DECISIONS

DECISIONS – 15^th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C

            Moses said it was not difficult to hear the Lord’s voice on the commandments. They are built into our nature. The law of God is not up in the sky, or across the sea, but in our heart, mind, and emotions.

It’s only a matter of carrying it out. When something can be done, we might keep putting it off. We say, “Oh, that’s easy, I’ll do that tomorrow. That won’t be any trouble at all.” All of us can list a number of things we can easily do, but don’t necessarily do. “I can support my church…keep the commandments”. “You need only carry it out.”

            The condition for carrying out the commandments is heeding God’s voice. Putting one’s mind to keeping the commandments, and deciding to makes it easier. If you have to decide every Sunday if you are going to observe the Lord’s day, you will miss many Sundays. But if you have made one decision, “I always observe the Lord’s day”, you can do it. The same is true for all the commandments. It’s easier if we decide to do it all the time. I will be obedient, peaceful, patient, pure, honest, truthful, prayerful all the time, makes it easier.

            Those who don’t heed God’s voice have a much more difficult life. Keeping the commandments brings life. Not keeping them brings death. Most unnecessary human suffering comes from violating the commandments of life. It’s far more-costly, difficult, and less fulfilling to be addicted to drugs than to be free. The same is true for being honest, generous, self-sacrificing, loving, hopeful, faithful and helpful.

One of the mysteries of life, the mystery of sin, is why people continually choose a sinful way of life, over a virtuous life, which is much more demanding and far less fulfilling. God’s commandments make life easier, happier, freer, and fulfilled; not harder, unhappy, enslaved and unfulfilled. God would be working against Himself to create humans, and them give commandments to make human life impossible to function. Commandments aren’t burdens to life, but are helps to life.

            Can you imagine a car manufacturer putting out a manual with a bunch of directions that would actually keep the care from operating? “Puncture the tires. Don’t put water in the radiator. Drive the car over other cars. Throw the car in reverse while driving forward. Use water instead of gas.” Junk yards are filled with cars like that. I never hear people saying about a manufacturer: “That stupid manufacturer doesn’t know what he is talking about. Keep air in the tires, gas in the tank, water in the radiator. They just want to make it hard on drivers. I don’t want them restricting my freedom. I’ll drive my car any way I want to. No one can stop me.”

            God created human nature. God’s laws help us live according to our nature. “Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.” The more we turn to the Lord and follow the commandments, the happier and more fulfilled our lives will be. When the lawyer, who wanted to justify himself, asked Jesus what he needed to do to inherit eternal life, he was careful not to say earn eternal life. No one can earn eternal life, but we can do what will insure we will not lose our eternal inheritance. A major block to inheriting eternal life is violating the commandments and not loving and serving our neighbor. The lawyer wanted to know who his neighbor was. There are so many needs. We can’t meet them all, so which ones do we choose? It’s a frequent life question.

            Jesus told the story about the Good Samaritan to show that everyone has to figure out in a given situation whose needs to meet. The neighbor is the one we feel the most compassion for. We all have different levels of compassion for different human needs. We are all called to be compassionate but not to the same degree toward everyone, which isn’t possible. We follow our compassion, which flows out of our vocation in life. You would not be impressed if a sign on the door on Sunday morning said your priest went to the soup kitchen. The people at the synagogue would not have been impressed if the priest and Levite hadn’t shown up. The Samaritan was best able to be a neighbor to the beaten man at that particular time. He didn’t do everything either. He took him to others to meet his needs.

            Listen to the voice of the Lord. Act on your good decisions. “You need only to carry it out.”

Divine Mercy Reflection #140

“…only one thing is needed to please God: to do even the smallest things out of great love.”