You may have heard about the fellow in a bar staring at his drink when a troublemaker grabbed the drink and gulped it down.
The fellow burst into tears. “Oh, come on,” said the troublemaker, “I didn’t think you’d cry.”
The fellow said, “This is the worst day of my life. My boss fired me. My car was stolen. Then I left my wallet on the bus. And at home, my dog bit me. I came to this bar to put an end to it all. I dropped a capsule into my drink and was watching the poison dissolve; and then you showed up and drank it! But enough about me, how’s your day?” The troublemaker was about to have a bad day.
The word of God takes us back to the Wisdom literature attributed to Solomon and collected into a series of biblical books in the 2nd century before Jesus. Don't we wish we always had the wisdom to distinguish what's really important. Life isn’t simply a matter of acquiring and spending. No! Our faith proclaims that our ultimate purpose is to live in relationship with God forever. That is why St. Paul urges us to “think of what is above, not of what is on earth.” (Col 3:2).
Reinhold Niebuhr, a 20th century theologian, captured a nugget of wisdom in his “Serenity 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.”
Today’s reading was written to inspire Jews undergoing hardships to persevere in their fidelity to God’s Covenant. God, the author says, is a patient judge. He is mighty and powerful, the source of all good. And for such a mighty and caring and forgiving God, the author proclaims, we should be grateful.
The author may prompt us to describe our own image of God. The bible gives many splendid images. A walking companion, a God as tender as a mother. The image of God in the parables of the Good Shepherd and the prodigal son is balanced with the image of the last judgment. All these splendid images cannot capture fully the inexhaustible reality of God. So, what are our images of God?
Paul in his letter to the Christian community at Rome speaks about the Spirit or energy of God dwelling within us. When we pray, for example, “Come, Holy Spirit,” we are praying for a greatly increased sense of that presence of God in us. God of course is present everywhere, yet we do not always sense it.
Paul asks us to be aware of the presence of the Spirit in our daily lives. After all, we are “living temples of God.” We might pray, as Paul and Barnabas did in the Book of the Acts chapter 13, that God will give us the courage to speak the “good news” boldly. Jesus Christ is alive.
In the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus tells the parable of the wheat and the weeds. good and evil, sin and virtue, live together. And yes, God is patient, tolerating evil alongside good. But 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 over evil, even if here and now it seems evil may be overcoming good.
One of the biggest obstacles to faith in God is the suffering of the innocent. The Book of Job attempted to grapple with the problem. If there is a God who loves us, how come there is so much suffering in the world, so much injustice and violence? There are no easy answers. Yet God meets us in the midst of our struggles. In fact, people who have gone through the greatest suffering often have strong faith. They testify to the presence of God within, strengthening and comforting them in the midst of pain.
In her book “The Hiding Place,” Corrie ten Boom describes how her sister, dying in a concentration camp, said, “We must tell them that there is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still. They will listen to us, Corrie, because we have been there.” These sisters trusted in God despite the ugliness they witnessed.
How do we respond to injustice? The biblical psalmist trusted that God ultimately will put things right; he recognized that God’s got the whole world in his hands! It is a great blessing to live under a system of justice. It is a terrible curse to live under a corrupt system. But ultimately, God will call us to account. In the meantime, we are called to do everything within our power to see that the right thing is done.
It is relatively easy to trust in God when everything is going well in our lives. However, there are times when we face major challenges to our faith. Among his many trials, St. Paul, for example, was shipwrecked three times. In one scene (Acts 27: 13ff), a hurricane appeared. Luke writes that they finally gave up all hope of being saved. Yet, Paul kept on trusting in God, telling those on board that God was still in control. Extraordinarily, Paul the prisoner stops the sailors from jumping ship. This crisis gave Paul an opportunity to speak about his faith. He knew that God wanted the very best for him, as he does for us. Paul assured them, “not a hair of the head of anyone of you will be lost.” (Acts 27:.34) And, “when he said this, he took bread, gave thanks to God in front of them all, broke it, and began to eat...and they took some food themselves. All reached shore safely.
Paul surely must have prayed: Lord, thank you that you protect me even when disaster strikes. When things go wrong, help me not to be afraid but rather to keep up my courage and to have faith in you.
Today, whatever challenges we are facing, put our trust in God, believe that God will be with us in whatever God asks us to do.
I close with a favorite prayer of Thomas Merton:
“My Lord God…I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.... And I know.... you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”
