23 March 2012

23 March 2012



"These were their thoughts, but they erred;
for their wickedness blinded them,
and they knew not the hidden counsels of God;"


Wickedness always blinds in one way or another.  It makes the truth about justice hard to see.  The just one becomes a censure to our thoughts.  We may even try to dominate him so that we don't have to hear his message or see him hold aloof from the impure paths we walk.  This is the case with the authorities of Jerusalem, to whom Jesus says"


"Yet I did not come on my own, 
but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true.
I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me."
So they tried to arrest him,"


What should our attitude be, then?


"The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves."


Why brokenhearted?  Why crushed in spirit?  Because we recognize our own wickedness and corresponding blindness.  We realize that we are trapped and can't see the way to righteousness and salvation. This is appropriate whenever it is true and to whatever degree it is true.  Yet it is not the LORD's ultimate intention for our lives here.  


"Many are the troubles of the just man,
but out of them all the LORD delivers him."


He wants to deliver us from our blindness.  That is why Jesus will go to the places where people are trying to kill him and yet speak openly to the masses.  It is not his own human will, which would be to preserve his life, but it is his divine will informed by his mission from the Father to bring salvation.  Jesus alone knows the hidden counsels of the Father.  He alone can count on a recompense of holiness and the innocent souls' reward.  Blessed be God that he has come to share those rewards with us and to make them our inheritance as part of his family.


"The LORD redeems the lives of his servants;
no one incurs guilt who takes refuge in him."