Goodness Ultimately Will Triumph

Do not be afraid; I am with you always.

Sunday's word of God takes us back to the Wisdom literature attributed to Solomon. Today’s word was written to inspire people undergoing hardships to persevere in fidelity to God’s Covenant. God, the author says, is mighty and powerful, the source of all good, and a patient judge. And for such a mighty and caring and forgiving God, we should be grateful.

Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr captured a nugget of wisdom in his well-known prayer: “God, give us the grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. Living one day at a time...trusting that You, God, will make all things right, if I surrender to Your will.”

St. Paul in his letter to the Christian community at Rome speaks about the Spirit or energy of God dwelling within us. When we pray “Come, Holy Spirit,” for example, we are praying for an increased sense of that presence of God in us. God is present everywhere, yet we do not always sense it. Paul asks us to be aware in our daily lives. We are “living temples of God.” We might pray, as Paul and Barnabas did in the Book of Acts chapter 13, that God will give us the courage to live the “good news” boldly.

In the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus tells the parable of the wheat and the weeds. Good and evil, virtue and vice, live together. God is patient. But we know the harvest will come, when we will be accountable for our attitudes and behavior. In that judgment, we will see clearly our true from our false self. Jesus proclaims loudly that good will triumph.

One big obstacle to faith is the suffering of the innocent. If God loves us, why so much suffering in the world, so much injustice and violence? The Book of Job grappled with this. There are no easy answers. Yet God meets us in the midst of our struggles. People who have gone through great suffering often have strong faith. They testify to the presence of God within.

It is a great blessing to have a system of justice. Ultimately, God will call us to account. In the meantime, we are called to do everything we can to do right.

There are times when we face major challenges to our faith. St. Paul, for example, was shipwrecked. The crisis gave him an opportunity to speak about his faith. He knew that God wanted the best for him, as he does for us.

Whatever challenges we face, let’s put our faith in God, trust that God will be with us in whatever God asks us to do.