Trust in God

For John, BLUF:  I am late in this, but I wanted to comment on last Sunday's First Reading.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readubg I (Jeremiah 17:5-8):

Thus says the LORD:
      Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings,
          who seeks his strength in flesh,
          whose heart turns away from the LORD.
      He is like a barren bush in the desert
          that enjoys no change of season,
      but stands in a lava waste,
          a salt and empty earth.
      Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,
        whose hope is the LORD.
      He is like a tree   planted beside the waters
          that stretches out its roots to the stream:
      it fears not the heat when it comes;
          its leaves stay green;
      in the year of drought it shows no distress,
          but still bears fruit.

I wanted to focus on the early admonition:.

Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings

Putting our trust in others often produces sad results.  You make a comment and someone just dismisses it and denogrates a third party in the process  I had this happen on City Life Show this morning.  I said how my son, a Federal Civil Servant, said that he ges more work done working from home than he does in the office.  Given his area of effort, I can understand that.  The Producer dimissed my comment with "That is what he says."  I felt my son was denegraded, and I was also.  Such is life in the real world. ; People do and say disapponting things, even friends.

But, sometimes the disappointment is especially strongn when someone you have admired for integrity goes off and does something that calls it all into question  My example would be Michael Hayden, one of the 51 signatories to Mr Antony Blinken's letter on the Hunter Biden Laptop.  While the letteer was technically correct, the laptop from hell story did appear to be like Rusian disinformation, it was, nevertheless, true.  The letter was an effort to protect a Presidential Candidate from adverse publicity, and it worked, helping to propel Joseph R Biden into being our 46th resident of the White House.

My disappoijnntment with General Hayden is based upon my admiration for him when I was assigned to Headquarters, United States Air Forces in Europe.  He was then a young Major and someone I saw as incorporating all the best qualities of an Air Force Officer.  I was so impressed that when my Wife and I took a short story writing course at UMass Lowell I based my hero in a couple of such stories on then Major Hayden.  It was very disappoiinted to me when he signed on with Mr Blinken.

I am back to my sense that Jeremiah has it right.

Regards  —  Cliff