Daily Retreat 01/30/06

2006 Jan 30 Mon: Ordinary Weekday

2 Sm 15: 13-14. 30; 16: 5-13/ Ps 3: 2-3. 4-5. 6-7/ Mk 5: 1-20

From today’s readings: "Perhaps the LORD will look upon my affliction and make it up to me with benefits for the curses he is uttering this day.... Lord, rise up and save me!.... Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in His mercy has done for you"

Making the Best of the Worst

While it’s true that David was especially blessed by God, it’s not at all true that David had a particularly charmed life, or anything close to it. In fact, David’s life was plagued with some of the most awful tragedies anyone can imagine, such as the rebellion raised against him by his own beloved son Absalom.

In David’s case, holy scripture specifically mentions the king’s own sins as the root of his greatest problems. Without a doubt, wickedness is bound to yield a harvest of rotten fruits, and all of us can recall times in our own lives when our sinfulness led to awful consequences. But the Bible also records holy and innocent people who had to suffer great catastrophes and evils, such as Job, in the Old Testament, and most of all, Jesus, in the New Testament, who was holy and wholly innocent as well.

So, what exactly are we to do when the worst happens in our lives? Well, like David, we need to begin with the searching honesty of owning up to our own past sins and mistakes, which so often are a big part of our problems. As the reflection last Saturday noted, even the most sincere repentance and confession doesn't mean that all of the unfortunate consequences of our sins simply disappear! In the end, David wasn't punished for his sins, so much as he was punished by his sins - the evil aftermath of his turning away from God plagued him so much of the rest of his life.

But then, there are also times when our troubles and tragedies are not due directly to our own sins, or else perhaps it seems they go beyond any sense of just retribution. In all cases, whatever the degree of our own fault, we must strive to make the most of the situation. David reasoned that, by his penance of putting up with Shimei’s unjust insults, there was the opportunity to call upon God’s mercy. In acting thus, David was prophetically but imperfectly anticipating the practice of uniting one’s sufferings with the redemptive suffering of Jesus.

Perhaps the most incredible claim of Christian faith is that all suffering in this life, just and unjust, can be ennobled and transformed by uniting it to the redemptive sufferings of Christ. Although none of us can completely explain how that works, the unanimous witness of all the saints testifies that it does indeed work, so an essential, but admittedly most difficult part of Christian discipleship is the embrace of the Cross of Christ, in whatever way it is found in our own lives.