The Prophet Baruch, a captive in Babylon, depicts a personified Jerusalem who laments over the destruction of the city and over the sufferings of the exiled Jews. The Jews had sinned and were being severely punished but there was hope that by prayer and repentance they would be forgiven and fully restored in God's favour. The Bible relates other occasions when the Jews were severely punished but God, in His Fatherly love, did not intend their annihilation.

All through history there have been disastrous wars, plagues, as well as devastating earthquakes, floods and droughts. Were not such catastrophes punishment for man's infidelity? Nearer to our own time there have been two World wars
in 1918 a world wide epidemic of influenza claimed more lives than World War One; not long ago in South America a whole town was submerged overnight by volcanic mud; and at the present time there are peoples who have never known any other condition but that of destructive war. However, we have every reason to hope. God's fatherly care for the poor and needy is expressed in today's Psalm and in the Gospel reading, where the disciples rejoiced at the power of the name of Jesus over the forces of evil; Jesus Himself rejoiced because of the Heavenly Father's solicitude for His children; and the disciples were told to rejoice because their names were written in heaven.