C Cycle – 8^th Sunday in Ordinary Time 25

Sirach 27:4-7

The scriptures have clearly declared we will experience a “great tribulation” such as the world has not seen (Mt.24:29).  We believe that tribulation will mark the coming of Jesus and the restoration of the earth. At the same time, it is very possible that the people of California and North Carolina would describe what they are going through as a great tribulation.  Those two events have dramatically changed their lives and their future.  We know life in this world can dramatically change in an instant.  The loss of a job, financial disasters, death, terminal sicknesses, divorce, rejection, rape, and just pure evil attacking innocent people are some of the things we hear about every day. 

When those things happen, the common cry is “where is God.”  It is difficult to trust in a loving, merciful God who promises to “never abandon us” when we are suffering.  When you are filled with uncertainty and pain there are individuals who will tell you “God is testing you.”  Or they may say God is giving you the opportunity to grow spiritually.  Is the loss of a child a test?  Is cancer God caused to help us grow spiritually?  God is not the source of the evils we encounter. Those “tribulations “are   part of living in this fallen world because pure evil still exists and seeks to rob us of our faith, our trust, and our relationship with God.    

So, what is God telling us when He said “…tribulation is the test of the just?”   Is the test our reaction to tribulation? Is it an opportunity for us to discover how God can bring good out of the tribulation?  Those moments are certainly a time when our trust in God’s goodness is being challenged.  Tragedies are not a God sent challenge, but they are moments which evil uses to draw us away from God.  To blame God because overcoming tribulations is the greatest challenge to our faith.

 How does doubting God’s goodness help us escape the pain we are certain to encounter during our lifetime.  Anger directed at God only compounds the pain we are experiencing because we fail to understand God is with us.  The problem is we cannot see how God is at work during those moments.  We fail to see God at work in the community as it supports us. We fail to see God at work in the small miracles that sustain us for another day.  We fail to experience the love of those who support us with their prayers, their acts of kindness and their presence.  God is always at work during those moments.

Let me share one such moment of God at work when someone needed to know God was at work during a time of hardship.  It occurred when a man believed God was telling him to give his older but functioning car to another person.  At first it seemed unbelievable that God would prompt him to do such a thing.  How do you tell someone “God told me to give you, my car?” The reaction was as expected, the man thought him to be nuts and rejected the offer. 

Yet the man persisted week after week only to be rebuffed.  Five weeks after the first conversation, the man who refused the car discovered something that changed his mind.  His father who lived in a small town in Vermont was walking three miles to work daily.  Walking in bitter cold, with temperatures in the minus teens.  His father’s car had broken down six weeks earlier and he was financially unable to purchase another car.  He was too proud to ask his son for help.  It was a moment of spiritual conversion for all three men involved when they realized the presence of God is always seeking to comfort His people.    

God’s grace comes from those who visit the terminally ill in hospice, through those ministering to the grieving, and through those who know God intimately.  Each of us can become the instruments of God’s grace by sharing the gifts which God has given each of us.  It is those whose fruit is readily given to those who are hungering for some sign of God’s mercy.  What is needed during tribulation is for our faith to give us eyes to see and hearts to respond when God sends us a sign all will be well.   

The scripture stories should encourage us. Especially those times when the uncertainty and doubts of the disciples.  After Christ’s resurrection, when He had appeared to the disciples two times, they failed to understand and were unable to process what was happening.  Peter, when he was seeking something to ground him said, “I am going fishing” (Jn.21:3).  It seemed Peter was going back to his old profession because he was filled with guilt and failed to understand God’s plan.

Jesus appears on the shore and calls out to them for they had fished all night and caught nothing.  Sounds like a familiar encounter that happened three years earlier.  You should read the story because it a powerful story, revealing God’s mercy and showing us how God never abandons us but is constantly trying to break through our doubts, confusion, and unbelief.  It also shows us how in the tribulation we can grow in faith if only we would recognize Christ when He comes to us. It seems the obstacles keep us focused on the wrong things.  We fail to trust Christ’s promise.    Come to me, all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest.