Memorial of Saint "Padre Pio," Priest

Lectionary: 449

In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia,

in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah,

the LORD inspired King Cyrus of Persia

to issue this proclamation throughout his kingdom,

both by word of mouth and in writing:

"Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia:

'All the kingdoms of the earth

the LORD, the God of heaven, has given to me,

and he has also charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem,

which is in Judah.

Today's first reading includes a verse that has appeared recently in some Christian magazines and websites. Donald Trump, they say, is the new Cyrus. Despite his notorious philandering, rank corruption, and flagrant lying, they believe, God made him president of the United States. His appointment of two supreme court justices who might counter Roe v Wade makes him similar to King Cyrus.

The Chroniclers who compiled One and Two Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah saw the hand of God in political and natural events. Nothing happens in God's universe by accident, happenstance, or coincidence. Very often we look back upon important events in our lives and realize how nearly they did not happen. If the light had not changed....; If I had been on time....; If I had caught that plane....

Surely, we suppose, the Lord intended me to meet this person who became my spouse. Of the fifty billion possible combinations of genetic code, this one was chosen and my child is like this. God is Good Indeed! Give glory to His Name!

And even when it makes God seem like the heavy, as when an unworthy, incompetent candidate wins the election, we are comforted by the reassurance that "God is still in charge."

Of course, the same arguments might be used to discover the punishing hand of God in historical events. His rebuke proves he has not abandoned us; it comes with the promise of relief. In his second inaugural address, President Lincoln invoked that dark hope:

The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh."

If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to him?

Fondly do we hope--fervently do we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

Civil wars resolve little and "this mighty scourge of war" did not end at Appomattox; it still punishes our nation in the forms of racial violence and poverty. Since 1865, to the "offense" of slavery has been added the crime of abortion. And so we now suffer epidemics of drug abuse and suicide.

We beg the Lord for mercy. Perhaps these punishments and humiliations will lead us toward that Day of relief when we will declare with grateful hearts, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."