Friday, October 27, 2023

Friday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

(Romans 7:18-25a; Luke 12:54-59)

In Gethsemane Jesus’ disciples sleep while he is praying.  He asked them to pray with him, but their bodies gave way to the natural tendency to doze off at night.  Jesus makes an excuse for their failure. “The spirit is willing,” he says, “but the flesh is week.”  St. Paul says something similar in today’s first reading.

Paul tries to explain why it seems that he never does the good that is in his heart.  In its place he does the evil for which his flesh yearns.  Paul does not specify any sin; perhaps, from what he says of himself in other letters, it may be ones of anger or pride.  People today may relate to what Paul is saying in dealing with lust or lying.  They do not want to look at pornography but somehow their fingers cannot resist clicking its button.  They may have resolved to always tell the truth, but they seem to enjoy deceiving others.

The passage suggests to us that Christ can lead us from these traps.  He will ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit to strengthen our resolve against evil desires.  We find Jesus in the sacraments and should not tire of going there for assistance.

Friday, October 22, 2021

 Friday of the twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

(Romans 7:18-25a; Luke 12:54-59)

In today’s first reading St. Paul writes as if he just heard the confessions of hundreds of contemporary men.  He might as well have in mind Internet porn as any compulsive sin of his day.  Too many men today are tormented by the temptation to look at lascivious pictures.  At the same time they feel both attracted and repulsed by the images.

The resolution of this dilemma, as Paul suggests, is “Jesus Christ our Lord.”  Not only was he a man who knew temptations like all humans so that men today might emulate his sinlessness.  More importantly, he won for us the grace to overcome selfish desires.  His grace keeps many people walking without stumbling.  And if they fall, he is there to pick them up – a million times if necessary.  He will stay with them, in Penance and especially in the Eucharist, so that they overcome their weakness.

We need Jesus to live upright lives.  We find him in the sacraments, in Scripture, in one another, and in prayer.  We should recognize him as Lord -- not one to trifle with – and follow the counsel he conveys in our conscience.

Friday, October 23, 2015

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.