32ND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

As gold in the furnace, he proved them. . . . In the time of their visitation they shall shine.

Although the Book of Wisdom was written about fifty years before the coming of Christ, the author addressed concerns that we still face today. Why does God allow just people to suffer and experience persecution for their faith? What happens to them after they die? Just like us, the Israelites struggled to reconcile the reality of suffering and death with God’s goodness. So the author urged them to hold fast to their hope and trust that God would reward their loved ones who had died in faith.

Today’s first reading reminds us that death was not part of God’s original plan. He created human beings to be “imperishable,” but through the wiles of the devil and the sin of our first parents, death entered the world (Wisdom 2:23-23; Romans 5:12). As a result, we now recoil at the painful loss of a loved one or when children are harmed. Our very being cries out, “This should not be!” Even Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus and showed pity to the widow of Nain by raising up her son (John 11:35; Luke 7:13-15). His whole purpose for becoming man was that we might have eternal life.

We may struggle to believe in eternal life, for our loved ones or for ourselves. But this struggle is familiar to Jesus. His prayer in Gethsemane reveals his anguish as he faced the cross (Matthew 26:36-45). But trusting the Father, he offered himself up to death. After passing through this refiner’s fire, Jesus arose and shone forth, “as sparks through stubble” (Wisdom 3:7).

Risen and glorified, Jesus is our hope! We see that the pain of this life is temporary and the sting of death is fleeting. But even more, we see that all suffering is transfigured—even death, the devil’s greatest attempt to sabotage God’s creation. It became the very means God uses to bring us into eternity.

So bring him your heartaches, confusion, and pain. He will walk beside you and your loved ones through the valley of the shadow of death until the day when his victory will be your own, and “the faithful shall abide with him in love” (Wisdom 3:9).

“Lord, help me to trust you in this life so that I may rejoice with you in eternity.”

Wisdom 2:23-3:9
Psalm 34:2-3, 16-19
Luke 17:7-10