Aware that Our Actions Have Consequences

In today's gospel, Mark 1: 40-45, a leper approaches Jesus, kneels down and says: "'If you wish, you can make me clean.' Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched the leper, and said to  him, 'I do will it. Be made clean.' The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean."  Jesus asked him to tell no one about the healing. However, he broadcast it everywhere to the point that "it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained outside in deserted places...."   Jesus suffers the consequences of the leper's inability to respect Jesus' request for privacy and ends up in the position of lepers who had to remain apart from people and stay in deserted places.

The question we need to ponder is: Are we aware of the consequences of the choices we make when faced with sharing our pleasant or unpleasant experiences? When something exciting or painful or traumatic happens, it is easy to get caught in the trap of impulsively sharing it with someone, if not everyone who crosses our path. The temptation to blurt everything out "on the street corners"  is powerful! However, God is far more powerful than Satan and is always at our side with His guidance and wisdom!  May God's wisdom prevail!  

Choosing Wisely

In today's Gospel, Luke 19: 45-48,  "Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out those who were selling things....The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, meanwhile, were seeking to put him to death, but they could find no way to accomplish their purpose because all the people were hanging on his words."

Have you ever been about to do something that you did not want anyone to know about--in fact, something you should not have been doing, in the first place--and someone walks into the room and, sheepishly, you walk away hoping no one noticed? How often the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people experienced just this in their attempts to snare Jesus.

This kind of behavior is part of the human condition. We are not always about doing good or planning to do what is proper. And, foolishly, we attempt to hide our wrongdoing.  God, not to punish us, is always aware of what we are about.  God only wants what is right for us. God wants us to be filled with joy and peace, which we deny ourselves when we take the easiest path and reject the way that leads to experiencing the fullness of life that Jesus promises.  And many times, I believe, God is disappointed when we choose poorly and suffer the consequences of our foolhardy choices, depriving ourselves of the joy of following the least-chosen path, the narrow way that leads to an abundance of life in Christ Jesus.  God, then, I believe, awaits our return, as did the Father of the prodigal son. God waits eagerly to restore us to a right relationship with ourselves and others, because it is then that we are also in right relationship with God Himself.

Favored by the Lord

In  today’s first reading, Amos 3: 1-8; 4: 11-12, the Lord says to us through the prophet:

“You alone (the Chosen People of Israel) have I favored, more than all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your crimes…..I brought upon you (allowed) such upheaval when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah: you were like a brand plucked from the fire (not all of Israel was destroyed in the burning lava); yet you returned not to me, says the Lord. …[P]repare to meet your God, O Israel.”

Those words sound so harsh! A merciful, loving God, we ask! 

Let us personalize the passage.  Hear God saying:  “You…,” [Dorothy-- put your name here], have I favored…; therefore I will punish [chastise] you for all your crimes [sins/transgressions].”  Is God a punishing God? I don’t think so. I believe that God is my parent who loves me. Any good, responsible, loving parent, I believe, will chastise his/her child, let that child know when he/she is doing wrong and place consequences on poor behavior. Why? Because any parent who loves his/her children wants them  to grow up strong and trustworthy, adherents of good, at peace with themselves  as the result of making good decisions, satisfying themselves by doing good in the world around them, making the world they live in a better place pleasing to their Creator God, to others and to themselves. 

Do I realize that when I make poor choices that consequences follow accordingly, as when I make good choices. That is true for individuals, for society, for governments, municipalities, civic and ecclesial authorities and so on; in short for all humankind!  Am I learning from the evil that I experience when I follow evil spirits? Am I grateful for the good I experience when I make wise choices in accord with the good that exists within me?

We are here to carry on the work of the Lord—contributing to God’s Kingdom here on earth as modeled for us by Jesus in the Gospels. How faithful am I to the purpose for which God put me here on earth?