In today's first reading, 1 Mac 6: 1-13, King Antiochus' determination to capture Persia and all its wealth in gold fails. He ends up a defeated man, a man of sorrows, a dejected person. When all collapses, the king withdraws in sorrow and states of himself: "I now recall the evils I did in Jerusalem, when I carried away all the vessels of gold and silver that were in it, and for no cause gave ordered that the inhabitants of Judah be destroyed. I know that this is why these evils have overtaken me; and now I am dying , in bitter grief, in a foreign land."
There are consequences to every choice that we make. Bad choices lead to bad results whereas right choices bring gladness to our hearts. We witness this truth every day in the news of the day. Persons who court evil, who make choices that lead to violence and death to any one person end up facing judges and juries and the anger of persons effected by their poor choices. And even if the outcome of these court hearings acquit a person unjustly, they still need to live with the fact that they got away with murder! They live chained to the truth even when truth was thwarted in the courts.
In our heart of hearts, you and I know when we have done evil, when we have wronged another person or persons, when our lives are lives of lies! We may fool ourselves for a while but ultimately we will come face to face with what is our truth, even if that first occurs in the afterlife! We are who we are before God and no other! Persons fleeing truth are highly vulnerable to addictive behaviors used to camouflage the truth, to escape reality. Such persons easily become trapped in addictive behaviors: compulsive spending, gambling, eating, drinking, sexing and so on! Like King Antiochus, we can become "sick with grief because [our evil] designs [fail] us!"
Lord, may I have the courage, the prudence, and the wisdom to embrace my truth!
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