Sirach 35:11-16. More wisdom from Sirach - do not offer God a bribe, he will not accept it, and don't offer him an unrighteous sacrifice. God does not show partiality, he listens to the prayers of those who are wronged. He will not ignore the supplication of the fatherless or the widow. He will respond against those who have caused their tears. The prayers of those who offer pleasing sacrifice to the Lord will be heard.

I know that all of this is true, but I do feel sometimes that we have been waiting so long for the Lord to respond to the prayers of those who have been wronged. I know that this is my own human impatience, and that he is using this time to teach me that virtue, among others, so I have to stop complaining. He has given me this reading today to tell me that he has heard my prayers, and the prayers of all of his people who are suffering (and there are so many!), and the prayers for the millions of slaughtered, fatherless children who so weigh on my mind every day. He knows who caused our tears to fall and he will respond in his time. I am to trust, and I do. God knows that the sacrifices of the unrighteous, of the ones who have caused our tears to fall, are not to be trusted; that they are trying to bribe him. He will not accept this from them, and they will be punished all the more for trying to placate God with a show of sacrifice.

Yesterday I wrote a reflection about accepting the Eucharist in a state of mortal sin. I think today's reading was meant to reinforce that interpretation. Despite what our "very devout Catholic"^TM President says that the Pope said to him (and I don't think he is purposely lying - I just think he is so brain addled that it is what he thinks was said because it is what he wanted to have been said ), and despite him attending Mass and receiving communion, God knows Joe Biden's heart. If Biden's "sacrifices" are in fact unrighteous or attempted bribes, God knows that and he will not accept them. In In Sinu Jesu, Jesus assures the monk to whom he is speaking that he is not present in the Eucharist to those who receive him unworthily. Jesus can take care of himself! He knows the heart of those who come to the altar to receive him, he knows if they are worthy, and if they are not they receive instead the morsel that was taken by Judas - the token of betrayal that sends them into the night.

This is not for me to worry about, for Joe Biden, for Nancy Pelosi, for Madeliene Dean, nor for any of the other politicians, doctors, nurses, and others who lead God's children into so much suffering. I must just trust that the Lord hears the cries of his suffering people and will respond in his time and in his way!