The Agony and the Ecstasy
October 30, 2010
Excerpt from Habakkuk 2:5-11
"Enemies will come and make you tremble." (Good News Bible)
Reflection by William C. Green
"Though all afflictions are evils in themselves, yet they are good for us, because they discover to us our disease and tend to our cure" (John Tillotson, early Archbishop of Canterbury). This is very hard to accept. Is this to justify the ravages of suffering and injustice?
But the Cross gives us pause. There's a sign of evil if ever there was one. It stands amid all the anguish of the world—and our own. Wherever anyone suffers, God suffers, and Jesus embodies that suffering.
But there's something else about the Cross. It's the focus of faith that reverberates through the chaos and catastrophes of the years, declaring, as the poet put it: "death shall have no dominion." Out of the agony of suffering comes the ecstasy of new life. Jesus is risen!
This is the heart of faith. The suffering of the innocent—as well as the guilty—is not the end of the story—not for Jesus, not for us. Evil, which intends death, is overcome by life far stronger than death.
In today's Scripture, the prophet Habakkuk says powerful enemies will be used to jolt God's people into awareness of their plight. What is bad and wrong is used by God to bring about what is right and good.
Who or what are the "enemies" we face that account for our agony? Before they die their own death, can facing them teach us how best to live, wiser and stronger than ever?
Prayer
Gracious God, may I see your Cross in all that's wrong, and find your promise of hope and new life. Amen.
