Living Peacefully in a Kakocracy

Truly God is good to the upright, to those who are pure in heart.

But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped.

For I was envious of the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

For they have no pain; their bodies are sound and sleek.

They are not in trouble as others are; they are not plagued like other people.

Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them like a garment.

Their eyes swell out with fatness; their hearts overflow with follies…

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

All in vain I have kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.

For all day long I have been plagued, and am punished every morning.

If I had said, “I will talk on in this way,”

I would have been untrue to the circle of your 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 you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin.

How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!

They are like a dream when one awakes; on awaking you despise their phantoms.

When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart,

I was stupid and ignorant; I was like a brute beast toward you.

Nevertheless I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me with honor.

Whom have I in heaven but you?

And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Indeed, those who are far from you will perish;

you put an end to those who are false to you.

But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge,

to tell of all your works.

Psalm 73

Reflection – We have a great love for this psalm in Madonna House. The latter verses of it were set to music by one of our talented members, and we customarily use that piece on June 8, our Promises Day, the sentiments therein being so fitting for that occasion: ‘What else have I in heaven but you – apart from you I want nothing on earth, my body and my heart faint, but God is my possession forever…’

It is significant, though, that all of this rapturous acclamation of faith comes after a fairly grim depiction of life in this world. This is a psalm about things being as they should not be, a world that is unjust. The wicked prosper and grow fat; the righteous languish and die. Innocents suffer (although unlike the psalmist we may hesitate to glibly count ourselves among those innocent), while the arrogant and proud, the evildoers go their seemingly merry way unpunished.

And the psalmist is utterly perplexed at this. As are we, aren’t we? The world has not changed all that much in the past 2500 years or so since this psalm got written. Surveying the landscape of political and economic life in the year 2016, it is hard to avoid the impression that we are living more and more in a kakocracy (that’s fancy Greek talk for ‘rule by the worst’).

Psalm 73 calls us to make a deep act of faith in the face of such realities. When the world goes awry, as it is wont to do, when all the tings that should not happen, happen, and what really should happen never does, it is meant to be a powerful reminder to us, a goad to our hearts and minds, that in fact we are not meant for this world.

We are made for God, and the happiness of the human person does not lie in riches and power, in pleasures and vanities, but rather, ‘for me it is good to be near God.’ We leave the rich and the powerful, those who do evil in high places, to the judgment of God. I for one hope that He judges them with mercy, and that all of us can find our true home in the kingdom of heaven together.

For us who have faith now, though, we have to be utterly clear about it—happiness is found not in the goods of the world, but in the goodness of God and our intimacy with Him. That is the final answer to injustice and, shall we say, ‘income disparity’ in this world. Yes, we should work for a socially just order if and as we can, but let’s not get confused about this. We’re not trying to build the kingdom of heaven on earth. We’re trying to make a world, as Dorothy Day put it, in which it is easier for people to be good.

But this goodness, this beatitude that is our true goal, is not found in any economic calculus—everyone getting exactly the piece of the pie they deserve. It is found in the embrace of God and the intimate communion we have with Him, which far exceeds anything the psalmist could have imagined. It is our sharing in the very life of the Trinity, made possible for us in Jesus Christ, that is the portion and inheritance of all who believe in Him and who seek refuge in Him. And that must always be our perspective and our purpose as we move through this unjust and at time crazily confused world.

From Sea to Shining Sea

Give the king your justice, O God,

and your righteousness to a king’s son.

May he judge your people with righteousness,

and your poor with justice.

May the mountains yield prosperity for the people,

and the hills, in righteousness.

May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,

give deliverance to the needy,

and crush the oppressor.

May he live while the sun endures,

and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.

May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass,

like showers that water the earth.

In his days may righteousness flourish

and peace abound, until the moon is no more.

May he have dominion from sea to sea,

and from the River to the ends of the earth…

For he delivers the needy when they call,

the poor and those who have no helper.

He has pity on the weak and the needy,

and saves the lives of the needy.

From oppression and violence he redeems their life;

and precious is their blood in his sight…

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,

who alone does wondrous things.

Blessed be his glorious name forever;

may his glory fill the whole earth.

Amen and Amen.

