Choices of Good or of Evil

In today's first reading, 1 Kings 21-1-16, we read about Ahab, king of Samaria, and his  wife Jezebel. Ahab wanted Naboth, his neighbor,  to give him his vineyard  to use as a garden, as it was next to the king's palace. Ahab, in turn, would give him another vineyard or simply pay him cash for the vineyard.  Naboth refused, as his vineyard was his own children's inheritance. Angry, Ahab refused to eat. His wife Jezebel engaged in actions of deceit, conniving to have Naboth murdered in order that her husband could take possession of the desired vineyard. She succeeded in her evil maneuverings!

Sound familiar?  Deceitful, wicked plotting to get what one desires goes on to this very day and many times such connivance leads to the loss of life--physical death, death of the spirit of an individual or mental demise! And though we may not be the actual person doing the evil, we may be an accomplice in the evil that is being planned, as were Ahab and Jezebel!

We are reminded in today's responsorial psalm that God does not delight in wickedness and that no evil person will stand in God's sight (Cf. Ps.5).  "God hates all evildoers," the psalmist reminds us, and destroys "all who speak falsehood; the bloodthirsty and the deceitful the Lord abhors."

All of us face choices every day of our lives!  In what kinds of choices am I engaged: choices that enhance life for others or those which destroy or diminish life for others?

Discerning Good and Evil Spirits

In today's first reading, Wisdom 1; 1-7, we are told that God "is found by those who test him not, and [that God] manifest himself to those who do not disbelieve him. For perverse counsels separate a [person] from God, and [God's] power, put to the proof, rebukes the foolhardy; because into a soul that plots evil, wisdom enters not, nor dwells she in a body under the debt of sin. For the holy Spirit of discipline flees deceit and withdraws from senseless counsels;and when injustice occurs it is rebuked."  

Truly, believe,  God is at work in those involved in the presidency of the U.S. and in all those involved in our governing body.  The foolhardy are, I believe, being rebuked. Those who plot evil are being denied wisdom. In those "fleeing discipline" and following "senseless counsels" wisdom has withdrawn its presence.  And, finally, "justice is being rebuked" over and over again. When will we wake up to God at work in our world? Or are we blind because we, too, are "fleeing discipline" and following "senseless counsels", disbelieving in our God, and "plotting evil"?  Are we deaf and blind because we dwell "in a body under the debt of sin" ourselves? Have we separated ourselves from God by believing in "perverse counsels"?

May we remember, at all times, that "God is the witness of [our] inmost self and the sure observer of [our] heart and the listener of [our] tongue. For the Spirit of the Lord fills the world, is all-embracing, and knows what [you and I and all humans say]. We are who we are before God and no other!