1 February 2026

1 February 2026 - 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Transcript

Reading:  

Zephaniah 1:7; 2:1-2, & 3

Write:  

Silence in the presence of the Lord God! 
 for near is the day of the Lord,

Gather, gather yourselves together, 
 O nation without shame! 
 Before you are driven away, 
 like chaff that disappears; 
 Before there comes upon you 
 the blazing anger of the LORD; 
 Before there comes upon you 
 the day of the LORD’s anger.

[And from the reading for this weekend:]

Seek the LORD, all you humble of the earth,
 who have observed his law;
 seek justice, seek humility;
 perhaps you may be sheltered
 on the day of the LORD's anger.

Reflect:   

There is a warning that “the day of the Lord's anger” may come upon us; and then there is the promise – or the hope – that we may be sheltered, protected as it were, from the anger of God.

Zephaniah does not pull very many punches does he? He is one of the shortest of the prophets – only three chapters – but he really is harsh on the nation of Israel, and on the nations around Israel. I wanted to quote a little bit more from Zephaniah because I’m afraid the impact of his prophetic message is too easily lost because of the selections that the church makes of his writing. I understand why it is attached to our gospel reading this weekend. “Seek the Lord… seek justice, seek humility…” This is an important part of the Beatitudes. But it does not tell the full story of the prophet’s work.

The verse I quoted flows directly into our reading for this weekend. Zephaniah warns of the day of the Lord’s anger as I quoted above. Then he says, “seek the Lord…” But in another section between our reading for this weekend Zephaniah says:

“On that day you will not be ashamed of all your deeds, when you rebelled against me; For then I will remove from your midst the proud braggarts, And you shall no longer exalt yourself on my holy mountain.”

[At the risk of crossing a line into politics, I am going to risk it. When we look at all of the fighting that is going on in the political sphere in our country now – on either side – there is a rebellion against God – on both sides. People are not listening to each other, or to God… So much for my aside.]

So Zephaniah starts very harshly, but he ends by reminding Israel of the promises of God. We heard about that during Advent, a year ago – in Cycle C of our readings. We are in Cycle A now.

Here is part of that section of chapter 3:

“Shout for joy, daughter Zion! 
 sing joyfully, Israel! 
 Be glad and exult with all your heart, 
 daughter Jerusalem! 
 The Lord has removed the judgment against you, 
 he has turned away your enemies; 
 The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst, 
 you have no further misfortune to fear. 
 On that day, it shall be said to Jerusalem: 
 Do not fear, Zion, 
 do not be discouraged! 
 The Lord, your God, is in your midst, 
 a mighty savior, 
 Who will rejoice over you with gladness, 
 and renew you in his love, 
 Who will sing joyfully because of you, 
 as on festival days.

I will remove disaster from among you, 
 so that no one may recount your disgrace.”

There was even a folksy song written by a former priest titled “And the Father Will Dance” Among his other songs are “Abba, Father”, “Hail Mary, Gentle Woman”, “Only a Shadow”. Part of the “dance song” goes like this: “and the Father will dance – as on a day of joy – he will exult over you – and renew you by his love…” I’m not going to try to sing more of it – because I don’t remember it. I remember it was fairly popular when I was in the seminary. It is not in our missalettes now.

Apply:   

Enough of that aside. We turn back to the whole message of Zephaniah. The last line I quoted just now, “so that no one may recount your disgrace…” I think is a single line summary of the entire book.

Take a look at any stanza of our Responsorial Psalm. Let me pull some of the lines from that: “the Lord keeps faith forever… The Lord sets captives free… The Lord give sight to the blind… The Lord raises up those who were bowed down… The Lord loves the just… The Lord loves strangers… The fatherless and the widow the Lord sustains… The Lord shall reign forever; your God, O Zion, through all generations.”

Our readings this weekend speak about the hopefulness and the salvation of God. But they are, in some ways, taken out of context when we look at the entire text of Zephaniah. God warns of dire consequences if we fail to turn to him. But… at the next breath, he says that God rejoices in us.

It is also important to remember that God in his great love and mercy has called us and given us grace to be transformed by the sheer power of his mercy. This is what underlies the entire set of the Beatitudes. “Blessed are the poor in spirit… Blessed are they who mourn… Blessed are the meek…” I will not go on, Except to note that the first and the last Beatitude have the same blessing: “for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven...”

This is what God wants for us. He has given us warnings about what happens if we fail to align ourselves with Him. He has also encouraged us to continue in the work that He has given us. We are called to seek the Lord at all times. We are called to be pursuers of what is blessed. But we dare not forget that there are consequences to a failure if we do not seek the Lord and try to live in the Beatitudes.

I encourage you to read the very short book of Zephaniah. He has a very strong and necessary message for our day. If we refuse to listen, we will pay the price.

Pray/Praise:   

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus, you encourage us to pursue great things by giving us the Beatitudes. You also warn us of what would happen if we fail. Help us to turn our hearts from the darkness of this world to seek the light of your glory.

Give us the confidence we need to trust that we do walk in your ways. That we have received Your blessings and mercies. Help us to do as Saint Paul calls us to do at the close of his reading today: “Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord.” May we boast in your blessings and mercies.

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