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October 1, 2023: God is Love, God is God, and We are Not
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When reading the pages of the Old Testament, once in a while it’s striking how God throws back onto the Israelites what the Israelites had been pouring onto God for some time. It’s almost as if God says, “Enough is enough, my people. You accuse me of not being fair. Well, guess what? You’re not fair! You’re the ones who started this unfair business, not me!”
This is the first reading this Sunday from Ezekiel. A debate between God and the Israelites concerning who’s fair and who is not. Guess who wins? It’s not the Israelites, that’s for sure. It seems almost like a child’s game on the part of God’s people at times, as they accuse the Lord of abandoning them as a nation after they had abandoned the Lord for God knows how long beforehand. Worshipping false gods will result in such calamity to a nation (may we take note), such as being carried off into Babylon. But the back and forth between the two parties, God on one side and a nation on the other, minus a remnant who remained faithful to God, seemed like the relational setup for what transpired through much of the Old Testament pages.
I cannot count the number of times while growing up in a large family how often the words, “That’s not fair” were spoken. I’m surprised my parents did not disown most of us before we reached the age of ten. That we were not orphans is a testament to the dedication and devotion of our parents. That a family of sixteen did not become a family of five in the end, which would have been my sisters all on their own. But even they had their fair share of complaints over the years on the topic of fairness. But one thing most – if not all – of my siblings have been graced with is the absence of not accusing God of being unfair. There seems to be an understanding that God is love, that God is God, and we are not. That we live in an imperfect world, and sometimes the imperfections of this world touch our lives. When something went wrong along the way – and still does - it was not due to God being unfair, but seen more in the light of, “Oh well, life isn’t perfect. Time to move forward.” Which is much better than getting into a back-and-forth with God about who’s fair and who is not.
It would be really, really nice if life was fair all the time. If it was, we would no longer need perseverance as a virtue, because life would just go along swimmingly each and every day. But we all know this is better known as Fantasy Island. It’s an unreachable dream to ever think that all the days we live are going to be just right, where no challenges arise; where no hard issues need to be confronted; where we always know where our next meal is coming from, which many people do not; where we can trust a government to always do what’s best for the people they serve without filling and lining their own pockets along the way; where God is at the center of our nation, our communities, and our personal lives, and that the unbelievable erroneous understanding of the separation between Church and State is lost for good. Talk about unfair! Where the “State church” is continually aggressive toward the Catholic Church because God’s Church is seen as a threat to their political power! There’s a reason why Jesus said the gates of hell will not prevail against his Church. Even in the midst of harder persecution.
Let’s just face the facts; life is filled with moments of unfairness. When God is forced to get into a debate with his own Chosen People on the subject of fairness and unfairness, and who is which, then all bets in favor of life being fair are off the table. The sooner we learn and accept this, the better our lives will somehow be. It won’t be much fun when something unfair happens to us, especially if it’s something big, like our health. One day we feel fine, the next day we’re in pain trying to figure out what’s going on inside this deteriorating body. But may it not be our souls deteriorating. Holding on to our precious pearl for dear life is a good move in a world doing its best to water down our faith, even calling it a waste of time. Imagine that! Do you think Jesus is a waste of time on any level? I sure do not! Our faith is the opposite of a waste of time. It’s time well-spent in our search for some degree of peace in our lives. Not to mention ultimate hope.
On the subject of fairness and unfairness, it’s always good to look to the Saints for a healthy approach in this matter between each of us and God our Creator. Did God create us to complain to him about how unfair life can be at times? The answer is no, just so we know this. We can suppose if anyone had the right to complain about unfairness coming down from God above, it would have been a few of those who made it safely into the Communion of Saints. I think first of St. Francis of Assisi, whose feast day we celebrate this coming Wednesday, October 4. On the surface, in one respect, St. Francis’ life was a mess. His father was a controlling nut; he ended up naked in the square of Assisi at the supreme moment of his conversion; and to say he was into self-flagellation would be an understatement. If the word fair were to be associated with easy, then St. Francis lived one of the most unfair lives in the history of the Church.
In another respect, however, his life was unbelievably holy, given totally over to the Lord Jesus. St. Francis’ life is much, much more than living a life devoted to loving animals, as good as the animal kingdom can be. Just don’t cross paths with a hungry, angry bear with cubs by her side. St. Francis was a martyr, but not in the truest sense of martyrdom. He was not put to death by some crazy king or pagan nation. But St. Francis was a martyr in how “unfairness,” if you will, is the story of his life. As we look for the easy way out each day, the man from Assisi gave himself, in his love for Jesus, the hardest time by way of how he treated his daily, dying body. Let’s just say it was the most unusual way of fairness one can concoct for themselves. If you read about the whole of Francis’ life, you will see for yourself, and ask yourself, “Why did he take such a self-violent path to heaven?” Good question. I believe the answer has to do with carrying a cross for the Man from Nazareth.
Another Saint who could easily have complained to God like the Israelites about fairness and unfairness was the Saint we would be celebrating today if today was any other day than Sunday. But a Saint nonetheless we should all recall today and celebrate anyway, despite the fact that Sunday, the Lord’s day, has moved aside and superseded this Saint’s celebration in the year 2023. St. Therese of Lisieux, also known as St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, could have presented God with a seemingly good case on the issue of unfairness. Again, like St. Francis, St. Theresa’s holiness was, well, heavenly from the moment of her birth. She was born to be a Saint, just like you and me. St. Therese did the little things to perfection in her life. She figured out, through the outpouring of Divine grace in her life, that doing everything in love, especially the little things in life like cleaning a room, or a bathroom, and doing it to perfection and with joy, was the “secret” to pleasing God. And man too.
So, when she started becoming deathly ill at a young age, and subsequently dying at the age of 24 from tuberculosis, this holy lady could have complained to God about her illness at such a young age, accusing God of being unfair. But this was not her “style.” Her style was to die for Christ, whatever her age. She found a “Way of Perfection,” not only in doing the little things in life with great love, but perfection in how she handled her illness before God and her fellow Religious Order Sisters. St. Therese could have claimed unfairness on the part of God until the cows came home, but, as we heard in last week’s reading, God’s ways are not our ways. St Theresa of the Child Jesus one-upped God, if you will, and said, “I can do more for people in heaven than I can do for them on earth.” How’s that for faith in the resurrection of Jesus? This French Saint, whose place of repose we will be visiting on our upcoming trip to France in November, embraced fully her loss of earth and gain of heaven. This was St. Paul’s struggle in last week’s second reading, with the words, “For to me life is Christ, and death is gain.” Such an attitude does not cheapen the gift of life one iota, but maintains a wider vision of what we are destined for, and believing it in the deep recesses of our hearts, like St. Therese of Lisieux.
If God is seemingly unfair, as the Israelites of old accused God of doing… if God is seemingly unfair to us in our day and time, then may we be blessed with the spiritual insight that God’s seeming unfairness is directed toward the good of our salvation. Struggling with such an intense thought as God’s potential unfairness is not improper. God can handle just finely our accusations against Him. But the less I hold against God as I near the end of life on earth, be it unfairness or any other issue that affects us, the more ready I become to embrace the light the Lord has waiting. St. Francis and St Therese are two of countless Saints who transferred their loyalty to heaven long before they arrived there, one-upping any apparent unfairness affecting their lives coming from God. May such holy wisdom and strength be ours too.