St. Joseph of the Lakes

For a time in my youth as I thought about the greatness of God, I would ask the common question: “If God is so powerful; why does he allow evil to happen in the world?” Isn’t the expression of evil in the world a sign of the weakness of God?

We hear in both the first reading as well as the Gospel that the answer is  precisely the opposite. As Wisdom declares: “But though you are master of might, you judge with clemency, and with much lenience you govern us; for power, whenever you will, attends you.”  Jesus makes it clearer in his parable of the sower who sowed good seeds. While he was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds. As both grow the servants point this out to the sower with the question: “Do you want us to pull out the weeds?” and his answer: “No, if you pull up the weeds you might take the wheat with them.” The sower certainly had the power to rid his garden of the weeds, but if it costs his wheat crop it would not be worth it.  

There were days when I expected that God should respond to my wrongdoing with regularity. If something did go wrong with me, I often would suspect it was due to something I had done, as if there is a cause and effect relationship between my sinfulness and my struggles. It is odd but I never looked at the same relationship between my goodness and the blessings in my life. Ultimately, what we are told, is that because God is so strong, he does and will tolerate our brokenness as a sign of his power over all. Ultimately it will all catch up to us, but today’s leniency is directed to our recovery, not to our punishment.