A Reflection for the Memorial of St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr
Find today’s readings here.
Not many of you were wise by human standards,
not many were powerful,
not many were of noble birth.
Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise,
and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong,
and God chose the lowly and despised of the world,
those who count for nothing,
to reduce to nothing those who are something,
so that no human being might boast before God.—1 Corinthians: 1: 26-29
These days just about everything seems out of control—or at least out of our control. Things that seemed certain are uncertain, things that once were shared together have fallen apart. Strange revelations and anarchy are loosed across the land. The worst are full of certitude and the best are crippled by doubt and cowardice. They crumble into inaction.
Our times are suddenly awash in anxiety and worry. The days ahead suddenly appear threatened by strife and war. Is it any consolation to know that the people of God have seen many other “worse” times? Many sorrows have been overcome over times past. Joyful hope flickers to life still in this Jubilee year.
The sisters of hope are patience and faith. As sure as rough beasts coming and going over human time is the mercy and justice of God in God’s time.
Who will see us through a time of calamity and crisis? Not the so-called wise or the powerful. Not the people of noble birth. The foolish and weak and lowly and despised—“those who count for nothing”—will be lifted up in God’s good time, enlivened by faith, boasting in the Lord, to restore what has been broken, to protect the vulnerable and the injured on our roadsides, to bring down the boastful and the powerful and ensure that justice, mercy and peace shall reign.
