Fr. Don's Daily Reflection - December 29, 2024
Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from You.”
The book of Ecclesiastes not only corresponds to our more melancholy and low moods, it also shares our doubts and questions. The author looks around him and sees the injustice of the world. “I considered all the oppression that takes place under the sun: the tears of the victims with none to comfort them” (4:1). “And those now dead, I declared more fortunate in death than are the living to be still alive. And better off than both is the yet unborn, who has not seen the wicked work that is done under the sun” (4:2,3). He questions whether things are ever righted, living in a place and time when any idea of rewards and punishment in an afterlife was missing.
What he sees makes him wonder, if not doubt, about any good plan or purpose in the whole thing. Even we who have a belief in the resurrection and hope of eternal life might find the human picture at times very discouraging or find events in our life devastating to our faith. Over the centuries people have been shocked at finding this book in the Bible. Its somber mood and questioning seem so counter to the hope and trust we encounter elsewhere.
The presence of such a questioner in the Bible tells us that doubts and questions about faith are not sinful. They might show, as they do with Ecclesiastes, that we take it seriously and hope to see more justification of our faith in ordinary life. We really only have doubts or questions about people and things that are very important to us. They attest to our love and faith and can help make them deeper.
Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”
