Suffering for Righteousness (25th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

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Like most wisdom literature, the book of Wisdom is filled with proverbs and teachings contrasting the behaviour of the righteous with that of the unrighteous. Here, the book presents us with an image of a group of wicked men who seek to persecute a righteous man. Verses 14-16 tell us that the reason for this hostility towards him is because, by his righteous conduct, he shames the wicked and condemns them for their ways:

He became to us a reproof of our thoughts;

the very sight of him is a burden to us,

because his manner of life is unlike that of others,

and his ways are strange.

We are considered by him as something base,

and he avoids our ways as unclean;

he calls the last end of the righteous happy,

and boasts that God is his father. (Wisdom 2:14-16)

Although the author of Wisdom originally intended this passage to be a description of how the righteous will be treated by the wicked, there is an uncanny similarity between this description and what the Messiah is said to undergo in the Suffering Servant passage in Isaiah 53, as well as Jesus’ prophecies about His own death, such as what we find in today’s Gospel reading (Mark 9:30-37). Thus, Wisdom presents us with a prophetic foreshadowing of the tribulations of the Messiah. This is evidence of the book’s divine inspiration.

It should also be noted that although Jesus is the ultimate example of a righteous man who is persecuted for his righteousness, Scripture teaches us that others who seek to walk in the paths of righteousness should expect to see the same treatment. Jesus taught as much when He said, “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘Servants are not greater than their master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also.” (John 15:20).

However, we should not despair when this happens to us, because Jesus also said that those who are persecuted for righteousness are blessed, because they will inherit God’s Kingdom (Matthew 5:10-12). This should give us hope when the world around us shows its hostility towards those who follow Christ.