Tuesday, XVI Week of Ordinary Time
(Exodus 14-15)
Nothing like an army gives the illusion of absolute power. To see brigade after brigade of men armed to the teeth, to feel the rumble of tanks in procession as far as the eye can see, to hear the roar of jets screeching overhead – one has the sense of human invincibility. Yet as war after war testifies armies are defeated; sometimes as much by circumstances as by opposing legions. One example is Napoleon’s campaign against Russia which wiped out the Grande Armée of well over half a million soldiers.
The first reading provides another demonstration. The mighty Egyptian force composed of chariots is first stymied by mud and then devastated by the waves of the Red Sea. The author assures us that God not Pharaoh owns absolute power. God alone is worthy of ultimate trust. No, God does not usually defeat hostile armies with a breath of wind. Most times, in fact, trust in God means to judiciously defend ourselves. However, we do so with respect toward His commands. “With firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right,” Abraham Lincoln said it he was ending the Civil War.
Certainly at times in our lives we feel our situation hopeless as if we were facing an army. Perhaps our spouse has died leaving us with three young children. Perhaps we have had an accident resulting in permanent incapacity – we who have cherished fitness all of our lives. Scripture reminds us today as most days that we are not to give up. We put our trust in God. He has the power to deliver us.
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