The Scripture readings I reflected on
today are somewhat diverse. The lessons are numerous, and some are
humorous. In Genesis, the first lesson
is a reminder that God has a sense of humor.
I have a picture in my mind of God dropping the newborn Isaac in
Abraham’s hundred-year-old lap and sitting back and chuckling. At times, I’ve viewed children as both God’s
gift to and joke on us. God gives us
these little bundles that will drain us emotionally, physically and financially
and the moment they’re in our arms, we fall in love with them. Like most new fathers, Abraham was probably
overjoyed and overwhelmed at the same time.
The second lesson of this account is that one wife is plenty. Already overwhelmed with a newborn, Abraham
faced squabbling wives delivering ultimatums.
A great argument for a monogamous marriage. And lastly, God always keeps His promises. God promised Abraham that He would take care
of Ishmael, Abraham trusted God and God delivered. It’s a simple lesson that we can carry with
us every day of our lives (Genesis 21:5-20).
Psalm 34:11 states it simply: “Those
who seek the Lord lack no good thing”.
(Psalms 34:7-13)
We’ve all heard some stories that don’t
end the way we expect them to. Or someone
reacts just the opposite of how we would expect them to react. One of the stories in Matthew’s Gospel is
like that (Matthew 8:28-34). Christ
comes upon two men possessed by demons.
He casts the demons out. The
demons go into a herd of swine and the pigs rush into the sea and drown. Witnesses run into town and report what has
happened. The whole town comes out and
when they see Jesus, they plead with him to leave. What?!?
The Son of God showed up, performed a great miracle and they’re concerned
about some pigs? What the heck was wrong
with these people?
Saint Jerome said that it’s possible
that the people were actually acting in humility, in that they didn’t consider
themselves worthy to be in the presence of someone as great as Jesus. Like Saint Peter who fell at the feet of
Jesus and cried out, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O
Lord” (Luke 5:8), these townspeople may
have been in such awe at what Jesus did for them that they didn’t see
themselves as being worthy of His presence.
However, other Church Fathers point out that it’s more likely that these
townspeople signify those who are stuck in their life of sin and don’t want to
come face-to-face with the Gospel or with the Person of Jesus. They prefer to close their ears to the truth
and to remain in their life of ignorance and sin.
It might also be helpful to reflect
upon the relationship between the townspeople and the two demoniacs. Ideally, when the townspeople saw the two men
completely freed of the demons who tormented them, they would have rejoiced in
a way similar to the way the father of the Prodigal Son rejoiced when his son
returned to him (Luke 15:11-32). Sadly,
in this case, there seemed to be a tremendous lack of excitement by their
fellow townsmen over the freedom the two demoniacs experienced. This shows a clear lack of love for the two
men within the town. Perhaps many of the
townspeople took a weird form of pleasure in their mockery of these two men
over the years, and they enjoyed telling stories about how crazy they
were. Now, they were faced with these
two men who were completely changed, and they may have found it difficult to
speak well of them because of their pride.
The negative example set by the
townspeople gives us an opportunity to reflect upon how we think about and
treat those who have changed their ways and have turned from evil to good. Perhaps it’s a family member who’s sincerely
tried to change. Or perhaps someone at
work, a neighbor or some other acquaintance has gone from a life of sin to a
life seeking virtue. The real question
to ponder is whether we rejoice over the goodness of others, over their ongoing
conversion and pursuit of holiness, or whether we struggle with truly
expressing joy as we see people we know change for the good. It’s often easy to criticize but much more
difficult to rejoice in the holy transformation of another. I would hope that I’d be more open to God’s
guidance than the townspeople in the story, but I wonder.
I remember a time when a friend asked
me if I feared death. I gave the standard
“No, I’m a Christian, I believe in the resurrection” answer and then became
frustrated when he questioned further.
In retrospect, I feel God opened a door for me about as wide as He
could, but my own doubts and fears kept me from stepping through. My hope is that I didn’t close the door
completely on my friend and another opportunity will be presented. My prayer today would be that I will be open
to God’s guidance and that I trust in God’s promises enough to step through the
doors that He opens.
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