Wednesday of the Second Week of Advent

 Lectionary: 183

Do you not know
or have you not heard?
The LORD is the eternal God,
creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint nor grow weary,
and his knowledge is beyond scrutiny.
He gives strength to the fainting;
for the weak he makes vigor abound.

Richard Weaver, in his book, Ideas have Consequences, pointed to a number of problems that a society which prizes equality above other virtues will suffer. First of all, equality is never going to happen. People vary enormously; every individual is unique. Some are larger than others. And many are smarter, richer, healthier, and more athletic than others. There's no end to inequities. And many iniquities inevitably follow.

Nor can anyone expect that wealthier, reasonable parents will not offer their children all the advantages they can afford. Some parents might adopt one or more children and try to treat them as well as they treat their own children, but they won't favor every child in the neighborhood with the same generosity they give their children. To think otherwise is starry-eyed nonsense. Democratic, egalitarian societies inevitably favor their own, giving less opportunity to strangers. During hard times, which occur cyclically, the favored will be more favored until they become a separate class altogether.

Weaver also points to the contentment lower classes can enjoy when they know that neither they nor their children should aspire to the upper classes. They may be less competitive with each other, and far more willing to share with one another during hard times. They must remind one another and their children that, We're all in this together. If all else fails, they can shame those who survive too comfortably. For amusement they might, like the English, entertain themselves with stories about their uppers.   

The Scriptures teach us to expect periodic adjustments, especially when inequities and iniquities become overwhelming and arbitrarily cruel. In fact, we should expect the all-powerful God to favor the weak and the needy. Fearing no competition, He has nothing to lose. The wise remember when God delivered the Hebrew slaves out of their cruel slavery in Egypt, and the enormous cost to Egypt. If they are wise enough to practice gratitude for the deliverance of their ancestors, they will also limit the disproportions that naturally occur and recur. 

That takes constant vigilance, and an openness to the Spirit of Penance which wants to know and actively searches for arbitrary injustice in one's own practices and habits. They might prefer justice over mercy, or mercy over justice, but they will be prudent when administering either. They will disagree often over those concerns but they will do so respectfully. 

So long as the uppers remember that God humiliates the powerful and raises up the lowly, they will try to anticipate that violence before it becomes necessary. 

For the LORD... does not faint or grow weary,

and his knowledge is beyond scrutiny.

He gives strength to the fainting;

for the weak he makes vigor abound.