Today we read extracts from Psalm 73, with the same response which we used yesterday. Through Jeremiah, God promises "a righteous offspring to David. As king, he will reign and govern wisely. He shall do what is just and right." God's promise is fulfilled beyond all our hopes and dreams in Jesus.

In its documents on socio-political reality, the Church has continually stressed the need for governments and rulers to act justly. Jeremiah implies that a wise ruler will be just. Pope Francis has repeated that the Church, if true to its mission, cannot be turned in on itself - "self-referential" is the Pope's chosen term. What is true of the Church must be true of every ruler and leader. When a government is "self-referential", it will be self-preserving at all costs, concerned only for its power and eventually become corrupt and brutal, institutionalized state terrorism.

A just and wise ruler will "rescue the poor man when he cries out and the afflicted when he has no one to help him." Whenever we are moved to pray for peace in the world, let us also earnestly pray for justice, since "Justice is the new name for peace" [Paul VI].