Wednesday in the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time at Mississippi Abbey

Life is unfair. When high school students complained about life, Bill Gates said to them, “In the real world this is the first rule: Life is unfair. Get used to it.”  Twenty-six hundred years ago the prophet Habakkuk also complained about the bad things that happen in life, “O Lord, how long will I cry for help and you will not hear? Or cry, ‘Violence!’ And you will not save?” The Lord replied, “…the vision awaits its time; yet it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay.” 

Judas Iscariot couldn’t wait. Imagine what a glorious page would have been written in the Gospels if Judas had taken his sins and disappointments to the foot of the cross and wept over Jesus’ feet like the woman who was a sinner. His own sins would have been washed away by the love that poured out from Jesus’ side.  Judas could have been the great apostle of undeserved grace. Churches would have been built to honor St. Judas the Apostle who received mercy at the last hour, who learned that the grace of God’s love is far greater than all the bad things in life.  

Thank goodness life is unfair, because God’s love gives us much more than we deserve.  I believe that our places in heaven will be measured not by the good and bad things we have done, but by God’s love for us, like those in the vineyard who received more than they deserved. We, too, will receive much more in heaven than our actions deserve.  Thank goodness life isn’t fair, that we will receive so much more because of God’s love for us.