Eucharistic meditation

2 Chronicles 20: Every man of Judah and Jerusalem returned with Jehoshaphat at their head, returning to Jerusalem with joy, for the LORD had made them to rejoice over their enemies. They came to Jerusalem with harps, lyres and trumpets to the house of the LORD. And the dread of God was on all the kingdoms of the lands when they heard that the LORD had fought against the enemies of Israel.

We live in a world still full of injustice, oppression, cruelty. The brutal often ride the high places of the earth, and the righteous are trampled under their feet. This situation would not have surprised David, whose prayers are filled with his dismay that the Lord has not fixed things, established righteousness, put things back they way they ought to be.

But how do we react to these realities in our world? There are many suggestions offered in our culture. Some say that we don't need to worry about oppression and injustice. It's the way things are, and many of those who are oppressed probably deserve it anyway. Others suggest that changing the political and economic system will take care of oppression and injustice; the spread of democratic capitalism will take care of it. Others say that we have no right to enjoy our freedom and prosperity and wealth so long as there are people suffering elsewhere. We need to divest ourselves of all our goods, and even our joy, and join in the lamentations of the poor.

None of these is the Christian option. The Christian response to oppression is the same as the Christian response to everything else: Faith. How can we enjoy our goods when others, including brothers and sisters in Christ, are tortured, killed, harassed on all sides? How can we sit at this table and enjoy our bread and wine when our own brothers and sisters elsewhere in the world are starving?

We can do this because we believe the gospel, the gospel that says God has triumphed and is triumphing over all injustice, the gospel of God's righteousness. We can rejoice because we are confident that God will keep His promises, and that the ends of the earth will see the justice of our God.

But there is more. We not only rejoice because we know that God is fighting to establish justice. We rejoice because our joy is one of our weapons of righteousness. Of course, there are many other weapons. But the weapons of prayer and worship are crucial. When Jerusalem was besieged in the days of Jehoshaphat, the people of Jerusalem assembled to worship the Lord. And the Lord responded by scattering their enemies and delivering the city. The people worshiped and rejoiced before the Lord, and the Lord, enthroned on the praises of the people, fought Israel's enemies.

We don't rejoice at this table to ignore the injustices in the world. We rejoice at this table because through our prayers, through our worship, through our joy, the Lord will right wrongs and bring in His kingdom and His righteousness.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, August 20, 2006 at 09:27 AM

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