Father Thomas Welbers' Homily

What kind of faith is Jesus speaking of in the sentence we just heard? Is it a stubborn conviction that God will do what we want if we just keep bugging him? Notice that’s not what Jesus seems to be saying. He says, “I tell you, God will see to it that justice is done.”

What is justice? Well, there’s an interesting cartoon in this week’s U.S. News and World Report, which apparently first appeared in the New Yorker, which shows three fish: small, medium-sized, and large. The small fish, about to be eaten by the middle-sized fish, is thinking, “There no justice in the world.” The middle sized fish, his mouth open to eat the little fish, is thinking, “There is some justice in the world.” And of course, the big fish, with his mouth open to feast on both the little and middle-sized guy, is thinking, “Ah, the world is just.”

That familiar and humorous little cartoon does show how much our sense of justice is influenced by which side of things we are on. Aren’t we usually more concerned about how we are treated than about how others are treated? And it’s that attitude that Jesus most particularly wants to address. Everywhere you turn in the Gospels, Jesus speaks about the need to place others before self in the kind of love that imitates his love. That’s really hard to do, because it affects not only our personal ways of doing things, but also our whole outlook on community and our world. When we think about the issues that are so very much before us these days, do we form our opinions in view of self interest or concern for the common good? Placing the common good above self-interest is the justice that Jesus wants us to seek, and that’s not easy. We are all aware of our own sinfulness and selfishness, which we have to admit in the depths of our own hearts, even if we try to maintain a different image.

And that’s precisely why we have pray for the kind of faith that gives birth to justice and sustains our own efforts for justice even when difficult and unpopular. And pray without ceasing.

© 2004 Thomas Welbers