God Knows

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today prompt Friar Jude Winkler to comment with the question “What does God know about agriculture?. This inquiry is related to the passage from the Book of Judges where we are told of the worship by the Israelites of the agricultural gods ofthe pagan peoples who surround them in Canaan. Friar Jude suggests that they may be “hedging their bets” so that they may have fertile yield from their efforts to survive in the land. The application of this question today may become “What does God know about economic development? investment strategy? social policy? health care? Education? and the deficit? How do believers “hedge their bets” today by adopting the rules of the gods of modern life when we address how to survive and live fully as communities today? The episode from the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus is interrupted by a rich young man who seeks to what he still lacks to be good brings the question of “What God knows” to our personal life. The way in which we “hedge our bets” and accept the gods of the culture which offer power, prestige, pride and wealth as the means to increase our yield invite of to consider what is missing in our plan? Some commentators see the search to fill the emptiness in his life in the urgency of the rich young man to engage Jesus. We look around to see the gods we need to reject in favour of trust in Providence.