“But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them. In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died, and their departure was thought to be a disaster, and their going from us to be their destruction; but they are at peace. For though in the sight of others they were punished, their hope is full of immortality. Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great good, because God tested them and found them worthy of himself; like gold in the furnace he tried them… Those who trust in him will understand truth, and the faithful will abide with him in love, because grace and mercy are upon his holy ones, and he watches over his chosen ones.” (Wisdom 3: 1-6, 9)
Things are not what they seem, “in the sight of others,” when it comes to our cross-carrying journey. How liberating is this divine word, this divine perspective, for any one bullied today, from within or without, by “the tyranny of the present.” Because faith, as Carl Jung notes, “builds up a reserve, as it were, against the obvious and inevitable force of circumstances to which everyone is exposed who lives only in the outer world and has no other ground under his feet except the pavement.”
When we “trust in Him,” we are given to be “at peace” amidst alleged “disaster” and “destruction,” – not because we are perfect or without fault, but because we are willing to be “disciplined a little,” in His truth and His love. Willingness opens me up to “grace and mercy,” as I move forward amidst the good and the bad, to “understand truth,” rather than be swayed by the latest trend of human opinion. “Thy will be done,” I say today, as I choose to be “chosen” by the hand of God, rather than tormented by “the eyes of the foolish.”
