In a time of drought

Perhaps few of us have fully and personally experienced what it is like to live in a time and place afflicted by drought: to be caught in a place where every bit of food and nearly everything else depends on what is grown locally, but what is grown locally is little more than emptiness and dust.

Perhaps some of us think we feel something a little bit like that in the difficult times in which we now live.

Today’s readings are tailor-made for these difficult times: the Gospel (Luke 16:19-31), which tells a rich man who fails to help a poor neighbor, and the first reading (Jeremiah 17:5-10), which warns us about trusting in men and calls us to seek and to trust the justice and mercy of God – even in a time of drought.

Thus says the LORD:
Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings,
who seeks his strength in flesh,
whose heart turns away from the LORD.

He is like a barren bush in the desert
that enjoys no change of season,
But stands in a lava waste,
a salt and empty earth.

Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose hope is the LORD.

He is like a tree planted beside the waters
that stretches out its roots to the stream:
It fears not the heat when it comes,
its leaves stay green;
In the year of drought it shows no distress,
but still bears fruit.

More tortuous than all else is the human heart,
beyond remedy; who can understand it?

I, the LORD, alone probe the mind
and test the heart,
To reward everyone according to his ways,
according to the merit of his deeds.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, be merciful to me - a sinner.