Monday of the
Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
(Galatians 4:22-24.26-27.31-5:1; Luke 11:29-32)
A young drug addict entered a rehabilitation program. After a time of retreat, he was sent to work
in a rectory. In a month or two the priests
were missing things in the rectory. They
confronted their worker. He said that he
might be an addict, but he was not a thief.
Eventually, the young man was let go, and no more things were missing
from the rectory.
The young man could not control himself. He needed restraints. He was not truly free but under the spell of
drugs. Even if it meant stealing to
acquire them, he would do it. In the
first reading, St. Paul is pleading with the Galatians not to have something
similar happen to them. They have been
given true freedom with Baptism in Christ.
They should not trade this for subjection to the Jewish Law, no matter
how right the Law makes them feel. They
should trust that acceptance of the Holy Spirit will allow them to live
justly. For this freedom Christ had set
them free.
Few of us would want to take on the Jewish Law
with its many knit-picking practices.
But some of us still do not care to live in the freedom of the Holy Spirit. They may not be under the influence of drugs
but of other interior impulses. They
insist on holding grudges and seeing the dismal side of things. The Spirit’s freedom gives joy and peace to
the soul. Yes, it calls us to sacrifice
our will in certain matters, but it also promises happiness, both short-term
and eternal.
