God’s Justice

Dear Friend,

Father Joe suggested the quote from Saint Bonaventure on the cover of last week’s bulletin cover: “Justice is a quality of God which makes the deformed beautiful.” It made me smile as I recalled being a kid on the basketball court and shouting, “Justice prevails!” whenever the ball dropped through the net after the shooter (often myself) had been blatantly fouled. (Thanks, Joe!)

Bonaventure’s notion of justice really does prevail in our scriptures for this week. In the first reading the childless couple, Abraham and Sarah, offer hospitality to three migrants who show up unexpectedly at their tent. Before departing, one of them says, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah will then have a son.” A situation of desperation - at least in this cultural context - is thereby made beautiful by a promise, a ray of hope, and so it comes to pass.

In the second reading Saint Paul sees his own sufferings as a cause for rejoicing, as he endures them for the sake of a community joined to Christ. Paul himself is their minister and through the lens of Bonaventure we see that God’s justice is working in him as he draws Gentiles - those he once considered excluded - into the wisdom and hope of Christ. In the Gospel story Jesus meets Martha’s distress by pointing out Mary’s singular focus on the Word. Mary is justified; attention to Jesus opens us to justice in every encounter.  

Today, around the globe, injustice prevails, its ugliness touted as “reality” on ten thousand screens. Countering war and violent deportations, the strong biblical roots of Catholic teaching on justice and peace reveal a divine interplay of hospitality, trust, and reconciliation. Here is the tender seedbed of beauty and a hope-charged resistance. 

Gratefully,

Father Dan ofm