NOT A HAIR ON YOUR HEAD WILL BE DESTROYED
"How can an all-good God allow sin and even evil to
exist?"…
Victory over sin and evil does not lie in the future. It
has already been achieved in the death of Jesus Christ on Good Friday.
I read about the great
English poet, John Milton, who completed his famous epic, "Paradise
Lost," in 1965. The purpose of his monumental work was to "justify
the ways of God to men." The question was, "How can an all-good God
allow sin and even evil to exist?" Implicit in this question is a fear
that perhaps sin and evil are more powerful than God. Long before Milton lived, the People
of God faced the same dilemma. An awareness of God and His plan gradually
became sharper and was manifested in the coming of Jesus Christ, our Savior.
The Book of
Revelation, the last book of the Bible to be composed, summarizes the inspired
Hebrew and Christian writings that existed prior to the writing of the
Scriptures. It proclaims that on the last day God will show forth His goodness
and power by the total destruction of sin and evil from the universe. Our
reading today, from the Book of Revelation, contains a brief but beautiful hymn
sung by all the saints in praise of God's power and righteousness. On the day
of Christ's Second Coming the saints will cry out to God, "Great and
wonderful are your works, Lord God almighty. Just and true are your ways, O
king of the nations. Who will not fear you, Lord, or glorify your name? For you
alone are holy. All the nations will come and worship before you, for your
righteous acts have been revealed" (Rv 15:3-4).
The Church makes use
of this hymn in its official prayer book, the Liturgy of the Hours. In fact,
this hymn is part of Evening Prayer on every Friday; that particular day of the
week on which we recall the events of Good Friday. The use of this hymn on
Fridays teaches us an important truth: Victory over sin and evil does not lie
in the future. It has already been achieved in the death of Jesus Christ on
Good Friday.
The Psalm we just
heard ties the two readings together so well: "Great and wonderful are all
Your works, Lord, mighty God" (R 15:3b). In today's Gospel of Luke we
hear, in Jesus' discourse about the last things, that "some will be put to
death." And in the very next sentence we seem to have a complete
contradiction to this: Jesus says, "Not a hair of your head will be
harmed." Being put to death strikes most of us as pretty harmful! To make
some sense of this the best we can do is to understand that even if Christians
are put to death for Christ, their martyrdom is not God's last word!
A great part of our
hope and faith, evident whenever we commemorate family members and friends who
have died, is that cancer, accidents, heart disease, etc. will not be the final
end. Our life and what may happen in it does not make complete sense purely
within this earthly framework. When we speak of God saving us we mean that God
truly saves our humanity, which He created, from what appears so final, even
death itself.
Throughout this week
the readings talk a lot about having hope and faith in God. I am a hospice
chaplain each Sunday and I have been visiting people who are dying as a result
of illness. They have great faith and hope in this final journey of their lives.
They share their life journey with me and their great love for God and family.
The one thing I see the most is the love in their hearts. There is a peace and
total trust in God. Very special people!
Through the ages of
the Christian era this victory is unfolding in its effect and will reach
completion in the Second Coming of Christ. Meanwhile, we pray in every Mass
with all those who have gone before us and all those who are ill, that God may
deliver us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our
Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen!