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2 Kings 21:1-26 Manasseh reintroduced paganism by means of the worship of Baal to Judah, thereby defiling the Temple. He erected new altars and asherahs and offered his son as a human sacrifice. With these egregious sins, he brought the wrath of God upon Judah.
2 Chronicles 32:1-32 Hezekiah dealt wisely with the Assyrian threat of invasion, trusting in the Lord and turning to him in prayer. In response, an angel of God forced the Assyrians to return home. Later, when he was cured of an illness, he failed to offer thanksgiving to the Lord, but soon repented of his pride. During his reign he enjoyed prosperity and success in all his projects for the people of Judah and is still considered one of the greatest Kings of Judah.
Psalm 145 This hymn is a litany of praise for God’s many interventions in forming, guiding, and protecting his people throughout the course of history. God’s vision for all people is to form a kingdom of grace, mercy, justice, and love rather than of power and domination. Therefore, with respect to this psalm, Pope Benedict XVI emphasized the phrases referring to God’s perfections that include the description as “good to all” and having compassion “over all that he has made.” His works of creation are magnificent, but his most salient attribute is his boundless mercy toward us.
The Lord is near...truth: The second part of this psalm bears this striking line. As long as we are disposed to fulfill God’s will, we can have the firm conviction that he will respond to our prayer. (Cf. Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, February 1 and 8, 2006)
His greatness is unsearchable: The human mind, being finite, can never comprehend fully the infinite wisdom and power of God. God can be known indirectly by the magnificence and grandeur of his creation. Omnipotence and absolute perfections are concepts we can only grasp faintly by analogy.
The Lord is good...he has made: God created freely a rich array of both living and inanimate things that reflect in a very finite way his wisdom, intelligence, and goodness. He shares his goodness in a spectacular way by making the human person in his image and likeness. (CCC 295, 300, 342)
(*The Didache Bible RSV-CE Ignatius Edition, 2006)
Looks like even priests can make “dad jokes” 🤪
Minor prophets are called that because they work underground and mine iron ore and copper ore…….🤨
They are ACTUALLY called MINOR PROPHETS because their writings were SHORTER than the MAJOR PROPHETS (pretty sure we learned this before 😉)
Gosh, you guys!
Hezekiah dies in 2 Kings Ch 20
BUT…
In 2 Chronicles Ch 32 he is still alive until the end
And so we are going to flash forward into...or we kept drifting...eh..flashing...I don’t know….we are moving forward in time to Manasseh (I thought it would be fun to transcribe Fr. Mike’s stream-of-consciousness way of speaking just to see it in black and white 🤣)
And then in 2 Chronicles we get to go back and kind of recap
Here is Hezekiah’s life with a couple of extra details
In 2 Kings Ch 21 it says Manasseh was 12 years old when he began to reign and he reigned for 55 years in Jerusalem and he did what was EVIL in the sight of the Lord
He is literally ONE OF THE WORST KINGS
REMEMBER THIS
Hezekiah’s DAD was AHAZ, one of the WORST KINGS
Hezekiah’s SON was MANASSEH, one of the WORST KINGS
Which is REALLY REMARKABLE
It goes to show that one of the things we can say as Christians is that GOD DOES NOT HAVE ANY GRANDKIDS
We are either SONS OR DAUGHTERS of God
We are either CHILDREN OF GOD
OR NOT
We can’t just say, “Well the faith of my parents lives on in me…”
NO!!!
It has to be YOUR faith now!!
Manasseh REBUILT all those idols and temples to false gods
Not only that, he brought REALLY HORRIBLE THINGS into the Temple of the Lord
This begins the downward spiral of the People of Israel (I think maybe Fr. Mike meant to say the People of Judah because Manasseh was King of Judah and the Northern Kingdom at this point was already EXILED to Assyria...don’t quote me on this, however. Maybe Fr. Mike meant the downward spiral for ALL OF GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE? 🤔🤔🤔 🤷🏾♂️)
They have TURNED THEIR BACK on the Lord
We are going to hear from all of the PROPHETS in the next couple of days
We heard from AMOS
We heard from MICAH
We heard from JONAH
Now that we have learned a bit more about Assyria, can you see how JONAH was a bit reluctant to go to Assyria, to go to Nineveh, to preach to the Ninevites?
Assyria was AWFUL to Samaria in the NORTH
Assyria was AWFUL to Judah in the SOUTH
Manasseh is being FALSE TO THE LORD
Let’s highlight 2 Kings 21:1, “Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign…”
That means he was born 12 years BEFORE HEZEKIAH DIED
Remember that Hezekiah was on his DEATHBED
The Lord answered his prayer and HEALED HIM and gave him an extra 15 years of life
So Manasseh, one of the worst kings in Judah’s history, WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN BORN had Hezekiah NOT PRAYED FOR A LONGER LIFE!!! 🤯🤯🤯
It’s worth paying attention to this
The last 15 years of Hezekiah’s life was also the time when the Babylonians came to visit
That was when Hezekiah showed the Babylonians all their secrets in Judah
Hezekiah basically BRAGGED about HIS house, HIS storehouses, HIS riches, HIS treasures
So those last 15 YEARS Hezekiah basically said at the end, “The Word of the Lord you have spoken is good. But at least there is peace and security in MY DAYS.”
Those EXTRA 15 YEARS in Hezekiah’s life DID NOT MAKE HIM A BETTER PERSON
Those EXTRA 15 YEARS in Hezekiah’s life DID NOT MAKE HIM A HOLIER PERSON
This is one of the things for US
Of course, we pray for healing for ourselves and healing for the people that we love
We talked a little bit about this yesterday when Hezekiah was healed
BUT…
There is also great wisdom in God when we are able to say, “Lord, if I am healed then let me be a holier person for having been healed, rather than, like Hezekiah, a worse person.”
Hezekiah was a GREAT GREAT KING
BUT…
He did not use those LAST 15 YEARS to become GREATER
He did not use those LAST 15 YEARS to become GREATER IN THE EYES OF THE LORD
IN FACT, he took more PRIDE upon himself
2 Chronicles Ch 32 says that there was a great pride that was in his heart
St. Dominic Savio was just a boy when he died
One of his mottos even as a child was, “It would be better to die than to commit a mortal sin.”
We think that it’s tragic that this St. Dominic Savio died when he was 13 or 14
Whenever ANYONE dies, it can be incredibly TRAGIC
BUT…
His MOTTO that “I would rather die than commit a mortal sin,” IS SPOT ON
Here is Hezekiah who pleaded with the Lord for EXTRA TIME
BUT…
He did not use that EXTRA TIME to become BETTER
We are going to keep praying for each other
Many people listening to this Bible in a Year have sickness, illness, and wounds in the heart, body, and mind
We are PRAYING for healing of that
ABSOLUTELY!!
We are praying for YOU!!
Please, pray for each other FOR THAT HEALING
BUT…
Even more importantly, we need to pray that God uses this time, whatever time we have been given, that God HELPS us to use this time TO BECOME BETTER
TO BECOME MORE AND MORE DEEPLY ROOTED AS HIS SONS AND DAUGHTERS
Because we don’t know how much time we are going to get
If God gives us EXTRA TIME, “Then yes, God. Please help me to use that to become a holier person, a better person, someone more like your Son Jesus.”
BUT…
“If you are not going to give extra time, Lord, then let me use the time that I have to become more like your Son, Jesus.”
BECAUSE THAT IS IT
Whether it is a SHORT amount of time
Whether it is a LONG amount of time
The point of that TIME is to be FULLY CONVERTED to The Lord
To become the SAINT that God has MADE us to be
To become the SAINT that God has REDEEMED us to be
To become an image of Jesus Christ IN THIS WORLD
So let’s PRAY for that!!
Whatever time we have been GIVEN
Whatever time we have LEFT
Pray that God uses it to make us BETTER
Pray that God uses it to make us MORE LIKE HIM
PRAY FOR EACH OTHER
PRAY FOR FR. MIKE
Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven we thank you so much. Gosh, Lord. I just ask you please this day on day 187, I just ask you please to receive our praise once again because we can never tire of praising you, blessing you, giving glory to your Holy Name. So, Lord God, please receive our praise. Receive our thanks today. Help us to use our lives well. Help us to use whatever time you give us in this life well and wisely. Lord God, let not one of our days not help to make us better people, more faithful to you, more repentant of our sins, and more virtuous in your grace and your power and your strength. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.”
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