Wednesday ....

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Today is Wednesday, February 5. 2014.
Also, the feast of St. Agatha

Good Morning.

A thought for the day:
Sometimes God uses other people to get us to examine our own motives.

The Church’s 1st reading for today: 2 Samuel chapter24 verses 2, 9-17

King David said to Joab and the leaders of the army who were with him,
“Tour all the tribes in Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba
and register the people, that I may know their number.”
Joab then reported to the king the number of people registered:
in Israel, eight hundred thousand men fit for military service;
in Judah, five hundred thousand.

Afterward, however, David regretted having numbered the people,
and said to the LORD:
“I have sinned grievously in what I have done.
But now, LORD, forgive the guilt of your servant,
for I have been very foolish.”
When David rose in the morning,
the LORD had spoken to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying:
“Go and say to David, ‘This is what the LORD says:
I offer you three alternatives;
choose one of them, and I will inflict it on you.’”
Gad then went to David to inform him.
He asked: “Do you want a three years’ famine to come upon your land,
or to flee from your enemy three months while he pursues you,
or to have a three days’ pestilence in your land?
Now consider and decide what I must reply to him who sent me.”
David answered Gad: “I am in very serious difficulty.
Let us fall by the hand of God, for he is most merciful;
but let me not fall by the hand of man.”
Thus David chose the pestilence.
Now it was the time of the wheat harvest
when the plague broke out among the people.
The LORD then sent a pestilence over Israel
from morning until the time appointed,
and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beer-sheba died.
But when the angel stretched forth his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it,
the LORD regretted the calamity
and said to the angel causing the destruction among the people,
“Enough now! Stay your hand.”
The angel of the LORD was then standing
at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
When David saw the angel who was striking the people,
he said to the LORD: “It is I who have sinned;
it is I, the shepherd, who have done wrong.
But these are sheep; what have they done?
Punish me and my kindred.”

* * *

When our lives are out of control and nothing much is making any sense, it's time to turn to God. King David got himself into trouble thinking he could take care of himself, and in turn, everyone else. During the most crucial times in his later life, David did not turn to God for advice as today’s Scripture show us.
David was who God wanted to lead His people. Why? Because David was a complete man with a special talent for leadership. David could unite the people. But David doesn’t always show his appreciation to God for the gifts and graces and talents he has received from God.
What is difficult for us is to know is when things are getting out of hand. We think we are doing all right. Everything is going our way, then something happens that reveals there is a problem. It's at that moment that we should turn to God.
Reading about the life of King David, it's easy for us to see where he went wrong. It's easy to identify his mistakes. What is hard for us to see is that what we are doing is wrong and might lead to disaster. When everything seems to be going well, it's hard to see any differently.
Ask God to help you in your walk toward Him. He knows where the potholes are.


God bless,
Father Pat