Wipe them out!

Today’s first reading is profoundly disturbing prophecy of God’s wrath.

"Pass through the city (through Jerusalem)
and mark a cross on the foreheads
of those who moan and groan
over all the abominations that are practiced within it."

To the others I heard the Lord say:
"Pass through the city after him and strike!
Do not look on them with pity nor show any mercy!
Old men, youths and maidens, women and children
--wipe them out!
But do not touch any marked with the cross."

This prophecy disturbs us because it seems so at war with our image of God. Do not look on them with pity nor show any mercy? Old men, youths and maidens, women and children--wipe them out? How can this be from our loving and just God?

The simple fact is that it is the world that has no pity or mercy. Without God, the world can ultimately offer only death. If people do not look to God, when their world ends, all the world has to offer is nothingness, annihilation, being wiped out.

But God offers love and justice that extends beyond the world. Those who look to Him, who think of Him, and who walk in His way are not bound to the fate of this world, which is death.

We must do what we can to help the people of the world understand this and have hope.

If our hope is only in this world, even that hope will be wiped out. If our hope is truly in God, that hope will be fulfilled in eternal happiness, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.