HOMILY LENT WEEK 04 05 – Week I
Faith Sees the Bigger Picture
(Wis 2:1-22; Ps 34; Jn 7:1-30)
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The two sides of a beautiful tapestry can serve as a metaphor for our lives of faith in God’s presence and power working in our lives.
God turns everything to the good for those who love God.
Looking at the back side of any tapestry or handcrafted work of art usually reveals a jumbled mess of threads and colours. Viewing the front, however, reveals just the opposite – a beautiful work of art that followed a precise pattern sketched on the back.
The readings today invite us to trust that God is weaving a beautiful tapestry out of all the events of our lives, even the painful, puzzling, and seemingly meaningless or irrational ones at the time.
The first reading from the book of Wisdom was written around 200 BC and while it was probably inspired by events taking place then, it certainly can be seen as prophetic about what would happen to Jesus. In that reading, evil people conspire against the good and righteous persons who “speak truth to power” and convict them of their evil ways. Even here, however, there is a sense that God turns everything to the good for those who love God – “They knew not the hidden counsels of God” (Wisdom 2:2). Psalm 34, for its part, reminds us that God is near to those with broken hearts, that God is with those who suffer evil.
In the gospel, the Jewish religious leaders actually live out the words of Wisdom, conspiring as they do against Jesus, precisely because he is unflinching in his critique of their false religiosity, unbelief and hypocrisy. Secure in the Father’s love for him, Jesus boldly proclaims who he is, that he is one with the Father, has come from the Father, and is thus the Messiah sent by the Father.
The Word Among Us, in a commentary on today’s readings, suggest those words from Wisdom above describe the religious leaders who were opposed to Jesus. The very things they plotted against him would be turned upside down by God’s “hidden counsels.” Jesus’ death would not stop him; it would rather vindicate his righteousness and show God’s power to deliver us and save us!
God’s mysterious ways are at work in our lives as well When we face a challenge or trial, we might be tempted to think it means God isn’t with us or that God isn’t paying attention to our prayers for help. But more likely than not, God is just moving in ways we can’t perceive at the moment – the back side of the tapestry of our life.
This is the challenge of faith: to believe God sees a much bigger picture than we do, and to trust that God knows what God is doing. So how can we do that?
One way is to look at the scriptures. The Old Testament is full of stories of how God’s “hidden counsels” took something evil and turned it around for the good. Think about Joseph, sold into slavery by his brothers. God used him to preserve the Israelites during a severe famine (Genesis 37). Or think of Abraham taking his son, Isaac, up the mountain to sacrifice him – at God’s command. God saved Isaac at the last minutes and showed Abraham (and us) just how much God appreciates our faith (22:1-19).
Perhaps we can recall a difficult time in our own life where we now understand how God deepened our faith or brought about an outcome better than we expected. With hindsight, we can see God was clearly at work. Let these insights serve as a foundation for us when challenging events arise in the future.
Whenever we are facing a trial, we can ask our heavenly Father to show us his “hidden counsels.” We probably won’t get an answer right away – that’s why they are called “hidden.” Still, we can take the situation as an opportunity to strengthen our faith. Remember, we are God’s precious child. So, let us keep trusting in him and ask him to show us how near God is and how much God loves us. Even if we don’t understand God’s ways now, we can ask God to fill us with peace in not knowing everything, in not being able to see the bigger picture ourselves.
Often it will be in unknown and even surprising ways that God will used the painful events or times of suffering, not just to strengthen our character, but also to help or encourage others to accept some hard-to-understand suffering in their lives. After one Lenten retreat session in one parish, a lady approached me with tears in her eyes. She was reading a copy of my book on addictions awareness, Walk A New Path, and told me she did not know me, but was trying to intuit what I had been through in life to write what I did, and that it was giving her strength to face what she was going through in her life at that time. One such comment makes the work of writing a book worthwhile.
The Eucharist is a most beautiful gift God the Father of Jesus wove out of the suffering and agonizing strands of his passion. May our celebration today strengthen our belief in the presence and power of God’s love at work in our lives.
