Saturday November 16, 2024
Good News Reflections:
Making scripture meaningful to your daily life
by Terry Modica
“Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary.” (Luke 18:1)
Good News Reflection for:
Saturday of the 32nd Week in Ordinary Time
November 16, 2024
Today’s Readings:
3 John 5-8
Psalm 112:1-6
Luke 18:1-8
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111624.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-november-16-2024
Why is God slow in bringing justice?
In the parable about the widow who nagged the uncaring judge until he finally complied with her wishes, Jesus asks us, “Will not God (the Judge who does care) then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night?” It’s a question meant to make us go, “Oh, duh, of course he will!”
“Will he be slow to answer?” he continues. And then, in case we still don’t get it, he says: “I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily.”
Remember, this is a parable about the necessity to pray always without becoming weary. Think about it: If God were speedy when we call out to him for justice, there would be no need to keep praying. Right? This sure seems like a contradiction!
I have suffered more than a few injustices and, in each situation, I went running to God. And I’m still waiting for justice in most cases. What’s up with that? Why he is slow to respond? Have I not nagged him enough? Probably you have encountered the same dilemma too. Am I right?
The key to understanding what Jesus is teaching here is to separate — in our minds and in our hopes — God’s justice from the worldly idea of justice. For example, in the guise of “justice”, there’s a lot of unjust social pressure to accept evil as good and good as evil. One glaring pressure is to accept homosexual activity and transgenderism as normal and healthy and good. In the guise of “justice”, we are not allowed to research into it and look at the possibility of harmful consequences, and therapists are not allowed to help clients heal from traumatic events that may have contributed to their sexual decisions — how unjust! Meanwhile, we who follow Christ, because we refuse to make moral compromises, are accused of being the unjust ones.
My point is: We need to be careful about how we define “justice”. There are lots of counterfeits of true justice vying for our acceptance. Vengeance is another one. So is entitlement (as in, “give me, give me, give me, and give it to me for free, because I deserve it just for the asking, without working for it”). You can think of several more.
In today’s world, we all need to examine our consciences for ways we have made compromises with counterfeits.
God is always slow to bring justice to these situations because he waits for sinners to turn to him for repentance and purification before it’s too late.
God is the author of holy justice. Holy justice is what Jesus did for us on the cross: he accepted an unjust punishment because he loves us so much, thereby justifying repentant sinners so that we can go to Heaven.
Our “final judgement day” is when we come face to face with Jesus as we pass away from Earth. Will he find faith in us? If we want justice — God’s version of justice — we don’t want to accept any counterfeits.
© 2024 by Terry A. Modica
For more on this, read the WordByte: “What is God saying in evil times?“
God will not hold back his justice forever. Demons know that God is soon going to do something tremendous to bring his justice into the world, and so they are desperately trying to cause as much damage as they can. They have upped their efforts to take to hell as many souls as they can before Christ intervenes.
For faith-filled followers of Christ, this is good news. The worse an evil gets, the bigger the blessings. Nothing happens that God has not chosen to allow, no matter how terrible or disruptive it gets, because he knows that it’s the best (perhaps only) way to turn stubborn hearts toward Christ and bring more souls to heaven. God is still and always will be in charge.
See wordbytes.org/victory/what-is-god-saying-in-evil-times.
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