Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 129

Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
Which of you wishing to construct a tower
does not first sit down and calculate the cost
to see if there is enough for its completion?
Otherwise, after laying the foundation
and finding himself unable to finish the work
the onlookers should laugh at him and say,
"This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish."

Leszek Kołakowski, in his book Is God Happy?, lambasted the Communists for their theory of history, and especially for their confident assurance that their sweeping knowledge of "history" extended from the past through the present and into the future. They claimed to know where history must go. They were so confident of their theory they could slaughter millions of people without remorse to attain its end. 

But the Communists were not the last people to plan for the future as if it were certain. When the Supreme Court of United States, with its Roe v Wade decision, overturned laws in all fifty states, they were confident they knew the future. A thoroughly secular culture, freed forever of religion and its shackles, would readily accept abortion as a form of birth control, while the states managed population control. 

Consumers would have their way; and easy access to abortion seemed inevitable. Didn't consumers overturn Prohibition in their demand for alcohol? Haven't they left a trail of cancelled laws behind as they demanded free access to divorce, recreational drugs, cigarettes, and firearms? Give them what they want! The die is cast, the decision is made. SCOTUS rushed a decision that was still in process. 

But there was no agreement and the decision was not made. In the past fifty years, we have seen the consequences of easy access to abortion: the coarsening of civil discourse, contempt for the law, drug abuse, violence, mass killings, and suicide, to name a few. Since they reversed Roe v Wade, the world watches as democracy teeters. 

When a young person realizes they were never a gift from God but a choice -- a commodity, desirable perhaps, but optional -- their self-esteem suffers. They came into being not of God's generosity but as two or more adults managed their biological processes. 

But Communism and Roe v Wade are only two examples of hubris, of engineering a future that can never happen. The theory is determinism, a confident assurance of what must happen, as if it's already been determined. Many people are so sure of what should happen they cannot be bothered with what has actually happened. They are like the chess player who ignored their opponent's last move.  

And so the world laughs at them, "This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish." But often, as in Ukraine, the story is not funny. 

No one knows the future. No one can predict the future. When asked when the Kingdom of God would come, the Son of God admitted he had no idea. Only watch the stock market, the movement of terrorists, or politics to see how the cleverest, best trained, and most experienced prognosticaters get it wrong. 

If we know neither the day nor the hour, we know God walks with us in this time and place until his victory is complete. On that day, 

Love and truth will meet; 
justice and peace will kiss. 
Truth will spring from the earth; and 
justice will look down from heaven. (Psalm 85)