creation.

A re-post from November 19, 2011.

Image from: https://medium.com/@jana.nightingale/sacred-rest-ca50b4a0a29

Following the Mystics through the Narrow Gate …Seeing God in All Things can be purchased at https://store.cac.org/products/following-the-mystics-through-the-narrow-gate-mp3?srsltid=AfmBOoqeK78jd9ls90a8Aeo9IThFmHAIzFaR9ZM7BiIjZkr7k2zj6pFj

December 14, 2025

family and friends, God’s abundance, God’s generosity, God’s goodness, Richard Rohr, thanksgiving

Ezekiel 29: Surprise

Ezekiel 29: Surprise

Thursday, December 11, 2025

seal[1] — *The stela of Pharaoh Hophra: open air museum of Memphis, Egypt*

A sea monster lives in the Nile, is subdued and caught by God, and is then thrown back into the river as food for scavengers. Bible commentary will help us to sort out the prophet’s imagery that we see in chapters 29 through 32 but as we focus on this opening portion we may learn something useful. In this chapter dated to January of 587 B.C.E. Ezekiel was likely responding to events which took place surrounding Pharaoh Hophra’s unsuccessful attempt to capture Jerusalem from the Babylonians. (Mays 616) Tiny Israel finds herself between two warring giants, and an enemy leader becomes the vehicle of unexpected good fortune. This dilemma is one that may sound familiar to us.

See! I am coming at you . . .

In all ways and in all times we must be prepared for God’s voice to come to us from unexpected quarters. Life has a way of springing the unanticipated upon us in both negative and positive ways. Family members fuss with one another; trusted colleagues become adversaries. Sworn enemies turn out to be partners in a common cause. Betrayal comes from the place we least expect it – as does hope. God uses whatever means he must to reach us – and God seems to love surprises.

See! I will bring the sword against you . . .

During a very sad time for our family recently, I heard myself repeating to loved ones: God does not want us to suffer. God does not plan disaster. God loves us so dearly that he suffers with us. We are not alone. God is in charge. When we are in deep anxiety or deep sorrow we cannot see what stands before us. And sometimes the well-known faces and familiar phrases cannot penetrate our grief. It is then that God will surprise us – and usually when we least expect it.

The Niles are mine; it is I who made them, therefore see! I am coming at you . . .

125px-Pulcino_della_Minerva_(Leverich)[1] — *Apries/Hophra Obelisk: Rome*

The prophet Isaiah reminds us . . . Those whom the Lord has ransomed will return and enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy. (Isaiah 35:10) God comes at us with all God has in God’s arsenal to reclaim and redeem us. God uses surprise, inversion, and paradox to reach us. God is persistent; God does not give up or give in. We cannot out-wait or out-maneuver God. In the end, God is all, does all, sees all and knows all. God loves us intensely and well. God wants us to experience joy. And God loves us enough to use even our enemies to speak to us when we are determined to ignore the message we are meant to hear.

See! I am coming at you . . . I will use anything or anyone to penetrate your sorrow in order to bring you joy . . . I will do whatever it takes to get your attention . . . I love you that well . . .

A re-post from November 16, 2011.

Images from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apries and http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/utp/the-glory-departs

Mays, James L., ed. HARPERCOLLINS BIBLE COMMENTARY. New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1988. 616. Print.

For more information about Pharaoh Hophra: https://biblearchaeologyreport.com/2022/02/04/hophra-an-archaeological-biography/

December 11, 2025

God ransoms us, grief, Isaiah 35:10, joy, Pharaoh Hophra, sorrow

Luke 19:1-27: Curiosity and Kingdom Building

Luke 19:1-27: Curiosity and Kingdom Building

Tuesday, December 9, 2025

“Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I have need of you today.”

Too frequently we see our relationship with Jesus as one in which we have need of his help and advice. Today we have the opportunity to think about how Jesus tells us that he has need of us; he calls to us as his adopted sisters and brothers to join with him in kingdom building. This is a lesson we might too easily miss as we bury ourselves in the flurry of activity we call life.

Yesterday’s Gospel reading was a similar story from Matthew 25:14-30 in which we see how serious God is about his trust in us and about his expectation that we will return his goodness to him multiplied rather than hoarded. In Matthew’s story Jesus is teaching his disciples. In today’s story Jesus speaks to those who have shown some curiosity about who is and what he represents. Jesus does not hold back and in fact, the end of the parable is a stark telling of bitter consequence. It is one which we might have difficulty reconciling with the gentle image we have of Jesus. Today we see how serious Jesus is about those who have much stored away and about those who refuse to share. Today we see how serious Jesus is about those who willingly share all that they have and all that they are.

