When Secretary of State George Marshall was trying to persuade Congress to appropriate billions of dollars for the Marshall Plan to re-build Europe after World War II, a senator asked him a seemingly softball question.
 
�Won�t this make other countries like us?� the senator asked. Marshall rejected the softball.

�You always get in trouble when you try to help people.�
 
I was stunned as I watched this simple but profound exchange on a documentary of Marshall�s life. The memory has helped me many times when some well-meant effort to assist someone or act in good conscience has caused problems.

You always get in trouble when you try to help people� but you must go ahead and do it anyhow.   If you have the guts to do so, God will be with you in your ensuing travail. That�s the message of all three of today�s readings. 
 
�Many are the troubles of the just man, but out of them all the Lord delivers him,� says today�s Psalm. �Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us,� says the reading from Wisdom. Jesus became history�s supreme example of such a hero/victim, as today�s Gospel reminds us.

Most of us experience relatively small penalties for our modest excursions into controversial virtue. Teen-agers get angry with parents who attempt to enforce high moral standards.  Students shun classmates who won�t cheat or turn in cheaters.  Kids pay a popularily price for refusing to drink or do drugs.  Whistle blowers at work may have trouble getting another job.  Those distributing the massive amounts raised for 9/11 victims are learning just how hard that job is.
 
But we have to keep trying. If we do, we can be confident that sooner or later �the Lord will deliver� us from the difficulties we encounter in trying to be faithful to his commands.