-The homily of last week is available by email
-The Scriptures are available at USCCB.org>
-I am preaching at 5:30 and 8:00 Mass
The Good as Enemy of the Perfect
I know that the saying is usually stated "the perfect should not become the enemy of the good". However, I sense that the scriptures and the new church year in advent are inviting us to see it the opposite way. Yes, indeed it seems that even for us religious people that rather than the the good leading us into communion with the perfect love of God, the good stuff from God can cause us to wander away from Him. .
The first reading wonders "why do you permit us to wander from your ways, O God?". Well, the freedom to wander away is precisely the godlikeness of our human nature. God made us like Himself and that means we are completely free....like Him. Free to love. God's hope was that we would use that freedom to love Him as He loves us. But, noooooooo. We go and fall for every good but lesser thing that falls in our path. Even the religious stuff can be chosen by us and loved in a way that does NOT lead us to God but leads us away...hardened hearts..
The parable of the final judgment reinforces the point that even the good stuff that the master gives us to be "busy about" can draw us into hard heartedness. So...do you see it? Marriage, ministry, children, material possessions, studies, creative work, athletics, beauty, joy in life.....all of it can - if handled poorly - can draw us away from the Kingdom of God and into the dead center of self. That would put us to sleep...not awake.
