Memorial of Saint Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr

 Lectionary: 495

All men were by nature foolish who were in ignorance of God, and who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing him who is, and from studying the works did not discern the artisan;
But either fire, or wind, or the swift air, or the circuit of the stars, or the mighty water, or the luminaries of heaven, the governors of the world, they considered gods. 
Now if out of joy in their beauty they thought them gods, let them know how far more excellent is the Lord than these for the original source of beauty fashioned them.

 

The gospel today complements the first reading as the Lord recalls the foolishness of humankind before the Great Flood: 

“…they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.”

They were foolish because they did not know the Lord who created the universe. They saw creation but could not imagine a creator. They supposed,“It’s just there!” Even Origin, among the early Patristic bishops, insisted that God shaped preexisting matter into beautiful, useful things, rather than he had created everything ex nihilo, (out of nothing.) Jewish philosophical belief in creatio ex nihilo challenged Greek assumptions and their limited imagination.

To gain wisdom we must hear God’s word of revelation. Without that guide we stumble in the dark. Experience teaches us to expect the unexpected and should make us ready for that gift. How many times do we have to be blindsided by recessions and depressions, by plagues and famines, and by wars before we realize we do not and cannot see the future?

The Prophet Habakkuk described the right attitude:

For the vision is a witness for the appointed time,

a testimony to the end; it will not disappoint.

If it delays, wait for it,

         it will surely come, it will not be late.

Very often we must wait in silence for God’s direction; “Don’t just do something. Sit there.” Fools cannot wait; they fill the silence with noise, and the blank space with images of something, anything, whatever!

The scriptures often remind us that those who do not hear God's word must stumble in darkness. Psalm 147: 20, for instance, declares: 

He has not dealt thus with other nations; he has not taught them his decrees.

Some people protest, "How unfair! God should love everyone equally all the time and give everyone the same word of guidance in a single burst of light!" 

But God has chosen to redeem humanity and the whole universe through the more effective, more penetrating mystery of Jesus Christ, which comes by way of the Church and its missionary zeal. Why does the Lord use such a slow, flawed, historical approach? So that we might share a communion with one another in Jesus. 

A brilliant revelation to everyone at the same moment, like that which fell upon Saint Paul, would not unite everyone in compassionate love. They would only be blinded by the light and left in their foolish darkness, as was Saint Paul until Ananias came to lead him through Baptism into the Church. 

We need others to lead us in the deep conversion of the heart that begins with hearing God's word from others. And we need the preaching mission of the Church to speak God's word, which is a human word in human language. And finally, we need the Spirit to knead, mold, and bake us into the One Bread which is the Body of Christ.