GOD DELIVERS FROM EVERY EVIL


THURSDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP 

Amos 7:10-17; Ps 19:8-11; Mt 9:1-8

Sin as the Source of Evil within Man

We have considered how the word of God constitutes the light of the city of God within by the presence of God that it furnishes. The word of God brings about the indwelling of God within us. We have learned from the prophet Amos, that God causes every evil that comes to a city. This is true of the city of God within each of us, as explained in our reflections. God constructed the inner city to be his dwelling place. Hence, the city becomes a source of evil when we fail to enthrone God in the sacred city within. The external city suffers evil when the inner city of God lacks the light of God. Thus, God permits physical evils to call our attention to the darkness within the inner city. But God does not fail to warn us through his word before the external storms he uses to punish our sins and correct our faults. This is why God sends his prophets to us, as Amos revealed. “Does misfortune come to a city if the Lord has not sent it? No more does the Lord do anything without revealing his plans to his servants the prophets.” Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, did not understand this mystery of God’s dealing with his people and accused Amos of plotting against the king and the people of Israel. In the true understanding of the situation, the priest, the king, and the people are the ones undermining the country by their disobedience to the word of God.

We suffer the same ignorance as Amaziah, the priest, in our religious practices. Many of us spend so much time in prayer, fighting, and casting fire on our perceived enemies. We do this in disobedience to the injunction of our Lord Jesus Christ, who asked us to pray for our enemies and those who hate us and wish to do us harm. These perceived external enemies are all messengers or prophets God uses to threaten us when we fail to pay attention to the word of God and the city of God within. Our attention should be directed to God and the demands of his justice. When this is done, God himself will remove every evil that is threatening our peace and stability, for every evil is caused by God, and used to bring us back to himself. Because Amaziah the priest failed to listen to the word of God, have a rethink, and stop fighting the wrong enemy, the Lord multiplied his evils. “You say: ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, utter no oracles against the House of Isaac.’ ‘Very well, this what the Lord says, ‘Your wife will be forced to go on the streets, your sons and daughters will fall by the sword, your land be parcelled out by measuring line, and you yourself die on unclean soil and Israel will go into exile far distant from its own land.’’” When we feel threatened by evils without, we should rather look inside and get reconciled with the Lord, from whom every good and evil comes.

Our Lord’s action and teaching in the gospel consolidate this truth for us. Knowing that the root of the evil that plagued the paralysed man was within, the Lord addressed the cause of the problem, seeing the faith that prompted his friends to seek the presence of God. “Then some people appeared, bringing him a paralytic stretched out on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, ‘Courage, my child, your sins are forgiven.’” These words of our Lord point directly to sin as the source of evil and death in our personal and communal life. Our disobedience to the will of the Father, which constitutes sin, is the main cause of evil. We invite evil when we fail to believe and live by the word of God, but rather live by the darkness of creatures. Every physical and moral evil has this single source or cause. The suffering of a just man does not negate this teaching of our Lord, for like the Son of Man himself who suffered vicariously for our redemption, God also allows his chosen ones to suffer physical evil for their merit and salvation of other souls. Hence, when we suffer evil, we are to look up to God who causes and delivers from every evil.

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, the grace to embrace your word daily and enthrone it in our hearts, so that illumined by your real presence which your holy word furnishes, we may enjoy your peace and be kept safe from every evil within and without.     

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