Total Disaster

In today’s first reading, disaster befalls God’s chosen people. Jerusalem is destroyed and the people exiled. Everything they had and everything that they felt good about was violently taken away.

One could say they brought it upon themselves: by sinning against God and by acting imprudently amidst powerful empires. One may say this with some accuracy, but also to comfort oneself: they made mistakes, but that will never happen to me.

Alas, we are not guaranteed to be safe from disaster in this world. “When Bad Things Happen to Good People” isn't just a book title: it's a frequent lesson of Scripture.

We don’t like that. We prefer today’s Gospel, where Jesus gives someone what they want right away, but there's more to the Gospel.

With his very first words, the leper acknowledges his dependence on the Lord’s will for his salvation, and with the very first words of His reply, Our Lord affirms that His will is indeed for salvation.

The leper may have then expected Jesus to tell him to bathe in the river, as Old Testament prophets did, but He did the unexpected: He touched the unclean leper, healed him instantly, and ordered him to tell no one.

Unexpected also was the wonderful salvation that followed from the awful disaster of the Babylonian exile.

We ourselves may be blessed with good things and we may meet with disaster, but no matter what, we must acknowledge that -- while we must always do what is right -- we are totally dependent on the Lord for what is good, that he wants what is good for us, and that he will do good for us, beyond what we could ever plan or expect: in times and in ways of His choosing and for our greatest happiness.