Psalm 72

Reflection – Well, this is not going to be an easy blog post to write. This psalm has a profound significance, both in its own right—it is one of the great messianic psalms heralding the king who will establish righteousness on the earth—and for me as a Canadian.

The official motto of Canada is ‘from sea to sea’, and Canada is formally known as the ‘Dominion’ of Canada, precisely quoting from this very psalm: ‘May he have dominion from sea to sea.’ Canada, my beloved home country, is in its historical formation a Christian nation—this is not a matter of opinion, nor is it a political statement about any issue before us today. It is a matter of plain fact. 

And Psalm 72 is right at the heart of this Christian historical sensibility of Canada—pity on the weak and the needy, redemption from oppression and violence, care for the poor and those who have no helper.

I am ashamed of my country this week. The government of Canada, admittedly pressed to do so by the Supreme Court of Canada, is forcing through an aggressive law not simply allowing physician assisted death (assisted suicide, truly, or euthanasia), but forcing health care providers to provide it, even if in conscience they cannot.

The poor and the needy, the vulnerable, the suffering—all of these will be given not compassion and care and protection, but death. We can dress it all up in fine words about mercy and relief of suffering, but it is all a load of nonsense in the end—we are going to be killing people when they are at their most needy and vulnerable. As we have done to the unwanted unborn for decades now, so we will do to the unwanted elderly and disabled.

Oh, Canada, my home and native land… may God have mercy on us.

The process by which the bill was passed was ugly in itself. Our Prime Minister actually became physically violent at one point on the floor of the House of Commons and assaulted an opposition member. I wish I was exaggerating about that, but that is what happened, by any normal legal or moral standard or meaning of words. And… there was nothing, in terms of consequences or even widespread concern. Apparently, that is what democracy looks like, in Canada, in 2016.

I fear we are devolving into a thugocracy, led by the man with the great hair, the one-armed pushups, and the winning smile.

So my heart is a bit sore as I write this blog post about Psalm 72, our ‘national psalm’, if you will. The one thing I do know is that, in this year 2016 when so many nations are faced with leaders or prospective leaders (hello, my American readers and friends!) who appall us or frighten us, we are called to know that there is one Messiah alone who delivers justice and mercy to the poor and the weak, who establishes the world in right judgment and good order. And we know His Name, the name above all other names.

As all the other kings of the earth fail us, as they are failing us, pretty much without exception across the face of the globe, let’s put all our faith and hope in He who endures like the sun, falls from heaven like the rain. May His name be blessed forever and ever. Amen. Amen.

A Psalm Against Euthanasia

In you, O Lord, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame.

In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;

Incline your ear to me and save me…

For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth.

Upon you I have leaned from my birth;

It was you who took me from my mother’s womb.

My praise is continually of you…

So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me,

until I proclaim your might to all the generations to come.

Your power and your righteousness, O God, reach the high heavens.

You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?

You who have made me see many troubles and calamities

will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.

You will increase my honor, and comfort me once again.

I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God;

I will sing praises to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel…

Psalm 71

Reflection – This is really less than half of Psalm 71, as you can see from all the ellipses (…). The parts I omitted are beautiful, actually, but are typical psalm sentiments that we have covered in this series many times—cries for help in distress and acclamations of praise and trust in God.

What is unique in this psalm is the reference to old age and gray hairs, and it is this I would like to reflect on. In psalters and breviaries this psalm is often giving the title ‘a psalm for old age’, and so it is. It is a grand teaching on how to grow old and what spiritual attitudes to bring into the latter years of life.

The key attitude here is, simply, steadfastness. The psalmist has known and served the Lord since his youth; he intends to continue to serve the Lord until his death. God has been his sure help since birth; he trusts that this will be the case until the end.

And even beyond death. This reference to the depths of the earth and being brought up again is quite telling. It could be a metaphorical reference to being raised up from the lowest position possible—when we say we are down in the dumps we do not literally mean that we are hanging out at a landfill site, right?

But this ‘depths of the earth’ is, literally, a reference to Sheol, to the place of the dead. And this psalm could reflect an early dawning awareness in Judaism that even death is not the end of YHWH’s fidelity to them, nor to the power of his steadfast love, his hesed for his people.

At any rate, whether in its original Jewish context it was metaphorical or literal, Jesus Christ has taught us to pray this psalm literally, for He Himself came back from the depths of the earth and in Him we all have the hope of being raised up even from death.

