“We await new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells ….”

Today’s first reading from St. Peter exhorts us to prepare ourselves for the coming day of God.  Much about our world reminds us that the kingdom of God is present here, but it is also still coming.  Injustice occurs with regularity.  The saints remind us that some matters must be left for the final reckoning.  If right and just behavior immediately produced good outcomes for the actor (and the converse for wrong and unjust behavior), life would devolve into something mechanical instead of a relationship with God rooted in faith and trust.  Struggles in this life of faith work out some good that might not otherwise occur in us.

Psalm 90 shows us how to take the long view when approaching life with God.  His faithful protection can be seen throughout the ages, although sometimes the hand of Providence is not so easily apprehended in the moment.  Our lives often seem like vapor, passing away quickly and leaving little that lasts.  At the funeral of a relative last week, remembrances offered by his friends showed that love, generosity, kindness, mercy, and laughter remain despite the reality of leaving behind all the things we made or accumulated.  (And yes, I mean to include laughter. It is a sign of humility about our creaturely status in which absurd moments call to mind the wonder of God’s love for creatures like us.)

Finally, today’s gospel seems to complement Peter’s message to “be on your guard not to be led into the error of the unprincipled and to fall from your own stability.”  We are told that the Pharisees and the Herodians, whose natural antipathy toward one another seemed to dissolve for the moment, approached our Lord together “to ensnare him in his speech.”  Each sought to rely on a principle of his own to catch our Lord in a dilemma.  But Jesus did not get caught.  He elevated their attention to a higher principle, resolving the conflict and putting their minds toward considering the reality of the kingdom of God in its “not yet” form.

We are often tempted to compromise that higher principle of living as citizens of God’s kingdom for the sake of our own preferences.  As St. Peter teaches, this undermines our stability.  The rock of our faith is solid.  Those who stand on that rock sometimes are rocked about, and indeed we see it happening around us as those who stand for truth are often ridiculed and condemned.  But the “not yet” will become fully evident in due time.  Their faithful witness will shine like the sun.

We are allowed to see glimpses of this in our own lives, when the hand of God leads us and protects us during times of testing and trouble, rescuing us from others and even more so from our own sins and errors.  His gentle hand is unmistakable when we pause to see the bigger picture.  Let us grow in faith and in holiness, responding in love to the miraculous and unmistakable gifts of God.