Wisdom 15:1-6: God’s Wrath
Friday, December 19, 2025
But you, our God, are good and true, slow to anger, and governing with all mercy.
It is easy to believe that God is full of wrath when we read the Old Testament; the New Testament tells us that this is not so. Yesterday’s Mass and MAGNIFICAT readings and prayers all tell us that we have much to be grateful for in God. They tell us that we have much to be happy about with God. They tell us that we have much to love through God.
God is our constant shepherd – even when we do not feel God’s presence, God is with us.
From the MAGNIFICAT Morning Prayer: The angel of God, who had been leading Israel’s camp, now moved and went around behind them. (Exodus 14:19)
The angel of the Lord . . . stood between the fleeing Israelites and their Egyptian pursuers during the exodus, and hid them from sight. God goes with us, guards us and guides us today with the same protective love.
The Lord will give you the bread you need and the water for which you thirst. No longer will your Teacher hide himself, but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher. While from behind, a voice shall sound in your ears: “This is the way; walk in it,” when you would turn to the right and to the left. (Isaiah 30:20-21)
Yesterday’s first reading was from Daniel 5 in which King Belshazzar asks advice of Daniel, the Jewish exile in whom the spirit of God rests. Daniel interprets “the writing on the wall” and brings God’s wisdom to those who would worship idols rather than the living God.
Yesterday’s Gospel from Luke 21:12-19: Jesus said to the crowd: “They will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name. It will lead to your giving testimony. Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand, for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to refute. You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives.
We may find all of this frightening – yet this is the work of Christ’s disciples.
We may find all of this exhausting – yet we draw strength from Christ.
We may find all of this overwhelming – yet we as disciples persist through Christ.
If we find all of this too confusing and too difficult, we will want to remember that Christ is God among us who comes to live as one of us – who brings us wisdom and strength.
If we find all of this too baffling and too crushing, we will want to remember that our perfection lies in our persistence – and that this is all that God asks of us.
If we find that all of this causes anger to rise within, we will want to remember that what we see as God’s wrath is God’s love.
And so we pray . . .
Dear God, From time to time our sight is blurred and our hearing dimmed and we must retreat for a time to take a journey inward, to ask your counsel, and to seek your wisdom. Bring us your comfort and strength. Set us on the right path. Teach us to put aside our anger and our ridiculous idols. Teach us to listen for you. Teach us to trust in you alone. Call us home to you. Amen.
A re-blog from November 24, 2011.
Image from: http://cldefelice.blogspot.com/2009_04_01_archive.html
If we come to this hectic holiday season with too much anger, we may want to take a journey inward to examine who we are and how we behave. To take a journey in which we examine our own use of anger go to the Journey of Transformation page on this blog.
Cameron, Peter John. “Prayer for the Morning.” MAGNIFICAT. 23.11 (2011): 317-318. Print.
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