Mal 3: 19-20a
Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch, says the LORD of hosts. But for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Confronting Our Pride
At times, I find myself thinking that I’m better than everyone else – that I’m not a part of the world’s problems, that I’ve got it all figured out, that I’m on the right side of history. When Scripture points toward the destruction of the proud and evildoers, I have the remarkable ability to see lots of faces, none of them my own. This disturbs me.
We march ever closer to Advent, a penitential season which reminds us that the coming of the Lord is a beacon of light for all who seek eternal life. My own tendency toward pride diminishes that light. The invitation in our reading – to fear the name of the Lord – is a call to push against pride and embrace the ever-ongoing task of making a world in which it is easier to do good. May we all confront our pride and let healing rays shine forth.
—Fr. Eric Immel, SJ, is a vocation promoter for the Midwest Jesuits. He was ordained in June 2022. Learn more about Jesuit vocations at beajesuit.org.
Prayer
Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.
—Attributed to Sir Francis Drake, c. 1577