Tuesday of 11th Week in Ordinary Time, Yr. II: reflection

Theme: Those who inflict harm on others also invite it upon themselves

1Kgs 21:1–16

At a time when many people are beginning to believe that the end justifies the means (that one can reach his goal through any means available even if such means include shedding of peoples’ blood, unlawful destruction/acquisition of properties, fraud, and other crimes against humanity), the story of the aftermath of the killing of Naboth by Jezebel in today’s first reading rings a loud warning bell in our ears.

Ahab’s goal was to acquire land for a vegetable garden. So, he asked Naboth to cede his vineyard to him in exchange for another, but Naboth refused because of the importance of the vineyard to his family history. To help her husband achieve his goal, Jezebel had Naboth accused falsely and killed. The news of Naboth’s death gladdened the heart of Ahab, who joyfully possessed Naboth’s inheritance.

When Ahab happily settled in his newly acquired property, he believed that by keeping the bloody path that led to his goal hidden from men, he had successfully covered his tracks. But that was when God’s hand fell heavily on him, reminding him that no one can escape God’s justice. Ahab and Jezebel brought doom upon themselves and their entire family as a result of their single act of violence against Naboth.

Dear friends, this is a strong message to those rich people of our society and wicked rulers of our nations who always believe they can take or destroy people’s lives and properties at will, deny the poor their means of survival, and use their wealth and connections to cover their tracks. It tells them that no one can escape the justice of the all-seeing God, and that the wrath of God often comes in a hundredfold.

It is also a message to the so called ‘yahoo boys’ — fraudsters — of our society, who amass wealth by sending people to their untimely deaths, as well as all those who arrive at their goal at the expense of others, that the God of the oppressed does not sleep, and that He will bring a hundredfold of evil upon anyone who rises to greatness through evil.

May God help us to arrive at our goals through the right channel.

Fr Isaac Chima