Jesus speaks in this weekend’s Gospel about some recent tragedies of which the people were aware. Had there been CNN news in Palestine at that time, there would have been round the clock coverage. It seems that some Galileans had protested the Roman’s building an aqueduct. Pilate had his soldiers mix in with the Jews during a synagogue service and then attack the protesters “mingling their blood with their sacrifice.” Another all too common but sad experience is related regarding a tower that was being constructed. It caved in killing a number of the workers. 

Jesus is saying “Don’t try to put a strict cause and effect relationship between people who suffer or people having a hard time, and God doing it to them. It doesn’t happen that way. In large part, reality takes its course by the movement of the times and seasons and the sins of human beings. Reality just keeps going. And God is used to writing with crooked lines.

What Jesus seems to be saying today is that God didn’t push over that tower at Siloam to punish those eighteen people. The tower fell because the bricks were crumbling on one side. Those who don’t know how to listen, wait, and hope will view such an event as a destructive experience. It’s by your faith, by your perspective, your trust and your hope and prayer, that you can bring good out of evil. Otherwise, evil will take its course in the world. It can seem that the course of evil is becoming overwhelming. God only gets in through the cracks, it seems, the cracks in our hearts, the now and then openings in history, the wounded and the broken ones who long for God. As someone has said: “There is a crack in everything, and that’s how the light gets in.” Maybe faith is accepting that crack. May we make sure that the light gets through!

Thought for the week: Joy and thankfulness are the secret ingredients of all successful prayer.

Smile for the week: You should do something every day to make other people happy, even if it’s only to leave them alone! 

God bless! Have a wonderful week!