Thorns And Roses And Eternal Happiness

Friday of the Fourteenth Sunday in course 2024

At some point in every person’s life, there comes a realization that all is not well with that life. It may have to do with a really terrible family argument or tragedy. Sometimes it waits around until sexual awakening, and the confusing feelings that go along with that event. Sometimes even later. But whenever we realize that all is not roses, that thorns come along with every life, we have to deal with our duty toward God. Hopefully there will be a wise person that can be involved and help with the struggle.

Today’s psalm 51, the crown jewel of the penitential psalms, attributed to King David when he had committed the triple sins of adultery, lying and murder, is appropriate to that event in any life. The one who prays looks inward and finds much that is amiss, or “a mess,” and looks above to find one very much out of our league. The One we know as True when we are false, wishing good for us when we wish evil for others, clean when we feel filthy. And if we have truly taken in the notion that this One, this Divine One, this Holy, Immortal One is literally overflowing with mercy, then only can we dare to hope to be like Him with His grace and our striving.

What awaits us when by the grace of the sacraments we get right with God through faith and follow Him in His path? Matthew records the caution Jesus leaves us. We are like sheep; the world is full of wolves, seeking as St. Peter writes elsewhere, seeking someone to devour. The men who are only seeking pleasure, power and fame will take offense at us. They will, as we have seen with so many pro-life Christians, arrest us and haul us before corrupt district attorneys and judges. They are already sentencing witnesses to the dignity of human life to prison terms. They will allow us to give testimony and then not listen. The Holy Spirit will then empower us and teach us the words to use, and we’ll then be one with earlier witnesses like Thomas More and the Ugandan martyrs and all the apostles.

Hosea shares with us his interpretation of what comes next. We may die by the executioner’s devices. We may die in prison or maybe in our own bedrooms. But everyone dies; the big question is whether we will have died for goodness, truth and beauty. If we do, especially if we bring other repentant sinners with us, then the love freely poured out by the Blessed Trinity will immerse us. In eternity we will all blossom like the lily. We will flourish like a whole celestial garden, and our fragrance will be better than Lebanon’s in the beautiful years before terrorists made that region smell like spent explosives. Truly, there will be eternal joy. All creation will know that “the ways of the LORD are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.” Let us walk in the ways of the Lord, and know eternal happiness in the end.