Lent 15 ~ Rescue Them Too, Lord

But my trust is in You, O LORD;
I say, “You are my God.”
In Your hands is my destiny; rescue me
from the clutches of my enemies and my persecutors.   ~  Psalm 31: 15 – 16

          Early this morning, I had a fleeting dream. A dream of some kind of work situation but the details escape me – save for one: in my dream, I saw a former my work superior. A bully whom I lived in fear of. The one I’ve written about many times before, whose narcissism and jealousy almost destroyed me many times throughout the more than 20 years of working together.

          During those traumatic years, I learned to flee to God each time I was stung by this man’s poison. One day, though, God began to ask that I pray for the man’s conversion. Frankly, that was the last thing I cared about. All I wanted was to see him go someplace far. But God was insistent that I begin praying even as he continued to hurt me and others. That made it so much harder for me to pray gentle prayers. But, after quite a bit of inner struggle, with the help of dear, dear souls, I began to be able to. Still, it never stopped me from still praying that I be rid of him. Then came the day, in nothing short of a miracle, when this man was transferred out of our organization. With him gone, peace came to live in our workplace.

          This morning, encountering him again in the dream, I felt it had to do with my reflection the previous day. But a shadow of doubt still lingered. Later, at my altar in morning prayer, I prayed and consecrated myself to St Joseph the Worker, as I always do on Wednesdays. Usually, I pray for help and miracles for my husband’s job and mine.

          Today, though, in a gentle way, it came to me that I should pray for all who still suffer work abuses, who suffer working under bosses and superiors and colleagues who are themselves yoked to the tyrannies of narcissism and jealousy.

And then, I knew why the dream had come.

I had been freed from my abuser for almost a year, yet, in my incredible selfishness, forgotten those who still remained imprisoned.

          And so, I consecrate all those still in prisons to St Joseph, to be presented to the Heart of Jesus, praying with the psalmist,

But my trust is in You, O LORD;
I say, “You are my God.”
In Your hands is the destiny of the remaining prisoners; rescue them
from the clutches of their enemies and their persecutors;

Rescue them as You rescued me.