How to shift personal annoyance toward the righteous

Last Sunday, this column introduced the path of the well-trained servant from the “Servant of the Lord” passages found in Isaiah. The just servant posed a question, “Who will dispute my right?” (Is 50:8). Here is found a unique claim of a clear conscience with a tinge of heroic acceptance for the impending persecution that awaits the servant of the Lord.

This Sunday, the author of Wisdom is well aware that there are many who find the servant’s perfection just plain annoying. “Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings” (Wis 2:12). 

The sting of this accusation is all too familiar for anyone who has ever compared themselves, with their own shortcomings, with a peer who seems to excel effortlessly at life or work. A fuller range of the term “obnoxious” includes: hard to be involved with, inconvenient, one who irritates, annoying. In traditional translations of the passage, the word “just” is often interchangeable with “righteous.” This, too, fuels the hatred of those opposed to the just servant, as they see in him or her a self-righteousness that seems unattainable for any normal person. “Let us see whether his words be true; let us find out what will happen to him” (Wis 2:17).

In Christianity, the early Church Fathers often quoted Wis 2:12 as referring to Christ. Today’s Gospel embraces a second passion prediction that accepts an inevitable end for the just one by those who hate self-proclaimed innocence. “The Son of Man,” says Jesus, “is to be handed over to men and they will kill him” (Mk 9:31). The Church Fathers, like Barnabas, Justin Martyr, Eusebius, Clement of Alexandria and others up to Augustine, all connected the sentiment of Wisdom with the final persecution of Jesus, as the only truly “righteous” one in the eyes of God. The common wry saying that no good deed goes unpunished holds true for a world set against a divine plan, especially when someone is found to be living it out passionately. It is annoying to the person closed off to any attempt at living a just life through the lens of Scripture.

There is another way to think about the word righteousness, however, in a manner that may seem less obnoxious. One may turn to Psalm 1 and find there two paths toward wisdom: the path of righteousness and the path of wickedness. If you merely replace the word righteous with the word integrity, then a world of possibility opens up. Integrity is something all people can grasp and grasp after. Integrity challenges the person of weak faith and questionable morality to strive for better integration of the kingdom of God with a lifestyle in tune with the Gospel. Integrity is something the disciples of Jesus struggle with as they focus on questions of personal grandeur, one second after Jesus taught them about hardships for the just person of faith. “They had been discussing among themselves on the way,” explains the narrator, “who was the greatest” (Mk 9:34). The way, according to the Gospel, is one of integrity. As such, it remains a world apart from self-righteousness and, even more, from any self-grandeur.