From yesterday’s MAGNIFICAT “Day by Day” reflection by Dom Anscar Vonier: In the things of God and the Holy Spirit, wealth is the rule; the more you have, the more you receive . . . there is nothing that pleases God more than to enrich his creatures, and whenever he sees a man making good use of his gifts he pours more and more upon him with lavishness which is astonishing; as if in the school of God all the worldly methods of giving and taking were reversed, and there were other standards instead . . . In the things of the Spirit this is the rule of God. Because God is rich, there are inexhaustible treasures for bestowal, and he pours them forth ungrudgingly.

Jesus leaves no doubt about what he means when he refers to the faithful; he is clear about asking his disciples to give without fear for the future. He is clear about how we must give over control, how we must release our anxiety, how we must trust him in all matters while we witness to his message. Zacchaeus has trouble with these concepts. So may we. The message of inversion is a paradox we want to believe, but against which we continue to struggle.

Between his interaction with the tax collector Zacchaeus and his entry into Jerusalem, Jesus will tell us a parable that explains what kingdom building is, but we must be curious enough to ask him questions, we must be probing enough to examine our actions, and we must be questioning enough to witness to this message. Kingdom building is about the increase of talents, it is about following Christ where ever he leads. And it begins with our own curiosity about the message the Teacher is bringing to the world when he calls to each of us . . . hurry and come down; for I have need of you today!

A re-post from November 14, 2011.

Cameron, Peter John. “Day By Day.” MAGNIFICAT. 13.11 (2011): 178-179. Print.

For more about the sycamore tree that has become a tourist attraction, visit: https://www.beinharimtours.com/zacheus-sycamore/

Image from: https://www.deseret.com/2010/10/2/20144584/ancient-tree-to-help-turn-jericho-into-tourism-hub/

December 9, 2025

God’s inexhaustible treasure, Matthew 25:14-30, Zacchaeus

Coping With the Philistines

Jeremiah 47: Coping With the Philistines

Friday, November 28, 2025

Written on January 24 and posted today as a Favorite . . .

*Bas-Relief of Philistine Prisoners, Medinet Habu Temple, Luxor, Egypt, Albumen Print, circa 1880*

Jeremiah’s title is Prophet of the Nations and in chapters 46 to 51 we read the Oracles to the Nations. In this portion of his prophecy, Jeremiah describes the coming judgment of Yahweh. “Why Philistia is included at all in the list of enemies is not clear . . . What is certain is that the attack ultimately comes from warrior YHWH . . . The poem provides no clear reason for the attack, but it ends with ‘the song of the sword’.” In a poignant personification of YHWH’s weapon, an unidentified speaker begs the sword to be still but recognizes that the sword is unable to countermand YHWH’s plans for it.” (Barton 523)

This commentary points out in the previous page that today we have an aversion to “the theological themes of vengeance, anger and retribution” (522); yet these images are meant to call Israel back to Yahweh, and to lay out a kind of case here in which God’s justice is seen for what it is, the natural playing out of the covenant conditions.

A few weeks ago we looked at Ezekiel’s song of the harvesting sword which held out a similar promise to the faithful: God’s justice is swift, God’s love is healing. Today the object of this “Justice Sword” is the Philistines, a tribe of people whose history is intertwined with that of the Hebrew tribes. More can be read about them at: http://www.bible-history.com/isbe/P/PHILISTINES/ Several weeks ago we read about the Philistines’ dilemma with the Ark of the Covenant which they had taken from the Jewish people (1 Samuel 6). They believed that once they had physical control of this “magic” box that they could manipulate God and have him wait on them. This, they found out, is not how God operates, and so they looked for a quick and clever way to return the Ark – the presence of God whom they did not understand.

Today we look at the prophecy Jeremiah pronounces for this Philistine people, and it is bleak. When we take in all that is predicted, we realize that there is only one way to interact with Philistines: We must call on God alone for guidance and protection, and as New Testament people we will want to intercede for the Philistines in our own lives. We will want to consider how the old covenant with Moses as mediator is fulfilled and superseded by the new covenant with Christ, the new mediator. And so we will want to ask Christ to redeem and heal the modern Philistines, and the many faithful that they injure. As we consider the implications of all of this for us today, let us pray . . .