And this is the core attitude that we are meant to carry into old age and the decline of the body, the gradual diminishing and ending of all our earthly hopes and dreams. As the curtain slowly comes down on all these things—hopes of health, well being, the vigor and energy of youth that at least seems to make all things possible—we are meant to have a flourishing of theological hope, hope in God, hope that even as our humanity is exhausted the divine is anything but.

In our current Canadian climate of euthanasia, where the best thing we can seemingly think to offer an elderly and sick person is a lethal injection, this psalm and the spiritual attitudes within it take on deeper importance yet. It is so crucial for the elderly that as they experience the breakdown of their bodies and all that goes with that—chronic pain, weakness, and the emotional distress that naturally accompanies all of this—that they do not allow our increasingly cold, utilitarian, heartless society to rob them of the faith, hope, and love that will carry them over the threshold of death into the arms of God where all are made new.

So let us pray this psalm, too, we who are not old yet, in solidarity with our elder brothers and sisters, and let us be vigilant that we do not let society’s ethos and norms poison our minds in this matter. God is faithful, and He desires us to walk faithfully with Him until the very end of our life, so that His steadfast love may raise us up in the next one.

Waiting For Daddy to Come Home

Be pleased, O God, to deliver me.

O Lord, make haste to help me!

Let those be put to shame and confusion

who seek my life.

Let those be turned back and brought to dishonor

who desire to hurt me.

Let those who say, “Aha, Aha!”

turn back because of their shame.

Let all who seek you

rejoice and be glad in you.

Let those who love your salvation

say evermore, “God is great!”

But I am poor and needy;

hasten to me, O God!

You are my help and my deliverer;

O Lord, do not delay!

Psalm 70

Reflection – Well, we have a nice short little psalm this week, with a nice simple message. Vindication, baby—that’s what Psalm 70 is all about!

There are people being mean to me—make them sorry, Lord. As for me and the people who are like me—deliver us, and now! That is pretty much the bare bones content of this psalm.

As such, this psalm may or may not be everyone’s cup of tea. I have to be honest that this is not a psalm I particularly gravitate towards or have spontaneously committed to memory. Partly this is because while I suppose there are those who wish me ill strictly on account of my religion or my priestly ordination, I can’t honestly think of too many personal enemies. Nobody is all up in my face going ‘Aha, Aha!’ And if they did I would probably burst out laughing more than anything else (‘what are you aha-ing about, fool?’)

That being said, what is going on here? And what can we derive from this psalm (and indeed from all of these psalms that may or may not coincide particularly well with our own personal existential situation)?

It is the Lord who is our vindication, that is one main idea this psalm delivers us. We can get so caught up in the endless cycle of wrangling, contention, debate which in our awful current cultural state generally descends from a vigorous exchange of ideas to mere slinging of abuse and name-calling. Social media is terrible for this, of course, but it’s not just on-line that this happens.

Behind all that is some terrible idea that we have to win. We have to win the argument, we have to win the day, we have to come out on top of every exchange, every encounter, every relationship. It’s all just one big ugly power struggle, and whoever has either the biggest fists or the biggest mouth, the vilest talent at personal invective or simply the staying power to outlast everyone else on the debate stage will be the one left standing at the end of the day. Why yes, I am thinking of Donald Trump right now!

Well, phooey on all that. Psalm 70 reminds us that all of that ego posturing, all that strutting and preening, all of the politics of personal destruction, whether it plays out on the presidential debate stage or the com-box of a blog, is a load of pernicious nonsense, ultimately without any significance.

It is the Lord and the Lord alone who in the end assigns the value of each person’s life. It is the Lord and the Lord alone who delivers us from death and evil, who brings us to joy and beauty. It is the Lord and the Lord alone who ‘wins’ the argument, so to speak. We’re all in this matter like a bunch of silly bickering children, waiting for our Daddy to come home and knock some sense into us.

Well, He is coming. And if any of my readers are feeling a bit depressed right now at the state of the world and the nation, feeling like the ‘aha-aha-ers’ are pretty much owning the day right now, do remember that. In the end, they don’t matter, and none of it matters, except to seek the Lord and rejoice in his presence, and trust in his power to save us and set the world in justice and in peace. He is coming, and He in the end is our only hope.