Saturday of 18th Week in Course
We cannot imagine the situation in the tiny kingdom of Judah in the seven or so years before Nebuchadnezzar’s siege and destruction of Jerusalem. King Josiah, after a pious and largely peaceful reign of 31 years, had rashly attacked the Egyptian army at Megiddo and died of his wounds in Jerusalem. His successor, Jehoahaz, ruled for just 3 months and then was deposed by the Egyptian pharaoh. His brother Jehoiakim, then took over. Judah was a pawn in the larger political conflict between Babylonia and Egypt until the Babylonians destroyed the kingdom in 586 BC.
The prophet Habakkuk looks at the pagan rulers and pictures them as fishermen, casting their hooks and nets into the sea and dragging the fish–the innocent people–into his clutches so he can enslave and exploit them. But then he envisions these fisherman-kings, instead of thanking God for their success, making religious offerings to their nets, to their false gods of silver and wood and gold. The prophet complains to the true God, to YHWH: “Why, then, do you gaze on the faithless in silence while the wicked man devours one more just than himself?” How many times in our day have we read the story of a venture capitalist or manufacturer or investment banker or their political allies profiting from some corrupt venture and stealing from customers or taxpayers or the public treasury? And don’t we turn to God like the prophet and ask “why, Lord?”
But God’s ways are not ours, and his judgement is broader than ours. He is, as the psalmist sings, a “stronghold for the oppressed,” and he does not forsake those who trust Him. Oftentimes the judgement is delayed, but not denied. When we would see injustice and swoop down, if we were divine, to smite the oppressor, God can forbear and allow the evildoer to learn from the emptiness of his victory, repent and be forgiven. Our Lord wants all to come to salvation.
What is needed is faith. Even a tiny amount of that divine gift can work wonders, but sometimes it takes a real trial of faith to allow the faith to sprout into an effective force for change. It’s like some trees whose seeds will only sprout after they have been baked in a huge brushfire. It’s true that God is effective, but He is never hurried, never rash. To follow Our Lord, then we cannot be rash. That’s a sign that we don’t have it together, that we aren’t really hearing Mary’s command to do whatever Jesus tells us to do. The rash person has no integrity. The just man or woman patiently waits for the grace of God to operate in himself and others, stays alert to the sign that it is time to act, and then follows God’s call to spread His saving message.
