It is rather sad to read the last chapter of the Second Book of Chronicles. King Josiah initiated a badly needed religious reform in Judah. The book of Deuteronomy was "recovered". When it was read to the people, the congregation was moved into tears, such as had never been before. Unfortunately, Josiah died pre-maturely and the religious reform never saw its fruition.
The last chapter of the Second Book of Chronicles began with Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah. He was 23 and people made him king over Judah. He reigned for only 3 months and was deposed by the Egyptians!
The Egyptians made his 25-year old brother Eliakim, a vassal and renamed him Jehoiakim.
Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD his God (2 Chronicles 36:5).
Unfortunate for Jehoiakim, the Babylonians rose in power and King Nebuchadnezzar captured him and brought him into exile in Babylon. His son Jehoiachin reigned in his stead.
Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD (2 Chronicles 36:9).
I do not know what an eight-year-old could have done that was evil in the sight of God. Probably when you are in power and if you fail to master power, power will instead master over you. The boy was so young that he was not able to tell right from wrong. People around him should be blamed instead. After being a king for roughly 100 days, King Nebuchadnezzar carried him off to Babylon and made his 21-year-old brother Zedekiah king of Judah.
After 11 years, Zedekiah dared to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar. Jerusalem was under siege and breached. All the vessels in the Temple were carried away and the Temple was burnt down. Many people were butchered and the surviving ones were sent to captivity in Babylon. Zedekiah was blinded by Nebuchadnezzar after witnessing the killing of his children. The kingdom of Judah ended in total humiliation. God passed judgment on Judah because she condemned herself.
Nebuchadnezzar took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia,
to fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept sabbath, to fulfil seventy years (2 Chronicles 36:20-21).
Jews spent 70 years in captivity and finally, King Cyrus of Persia sent them home to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.
Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, 'The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the LORD his God be with him. Let him go up.' (2 Chronicles 36:23)
Now we fast forwards to Jesus. Fr. Martin celebrated the 11 a.m. mass with us this morning. He began his homily with the contradiction we read in the gospel of John this morning.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).
Then Fr. Martin brought out the contradiction in John.
For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God (John 3:17-21).
Fr. Martin shared with us 3 incidents he met which highlighted how when we passed judgments on others, we passed judgments on ourselves at the same time.
Once, Fr. Martin spoke with an old friend who spent their school years together. His friend admitted candidly that he would never want to be converted because most of the Catholics and Christians he met had never been sincere. Fr. Martin was not offended. In turn, he candidly admitted that working in the parish, it is difficult to maintain his candour. He needs to put up a brave face in front of difficult situations.
In another occasion, he spoke to some old nuns, telling them that the animation Wall-E was worth watching. The nuns commented what could come good from a cartoon. What was worse, there was little dialogue. Fr. Martin retorted that the theme of friendship which needed no dialogue made the cartoon a good movie.
In the last incident, Fr. Martin was listening to a young man of twenty something complaining about his father who always told him to abstain from hot food and put on more clothes. The young man retorted that he was already 24 and had not eaten potato chips because of his acne. For twenty four years, he had never caught any cold. Fr. Martin patiently asked the young man to put on his father's shoe. He was old and would fall sick after eating hot food. He was old and easily caught cold when he did not put on enough clothes.
So, whenever we want to pass judgment on others, think of their situations. Most likely, we do not know well enough their situations. Leave room in our harsh judgment on others. God does not want to see us perish. It is us who put ourselves in damnation.
My God, I sincerely thank You for sending us Jesus to save us. May we take this opportunity in Lent to return to You. You do not pass us judgment. Let us not condemn ourselves. Amen.
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