Jesus came to his native place and taught the people in their synagogue. They were astonished and said, “Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds?”

The movie “The Lord of the Rings—The Two Towers” begins with evil in control. The evil god Sauron and its advocate Saruman are about to overcome the whole Middle-Earth and conquer even Gandolf the Gray and his followers. Hobbits Frodo and Sam, carrying the ring that had to be destroyed, are separated from their friends and lost on their way to Mordor. Their friends, Merry and Pippin are in the hands of the horrible orcs. It is evil’s day. But at the same time, the heroes of the movie felt the presence of good. Gandolf was still present in a different form to fight Saruman; the disturbed Gollum guides Frodo and Sam; and Merry and Pippin still have Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli to help them, along with a new unlikely friend named Treebeard. Good is at work, even as it seems that evil is thriving.

It is always interesting to think about how Jesus taught.  We know from the Scriptures that he often taught in the synagogues of the local towns. One of the methods, no doubt, was to do what we do—go to the Scriptures that we have. One of the stories of the Scriptures that Jesus taught from was familiar to him as it is preserved for us now, the story of the Book of Tobit.
 
The story of the book, and in particular the individual stories of Tobit, Tobiah and Sarah are among the more engrossing stories of the Hebrew Scriptures. The book not only points to the presence of God at work in our world, but it shows that human beings can constantly count on God’s help in time of need. Tobit, blind and despondent, sends his son Tobiah back to the land of his forefathers to get money in order to live. He then prays for death. Meanwhile in another story not too different from today’s soap operas, Sarah cannot enjoy a marriage because the demon makes her potential husbands die before their marriage is consummated. She likewise prays for death.

“At that very time,” the book of Tobit comments, “the prayer of these two suppliants was heard in the glorious presence of Almighty God” (Tobit 3:16). But death was not granted them. Instead with the help of God through the angel Raphael, life was given to both of them. It was a life that came through—of all things—a fish, a fish that at first seemed like just another evil in their lives (see Tobit 6:3-6).

A person of faith will describe the world we inhabit to be a place where good is near, even as it seems that evil is flourishing. Our problem may be that often we do not see the good as well as we see the bad. Maybe it is because we are so accepting of the negative that we cannot put it aside long enough to actually experience the good. Then again, maybe it is our attitude—maybe we are the ones who refuse to see the good because we somehow do not want it to be present. It is much easier to complain about a problem than to find a solution to it. The Christian solution cannot be simplistic, to be sure, because evil is not simplistic, but the Christian will understand the age-old dictum that it is more difficult to be part of the solution than part of the problem.                       

THOUGHT
PRAYER

Good and gracious God, we are surrounded by evil, even as we believe that we live in a world created by you, and therefore good. Give us the grace to do our part to bring about good into our own little part of the world. Be with us, we pray. 

Questions, comments? Let me know. Email Fr. Mike

©2007 Capuchin Province of Mid-America
Fr. Mike Scully is a member of the Capuchin Province of Mid-America