In the first line of today’s reading the “wicked” say, “Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us;…for according to his own words, God will take care of him.” It makes me think of the story in the book of Daniel about Shadrach, Mishach and Abednego who were unburnt when thrown into a furnace of flames (Daniel 3). Before they are thrown in, they tell the king who is condemning them: “If our God, whom we serve, can save us from the white-hot furnace and from your hands, O king, may he save us! But even if he will not, know, O king, that we will not serve your god or worship the golden statue which you set up.” Daniel 3:17-18
These two passages have everything to do with our hope in Heaven. All of the things endured by “the just one” in Wisdom were endured. There was no magic taking away the torture or even the shameful death. But the “recompense of holiness” and “the innocent souls’ reward” are greater: eternal life, eternal friendship with God, these are even greater than life. The three men facing death in a flaming furnace hoped in this as well when they said, “but even if he will not…” They were not doubting that God could save them, but they were unsure of what God’s plan was. They were willing to risk their lives for that faith. They held it as more valuable than their lives. And, they knew that God would take care of them, either in this life or in eternity.
Faith in “the innocent souls’ reward”
Do I have the faith to believe that even in times of hardship, even when the salvation I’m looking for doesn’t come, God still has my good at heart? This is part of believing in Heaven. To believe that my greatest good can’t be found in this life, but in eternity, that, at some moment, this life will end and that something even better awaits me, that someone awaits me: this is faith. Even when I endure hardship, God has not abandoned me, and in fact, this is part of my salvation.
Faith in the Goodness of Life
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is going through Jerusalem at the risk of his own life, yet “no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.” Do I believe that God will preserve me if it isn’t yet my time? That is what Jesus acted on. It is what the three men in Daniel’s story acted on. That is what “the just one” in the book of Wisdom acted on. I must have faith in Heaven, but I must also have faith that, if God still has me here on this earth today, it is also for my good and His good purposes.
