Friday of the
Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
(Romans 7:18-25a; Luke 12:54-59)
“How could something that feels so right, be so wrong?”
country singers croon. St. Paul has a
similar thought in mind when he tells the Romans in the first reading today,
“For I take delight in the law of God, in my inner self, but I see in my
members another principle at war with the law of my mind…”
Paul is expressing the deceptive nature of sin. It appeals to our inner senses as something satisfying,
but our minds tell us it is ultimately hurtful.
We might be willing to buy a stolen car to get to work, but we know that
the vehicle belongs to another who has his or her own use for it. We would become accomplices in the crime by
purchasing it knowingly.
Paul finds in Jesus Christ the resolution to the dilemma
of feeling right about something but knowing it to be wrong. Christ shows us something greater than the comforts
and pleasures comprising our regular desires.
In his love for us he promises eternal life. Living with this goal in mind, earthly
comforts lose their luster.
