Wow! Could we not run away with the above quote from Paul in our first reading today? Both Jesus and Paul are trying to get us to travel from the head to the heart; and when we arrive, we sit and listen to God’s message to us in our own individual personalities. How easy it is for us to learn the ways of God in the commandments! How difficult it can be to live what God is showing us as a way of life!
As Paul lists all those passions which propel us to sin against our God, ourselves, and each other, he counteracts the sin with the fruits of the Holy Spirit that all of us have received in Confirmation. The decision is ours. Speaking from my own experiences, we feel good about dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s in knowing the commandments and all their subdivisions, but then come the understanding and living of them! Like all physical births, we find it painful to allow ourselves to be re-born in genuine love, peace, patience, self-control, generosity. Yet, in Confirmation we received these gifts. How many of us have left all those gifts of the Holy Spirit still wrapped up—bow and all—sitting in a corner gathering dust?
As a teacher, I identify with Jesus’s frustration in trying to communicate his message. He is speaking to the educated religious leaders of the Jewish faith. They understand the law. The problem is that they don’t care to live it. If we really understand the meaning of the commandments—especially the ones Jesus re-iterated—then we sit with our God (we call it prayer) and struggle with a daily living of these according to our own individual personalities. Ah! That’s the catch! Do we give the time in prayer to listen to God speaking to us about self-love (realizing that God loves each one of us unconditionally—that we are the ones who distance ourselves from God through our sin)? From our honest and good self-love, do we then reach out to family, friends, co-workers, people different from us in many ways? Can we think kindly (not boastfully) about ourselves? In other words, whom do we love and why? I share with you all these questions I struggle with as I drink my mug of coffee in my morning conversations with God.
When I pondered today’s readings, I thought of a story my mother told me long ago. Remember in the olden days, we hung our washed laundry on clothes lines in the backyard? Where I lived, everyone’s backyards were connected. As the story goes: After hanging up her laundry, a woman mused, “I bet other people’s clothes are so much better than mine. I am going to search my friends’ laundry and choose one better than my own.” So, she proceeded to walk from yard to yard and inspect everyone’s laundry. “Ah! These clothes are the ones I want!” Not realizing at first, the woman had returned to her own clothes lines. What she had was better than what she had expected! Yes, we have sins and we have gifts. Those gifts help us to deal with our sins. God loves each of us unconditionally!