Word to the Wise
Friday, February 5, 2021 - Friday in the 4th Week in Ordinary Time
[Heb 13:1-8 and Mark 6:14-29]Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels. Be mindful of prisoners as if sharing their imprisonment, and of the ill-treated as of yourselves, for you also are in the body. Let marriage be honored among all and the marriage bed be kept undefiled, for God will judge the immoral and adulterers. Let your life be free from love of money but be content with what you have......Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. [Hebrews]
FEBRUARY 5 ST. AGATHA, virgin and martyr
One of the more famous quotes from the great Catholic writer, G. K. Chesterton, is: The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried. The words from the Letter to the Hebrews in the first scripture for today are basically a summary of the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel According to Matthew (Ch. 5-7). Much of the New Testament is a commentary on those teachings. But the words of Chesterton challenge us in regard to Jesus' teachings. The operative words are "difficult and left untried." The difficulty has been present from the very dawn of creation. Humans, created with free will, have found it difficult to follow God's way. When God intervened in the person of Jesus Christ, the difficulty remained and is still with us. To be a faithful Christian is to do a difficult thing. It requires effort and discipline. It is not always "user-friendly!" Some might claim that God deliberately made it difficult by giving us hormones and appetites!!!
We don't have to look far to find examples, whether in recent political events in our country or in our local parish or even in our own homes. Christianity requires more than being "nice to others." It demands sacrificial love and infinite patience. The temptation on our part is to "redesign" it to make it more convenient or sympathetic to our political or social or economic beliefs and prejudices. Conversion and renewal are a constant requirement for true faith in God. We have many good examples to follow, as Hebrews reminds us. These good examples made the effort to follow Jesus, even at the cost of their lives. C. S. Lewis once wrote: Christianity, if false, is of no importance. and if true, of infinite importance, the only thing it cannot be is moderately important. How important is it to us? AMEN