Just and Merciful God, You know that we live side by side with those who do not revere you, and with those who believe they revere you when they do not. Help us to step away from our anxieties and fears when we come up against the Philistines in our lives. Teach us to take our large and small problems to you, and to trust in you alone to find the best solutions. Encourage us as we look for ways to be faithful to you. Help us to persevere as we place all hope in you alone. We ask this through Jesus Christ, the New Mediator of your eternal covenant with the faithful. Amen.

A re-post from November 3, 2011.

Image from: https://archaeology.org/issues/july-august-2022/features/levant-philistine-origins/

Barton, John, and John Muddiman. THE OXFORD BIBLE COMMENTARY. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2001. 522-523. Print.

November 28, 2025

1 Samuel 6, anger, Ark of the Covenant, Ezekiel, harvesting sword, Justice Sword, retribution, vengeance, YHWH

Psalm 26: Prayer of Innocence

Psalm 26: Prayer of Innocence

Monday, November 24, 2025

susana[1] — *Artemisia Gentilesche: Susana*

Yesterday I was speaking with a friend about how Psalm 73 always pops up when I am troubled about how to live in the world and not be of it. As Paul tells the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 10:3): For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. In Psalm 73, The Trial of the Just, the psalmist expresses what happens to our thinking when we come close to losing faith that God is goodness and mercy and justice. In today’s Noontime reading we find a kind of companion psalm, a prayer of innocence, a statement of faith and an affirmation of our covenant promise with God.

Just a few days ago we examined the first book of Esther in which the story of Mordecai begins to unfold. He is wrongly accused and knows that he must rely on God and no other for salvation. Like Job in his conversations with his three friends Bildad, Eliphaz and Elihu, he knows that only in a conversation with God will he find the answers he seeks. And like Susana in the Book of Daniel he also knows that always our help arrives in God’s time and way rather than our own.

When we find ourselves in a quagmire not of our making, we might pray this psalm . . . I have walked without blame. In the Lord I have trusted.

When we find ourselves in a nest of confusing lies and deceptions, we might pray this psalm . . . I do not sit with deceivers, nor with hypocrites do I mingle.

When we find ourselves embroiled in a plot we did not devise, we might pray this psalm . . . I hate the company of evildoers; with the wicked I do not sit.

And when we find ourselves rescued by God – as we always are – we might pray this psalm . . . My foot stands on level ground; in assemblies I will bless the Lord.

Once someone said to me that Psalm 26 cannot rightly be prayed by anyone except Christ since none of us is as perfect as the person who speaks here. I replied that God does not expect perfection in our actions, only persistence in our attempt to be loving and just; that Christ is a tender brother who models how we might live yet forgives all our faults; that the Holy Spirit abides in each of us urging us to keep ever close to God. When we listen to the words Christ speaks to us as God manifested among us, we know that forgiveness and openness to renewal are important in our development. We know that the perfection God asks is our persistence in following Christ through any and all obstacles in our lives. We know that the first step we must take toward God is a genuine repentance for any way we have offended God. We know that God is eager to forgive our transgressions. And we know that we are given infinite opportunities to amend and renew ourselves.

So today we take up this psalm to examine it and ourselves. Are there times when we are not completely innocent of wrongdoing? Yes, often. Are there times when we have been wrongly accused and maligned. Yes, and these times may be numerous. Does God always forgive, is God always present, and does God consistently welcome us home when we have given offense? Yes, and yes, and yes. Today, if we find ourselves wanting, we have the opportunity to turn back to our journey of persistence, for in this we find perfection. And also today, if we discover that we have been unjustly accused, we have the opportunity to petition God with all the other innocents who suffer at the hands of those who disdain patience and kindness and justice.

Too often the innocent messenger is blamed for the harsh but true and necessary message. We may have been the receiver of such a communication and behaved badly, and we may also have been the deliverer and suffered through no cause of our own. In either case, let us together begin our singing . . . My foot stands on level ground; in assemblies I will bless the Lord.

A re-post from October 30, 2011.

