Betrayal and faithfulness

When he was a child, his life had been saved by the High Priest , who would care for him for years before engineering the coup that would make him King while still a very young man.

That was what we heard in yesterday’s first reading.

In today’s first reading (2 Chronicles 24:17-25), after the death of the High Priest, the King turns against God and kills the High Priest’s son who had remained boldly faithful to God.

What follows is that God turns against the King who is defeated and wounded in battle and then murdered by his own servants.

This account of treachery and apostasy makes an excellent introduction to what our Lord says at the beginning of today’s Gospel (Matthew 6:24-34):

No one can serve two masters.
He will either hate one and love the other,
or be devoted to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon.

May you and I always rise above this world’s obsessions with power, popularity and pleasure and remain faithful, loyal and devoted to God by the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.