This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.
“All things work for good for those who love God,” says St. Paul in a different epistle (cf. Rm. 8:28). For those in union with Christ, suffering is an opportunity to draw nearer to Him, become more like Him, and win further application of the infinite saving grace He merited on the cross. For those in union with Christ, triumphs and joys evoke gratitude, praise, and further trust in God. All circumstances, good and evil, increase love.
And Paul powerfully outlines the final result in today’s first reading. Adoption to the divinity through Christ. Every spiritual blessing in the heavens. Forgiveness of transgressions. The riches of grace.
And for this glorious destiny, per St. Paul, God chose us before the foundation of the world. A glorious plan, a glorious destiny.
What a contrast with Jesus’ message to the scribes and Pharisees in today’s gospel. He tells them, “The wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and Apostles; some of them they will kill and persecute’ in order that this generation might be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world.”
A very different destiny indeed.
It may seem unfair that, whereas for those of us who give ourselves to God with all our hearts, everything has been destined to work together for good, the destiny of Jesus’ audience here was to get heaped on them blame for the blood of all the prophets, even those who came before them. All things working, we may say, for not-so-good.
It is true that all of our destinies were pre-planned by God. And yet, God causes no evil. None. God is simply so incredibly powerful, so unfathomably sovereign, that He can create a rich race composed of completely and utterly free beings, fully capable of choosing between good and evil; foresee the choices of each free will; and–mark this–weave all of those free responses into a grand mosaic of history by far more impressive, more coherent, more pregnant with perfect meaning than any work of art ever conceived by the imagination of man.
As Lord of history, God is so powerful that He transforms not only neutral circumstances but even acts of freely chosen evil into key masterstrokes composing the rich and thoroughly beautiful work of art that is the glory of those who have chosen to love Him.
So, what are you worried about, again? 🙂
Ideas for conversation with the Lord: In your dialogue with Jesus, contemplate His ability as King of the Universe to weave all circumstances together for your good–to center, in a sense, all of history itself on your individual welfare, and yet to do this for each of His friends. Tell Him you adore Him and trust Him, and place all your eggs in His basket. Tell Him that you are setting your hand to His plow, never to look back.
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