Friday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Does God care? This is a perennial question by most that are open to belief in God. And for atheists, the existence of evil – despite the very fact that we Christians proclaim a good God who made the world good – is reason enough to believe there is no God.
Today the prophet Nahum tells the Jews exiled in Babylon that their captors are about to get their comeuppance. The Babylonians will be subjugated in the same way they subjugated others. And the Judahites will be restored to their homeland.
The Judahites spent years in exile, some didn’t survive it, and still others who had the opportunity to return to Judah preferred to remain in the foreign land. And if they were just a holy remnant, it was that generation that would go on to produce the Savior of the world in His earthly context: Jesus Christ.
God does hear our prayers, and He does not delay as some understand delay. Many of us experience adult children not practicing the faith. We see the Church getting smaller, and yet conversions are up. We are smaller but more fervent. Gaining the world and all physical health would be a pale exchange for eternal life given to those who trust in the Lord. The generation that goes into the Promised Land must persevere through exile and the desert, with hundredfold blessings from God, to get to that homeland.
Reflection by Fr. Pachomius Meade, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections