Our Scripture readings today point to this underlying
problem.
Isaiah foretells the qualities of the Messiah:
He shall judge the poor with justice
And decide aright for the land’s afflicted.
The Psalmist adds:
Justice shall flower in his days,
And profound peace, till the moon be no more.
He shall rescue the poor when they cry out,
And the afflicted when they have no one to help them.
Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of
peace forever.
Well here we are, two thousands years into “his time”.
Anno Domino—in the Year of Our Lord—2013 AD.
And where is that flourishing justice?
Where is that fullness of peace?
Jesus came and started the Kingdom
of Heaven
And called on us to nurture and spread that
Kingdom.
By word and act and example.
Working with the rest of his Church, and with the help of
his Spirit.
After all these centuries, why aren’t we closer to a
world of full justice and peace?
In large part, it may be because of what Jesus tells us
in today’s Gospel.
The Father has hidden these things from the wise and
learned,
[And] revealed them to the childlike.
Who doesn’t want to be wise and learned?
That’s certainly sounds like something we should all
strive to be.
The wisdom of the world tells us to be practical.
Peace and Justice have actually made some progress from our
more harsh and brutal times past.
And we’ve been around long enough to know:
We don’t want to bite off more than we can chew.
We can’t solve all the problems of the world.
Our first responsibility is to look out for ourselves and
our own.
The wisdom from learning those lessons can help us
attain a degree of comfort in this life.
But it doesn’t promote speedy growth of the Kingdom.
It makes us too wise to make the same crazy, impractical
mistakes Jesus made.
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