20 March 2014
Thursday of the Second Week of Lent
“Just remember: there is no salvation in politics,” an elderly Jesuit told me around election season a couple years ago. I was reminded of this in our first reading today, in which Jeremiah conveys God’s word that “Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings.” This kind of “cursed” person is one “who seeks his strength in flesh.” Is that not what all politics (electoral and otherwise) in our lives boils down to? As people play power games, it fails to satisfy them on a deep level. This results in what St. Ignatius names desolation, a movement of the spirit away from God. Jeremiah would call it being “like a barren bush in the desert.”
Instead, the one “who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD” is called “blessed.” Jeremiah says that kind of person is akin to “a tree planted besides the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream.” How might we align our prayer and actions with the sort of faith in this inviting image? This results in what St. Ignatius names consolation, a movement of the spirit toward God. Instead of seeking false security in politics or in recognition, let us rest in God today, finding what we need in Him.