Today's Readings
In the psalm today we repeated: “The Lord hears the cry of the poor.” This does not surprise us; we are not shocked by this idea, which shows how far we have come. When this psalm was written, the teaching may have been considered controversial, if not in Israel certainly in other parts of the world. In ancient times, the gods did not hear the cries of the poor. The gods spoke to kings and heroes. The gods had very little to do with the poor. When a poor person 4000 years ago cried out, they were certain that no one was listening.
The true God is different. He does not favor kings. He cannot be bought with money or sacrifices. He hears the cry of the poor. The fact that we have finally learned this shows that God has made great progress in teaching the world about himself. We should not presume too much of ourselves, however. We know that the Lord hears the cry of the poor; we believe, in principle, that the Lord hears us when we call upon him, but vestiges of the old ideas remain.
They remain in phrases like “God is too busy to care about such things” or “I am sure God has better things to do than….” Hidden in such phrases is a belief that God is like us. God is not like us. He does not concentrate on one thing at a time. He does not even live in time. He exists all at once. There is no limit in God. He is unlimited in every way. There is no person who is insignificant to him, and there is no part of your life that is insignificant to him. He is deeply involved in every moment of every life. There is no prayer that he does not hear or that he does not care about.
We have come a long way from the time when humans believed that the gods were like kings and queens who lived on top of a high mountain. Still, we must eliminate every last fragment of this idea remaining in our minds even now. God cares about everything. Never be afraid to bother him. Cry out in your poverty. What are you lacking? What do you need? God can provide it. Never doubt that he hears you when you cry out.
Daily Homilies