Visit The Race of the Just post at: https://thenoontimes.com/2018/11/21/the-race-of-the-just/

Image from: http://abbey-roads.blogspot.com/2011/04/susanna-falsely-accused.html

To read more about innocents who suffer follow the painting hyperlink on today’s post or visit: http://abbey-roads.blogspot.com/2011/04/susanna-falsely-accused.html

November 24, 2025

2 Corinthians 10:3, Esther and Mordecai, Job, Noontime October 19-2011, Psalm 73, Susana

1 Thessalonians: Rejoice Always!

1 Thessalonians: Rejoice Always!

Monday, November 17, 2025

As frequently happens with the Noontimes a theme is re-cycled to us; today it is the message that we are to rejoice in all circumstances – even when events indicate that we ought to be mourning. A few weeks ago we visited the fifth chapter of this letter (Pray Without Ceasing). Today a portion of Chapter 1 serves as the second Mass reading in which Paul complements his followers in Thessalonica for their fidelity even through dark times, receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit, so that you became a model for all the believers. It is all too easy to turn away from God when dark events crush in on us. And the joy we experience can be likewise all so rewarding when we turn to God when in the midst of suffering.

Recently an essay by James Martin, S.J. was published in AMERICA magazine and we may want to spend time reflecting on this oldest of books in the New Testament. The photograph on today’s post is from that article and I encourage you to spend with it today. We always welcome any word that shows us how to convert our mourning into dancing; we look for any guideposts that help us to Rejoice Always! https://www.americamagazine.org/from-our-archives/2011/10/03/rejoice-always/

A re-post from October 23, 2011.

Images from: https://www.americamagazine.org/from-our-archives/2011/10/03/rejoice-always/

November 17, 2025

AMERICA Magazine, fidelity during trial, Noontime September 20-2011, suffering

Jeremiah 35: Taking Correction

Jeremiah 35: Taking Correction

Friday, November 14, 2025

jeremiah_and_rechabites[1] — *Jeremiah and the Rechabites*

The Rechabites who remain faithful are “reactionaries who believed that the Lord could not be well served except by maintaining the original nomadic conditions of Israel’s life. Without sharing their convictions, the prophet holds up their fidelity to their ideals as an example to put to shame his faithless countrymen.” (Senior 994)

Will you not take correction and obey my words?

Each day we are called to listen to God that we might hear how we might correct the course we have set for the day, the week, the month, the year – our lives.

Each day we are given a new opportunity to reset our markers so that they point toward God.

Each day we are invited to trust and hope in the only source and goal of true life – God our creator.

The Psalm in the MAGNIFICAT Evening Prayer is Psalm 49: Why should I fear in evil days the malice of the foes who surround me, men who trust in their wealth, and boast of the vastness of their riches? For no man can buy his own ransom, or pay a price to God for his life. The ransom of his soul is beyond him. He cannot buy life without end, nor avoid coming to the grave. Then do not fear when a man grows rich, when the glory of his house increases, he takes nothing with him when he dies, his glory does not follow him below. Though he flatters himself while he lived: “Men will praise me for my success,” yet he will go join his fathers, who will never see the light any more. In his riches, man lacks wisdom: he is like the beasts that are destroyed. (Cameron 191)

Jeremiah offers to the Jewish community the opportunity to take correction. The Rechabites, a community ignored and sometimes disparaged by the power structure, are a people who demonstrate more fidelity than those who hold positions of authority. They are a people thought too old-fashioned, too simple, and too nomadic to be given much attention; yet the prophet uses them as an example of how to walk in God’s way. They are faithful, obedient, and trusting. And they stand as a stark contrast to the fattened, self-indulgent, and corrupt leadership of the time.

Living in the 21^st century we try to be prudent with our resources so that we might have an income when we retire. We try to be good stewards of our resources as we make intelligent purchases and support charities we find worthy of our time and talent. We seek practical guidance, and we take sound advice before we invest our money and ourselves in a person or a cause. We take correction where needed as we look to our future on earth. Jeremiah today urges us to do the same in our spiritual life.

The MAGNIFICAT Mini-Reflection reads: Where we invest our trust and our hope, we invest our lives. Let us choose to invest in the true source of life, Jesus Christ! (Cameron 190)

The Israelites chose to ignore Jeremiah’s warning, and we know how the next centuries unfolded for that nation. Let us heed his words, and the words of Matthew (6:20-21) which are part of today’s Evening Prayer: Store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. (Cameron 190)

Let us take correction so that we might trust God enough to invest all of our wealth in God’s saving power.

A re-post from October 20, 2011.

Senior, Donald, ed. THE CATHOLIC STUDY BIBLE. New York, Oxford University Press, 1990.994. Print.

Cameron, Peter John. “Prayer for the Morning.” MAGNIFICAT. 14.1 (2011): 190-191. Print.

November 14, 2025

Matthew 6:20-21, obey and trust God, Palm 49, Rechabites

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