When things are bad, God makes good

Good News Reflection
Friday of the Second Week of Lent
March 5, 2010

Today's Readings:
Gen 37:3-4, 12-13, 17b-28a
Ps 105:16-21 (with 5a)
Matt 21:33-43, 45-46
http://www.usccb.org/nab/030510.shtml
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/10_03_05.mp3

When things are bad, God makes good

Name the worst thing that's happening in your life right now. How bad does it look? Is it hopeless? How frustrated do you feel? How sad? Okay, name the worst two things (we always have much to complain about, don't we).

In today's first reading, things looked very bad for Joseph when his brothers ganged up against him and threw him into a cistern to end his life. Even when they changed their minds and sold him to Ishmaelites (a rival clan), he must have felt sure that his life was over despite not dying. You can imagine how he felt. You have had these same feelings.

Joseph did not know that God was going to turn his terrible ordeal into a huge blessing. He couldn't see the plan that included becoming a redeemer for his people. (Years later, during a severe drought, Joseph would save Egypt and his Jewish tribe from starvation.)

You can imagine, too, how Jesus might have felt in today's Gospel passage. He knew that he was talking about himself in the parable. How did it feel to be around the Pharisees who wanted to get rid of him?

If Joseph had known his future, if he could have foreseen how God would turn his frightening circumstances into a great blessing, he probably would have felt grief and joy simultaneously. Jesus knew his future, and even as he agonized over it in the Garden of Gethsemane on Good Friday, he also understood the joy that was to come on Sunday.

To have faith in Jesus means that we, too, can experience joy even while we suffer and grieve.

We cannot be sure of what our future holds, but we do know Who holds our future. That's all that we really need to know (although we surely want to know more).

We don't need to foresee the future. We don't even need to see the next step on the path in front of us. By holding tight to God's hand, letting him lead us while remembering that he is always working a plan for our good (see Jeremiah 29:11 and Romans 8:28) and that therefore we can and should trust in his care, we, too can have hope and joy even while we suffer.

Faith-filled joy does not wait for our sorrows to end. The stronger our faith, the more joy we can actually feel, even in the worst of times. It's not a giddy happiness; joy is a peaceful satisfaction that God is good. Many Saints felt unspeakable joy while they were being tortured, not because they were happy, but because they had received a gift of grace that came from trusting God.

© 2010 by Terry A. Modica
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