On Planning and Providence

A few weeks ago, I noticed two tasks fell due on the same day: my tax preparer's request for my documents, and the A.D. Times' request for an article. To provide maximum bandwidth for both tasks, I decided to address one sooner than the other. 

My taxes won out because of this verse: “Let me fall into the hand of the Lord, whose mercy is very great, rather than into the hands of men” (1 Chronicles 21:13). Those who failed to receive this article would be more forgiving than Uncle Sam’s great-grandchildren. But then the verse inspired the article.

 

The above citation was King David’s response to the prophet Gad, who presented David three options of divine punishment for the census he had ordered. The king chose “the Lord’s own sword,” a three-day sweeping plague, over three years of famine or three months of his enemies’ pursuit.

 

What was the big deal over a census? Same as ever: leaders want to figure out the money and militia they can extract from their citizens. In the appropriately named Book of Numbers, the Lord Himself ordered Moses to count the Israelites for those very purposes.

 

In place of the firstborn of all Israel, the Lord took as tribute the priestly tribe of Levi, who were exempted from military service and therefore also from that census. Through Moses, the Lord directed the firstborn to give the Levites a quantity of shekels as a sacrificial offering for their redemption, and, practically speaking, as part of the Levites’ sustenance.

 

The chain of charges continues: To obtain everything necessary for its budget (salaries, utilities, goods and services, etc.), our diocese assigns a fair standard percentage from the parishes, which in turn do what they can to provide for their own needs in addition to the above assessment.

 

The Diocese requires from parishes annual spiritual and fiscal reports to guide future plans. The recent “Disciple-Maker Index” intends to help parishes and individual disciples consider how we are doing by the important metric of what we are doing.

 

Did the Lord order these censuses? If not, will we lose a third of our faithful in punishment? As it is, surveys estimate only a third of self-identified Catholics attend Mass and/or believe in the Eucharistic Presence of Christ offered therein.

 

Here we are following a maxim of Saint Teresa of Avila: “The bread of self-knowledge should be eaten with every meal,” which has this modern parallel: “The room for improvement should be the largest room in the house.”

 

With due respect to David’s doings and resultant prophecies, I do not deem assessments to defy divine providence. It is awesome to think how much and how long God has trusted us to continue the Incarnation and Paschal Mystery in the world.

 

Our modern efforts to plan things aren’t so modern after all. We still would rather fall by the hand of the Lord, whose requirements are matched, if not surpassed, by His graces.