Sinners stumble

Let him who is wise understand these things;
let him who is prudent know them.
Straight are the paths of the LORD,
in them the just walk,
but sinners stumble in them.

So ends today’s first reading (Hosea 14:2-10).

Indeed, it makes perfect sense that sinners should stumble on the paths of righteousness, that those who seek their own selfish purposes should have trouble following the ways of the Lord, and that those who disdain the Creator ultimately should not have a successful passage through creation.

Of course, in this imperfect world, sinners often appear to remain on their feet quite a long time while it seems that every day another exalted religious leader stumbles grievously and another natural disaster somewhere smites impoverished people of faith.

This is not a new phenomenon. The ancient wisdom of Psalm 73:12-19 still rings true.

Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.

All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
For all the day long I have been stricken,
and chastened every morning.

If I had said, "I will speak thus,"
I would have been untrue to the generation of thy children.

But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I perceived their end.

Truly thou dost set them in slippery places;
thou dost make them fall to ruin.
How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!

The truth is that the ways of the Creator, although they may be partly discerned by natural reason, are ultimately mysterious: all human beings stumble and rain falls upon both the just and the unjust.

Because they seek the will of the Creator, however, the just will avoid many of the stumbles to which self-centered people will succumb, but while troubles beset both the just and the unjust in this world, what makes smooth the path of the just is not the lack of obstacles but rather that the just walk hand in hand with the Lord.

For the one who shuns God, the troubles of life bring only pain and greater emptiness and will end in terrifying oblivion.

For those who seek always the will of God, even with all its troubles life is like a child and parent going swiftly together down a path: as long as their hands stay together, the child comes safely and indeed laughingly through anything that may come along.

Let him who is wise understand these things;
let him who is prudent know them.
Straight are the paths of the LORD,
in them the just walk,
but sinners stumble in them.