Wednesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Our two readings speak of expulsions: that of Hagar and Jesus. From a modern Christian point of view, the former case seems at one and the same time unjust and messy in how it came to this point. Suffice it to say that there was a lot of desperation, jealousy, and regret involved in the situation with Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael, and Isaac. (I am not the first to note that the tensions in the Near East have been there for thousands of years.) What we can see is that God can bring good out of poor human choices. Ishmael will become the father of a great people too.
Jesus is also expelled precisely for doing a good deed: exorcising a demon from a long-suffering man. The locals too suffered under this ferocious demoniac. However, the exorcism also caused the loss of livestock – the livelihood of these poor people. The people beg Christ to leave their district even though he has removed evil from their midst. This perhaps shows us that in this fallen world often the good works of God come at the cost of the values of this world.
God is over and above any evil we can do and can bring good out of bad situations, and the Kingdom of God will come at a cost in this world. Would it not be better to discern decisions prayerfully in the first place? Yes, of course. Yet we are weak and often err. We can repent, ask for grace, and allow God to write straight with our crooked lines. And Jesus never tells us that following after Him will be easy but will mean picking up a cross daily. Yet our whole life is now in Christ who experienced the worst evil and violent choices of humanity and overcame them rising to gloried life. The cost in the blink of the eye which is this world is a tiny cost in proportion to the joy of eternity. Expulsions just come with the territory.
Reflection by Fr. Pachomius Meade, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections