Justice & Meekness

Most of the time, God's message is always the opposite of human wisdom. Even though St. Paul confidently proclaimed that the foolishness of God is wiser than men, His weakness is stronger (1 Corinthians 1:25), not many people share his views. Nowadays, in the political arena, be it local or global, military might wins all. Many countries flex their military muscles, test launch ballistic missiles to warn the whole world not to meddle with them. Without the back up of military power, there can be no justice, hence no peace. Even the United Nations has to send peacekeeping troops to stop ethnics groups from killing each other. It seems to most people that after all, might is right.
Isaiah foretold the work of Jesus' ministry. Jesus brought in the Kingdom of God, a kingdom of justice.
Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him, he will bring forth justice to the nations.
He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street;
a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice (Isaiah 42:1-3).
Jesus has worked hard to bring justice through meekness. Has Jesus been successful? Have his followers been successful? Even if Jesus is successful, I am afraid his followers are not.
I have a good talk with Edmund to find out what he is going to do. He admits that he cannot bear an extra year of probation under our boss. The mind of our boss is already fixed to get rid of him without giving him any more chance to improve. There is no point in putting up any more appeal to the Supervisor. He asks me to be his referee in his search for a new teaching job which has been his ambition since childhood. This I can do without reservation. The threat of receiving a warning letter makes him panic. The perceived damages it would inflict on him paralyzed his will to defense himself. In Edmund, I see a victim, and not the suffering servant. As for our mighty boss, I do not see how justice has been done. Perhaps our boss is doing justice to the students. I will give our boss the benefit of doubt. Our boss is probably too eager to purge incompetent teachers in our school, to do justice to our students. Let me give our boss a couple of months to see whom our boss will bring in to replace Edmund, and even me.
In John 12, we read of the story of a woman anointing Jesus with a costly ointment in Bethany. Unlike the other Synoptic gospels, there was no Simon the leper as the host. Rather, we have Martha and Lazarus whom Jesus had recently raised from the dead. The woman who anointed Jesus was identified as Mary, their sister. Moreover, the identity of the person who complained about the waste of money on Jesus' hair was revealed. It was Judas who would betray Jesus soon. Jesus defended Mary and at the same time, told the disciples that they would lose him soon. Unlike the other gospels in which Jesus' response was actually an uncovering of the hypocrisy of the people, the story in John focuses rather on Jesus' imminent death.
But Jesus said, "Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.
For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you will, you can do good to them; but you will not always have me.
She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burying.  (Mark 14:6-8).
John's version is more concise.
Jesus said, "Let her alone, let her keep it for the day of my burial.
The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me." (John 12:7-8)
Was Mary's action a waste of resources? Well, it depends on which moral principle you subscribe to. From the utilitarian point of view, in which an action is moral if it gives the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people. Under this principle, Judas was right. However, we know very well the flaws of the utilitarian principle and it does not always yield the right action.

Dear Lord, You defended Mary. But who is going to defend Edmund? Amen.