Jeremiah 17:5 "Thus says the Lord: 'Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm, whose heart turns away from the Lord.'"

This is one of so many times in the Bible that God tells us to put our trust in Him and not in man. When Israel was first demanding a king, God tried to remind them that he was their king, and they needed no other besides Him (1 Samuel 8:9-22). We also see this admonition in Psalm 118:8 ('It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to put confidence in man."); Psalm 146:3 ("Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no help."); Proverbs 3:5-6 ("Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."); and in John 15:4 ("Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me."). In the Surrender Novena, Jesus says the same thing again: "[Y]ou surrender to human strength, or worse - to men themselves, trusting in their intervention; this is what hinders my words and my views." (Surrender Novena, Day 6) This reminder to trust only in God also touches on what I was talking about just the other day in God Will Provide an Unhindered Way - God will always come to the aid of His children, in His time and in His way, but we must not fall back on self-reliance or reliance on others. This is true especially if such reliance would involve a compromise of God's law, even when we find feel there is no other way. The other way will present itself in time, and will be much better than any human way.

God says here that the one who trusts in man is cursed. This does not mean that God is cursing him, it means that he has chosen the cursed path - the path of man, the fallen path, the path that Lucifer chose. It is a curse brought on not by God, but by our own failure to trust Him. The cursed path is a very treacherous one, God would love to save us from its trials if we would just rely on Him.

Today we see the folly of trusting in man all around us. Our politics and leadership are broken, nothing is working the way it should, even nature seems to be turning on us, all because we think that we, or other human beings, can achieve some kind of self-made Utopia on earth, a Utopia defined by man, not God, one that I and many others would never want to be part of. There is no Utopia to be had here, and God is letting us see that. Every modern "miraculous" human advance: technology, redefined "vaccines", "green" energy, and the list goes on,  seems to be doing more harm than good. That is for a reason. It is because we cut God out and we are relying solely on man, lauding ourselves as singularly responsible for these "wonderful" advancements each time one is made. That is pride, it always results in a fall. (And in case anyone hasn't yet noticed, we are currently falling.)