God’s promise today is still the only voice that gives hope. If we look at our world, we cannot fail to notice how much suffering is that one part of humanity inflicts on another. We cannot fail to notice wars, hunger, persecutions. There is no respect for diversity, of gender, or religion.
There is no attention that everyone can eat twice a day. All ready to be indignant, few to commit. The cry of the hungry and thirsty for justice is heartbreaking, but it remains unheard, due to the deafness of our parched hearts.
There is an urgent need for justice, for peace, for joy. There is an urgent need for the bow of the powerful to be broken (I Samuel 1, 4) and that those who are full, offer themselves daily for bread (I Samuel 1, 5).
God’s promise gives hope
He looks at his sheep that is limping and cannot cope alone and at the one that has been chased away. The promise to the people of Israel was removed from their land and plunged them into the shame of slavery. The same promise that the Lord addresses today to all those who in some way have been crushed by someone else’s arrogance.
A promise that speaks of glory and fame for those who are in the dust. There is hope in this promise, there is so much hope that it gives us the strength to look to a future in which – the wolf will graze with the lamb and the suckling can put his hand in the snake’s lair – (cf. Isaiah 11, 6-8).
We too are called to stand in the dust every day, together with those who were thrown into the dust by force. And that they were forced to live there, so that we too are not counted among the wicked, unable even to understand the infinite goodness of God.
At that time, I will take action against all those who oppress you, I will save the sheep that is limping, I will gather the one that has been driven away, and I will make them glorious and famous, in all the countries where they have been in shame. Zephaniah 3, 19
Those who were gathered asked him – Lord, is it at this time that you will restore the kingdom to Israel? He replied to them – It is not up to you to know the times or moments that the Father has reserved for his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses. Acts of the apostles 1, 6-8