Thursday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Our first reading reminds me of a story my wife tells about a teenager she used to mentor. ‘What was your moment of awakening, when you really decided to make different choices?’ my wife asked the girl. She thought for a moment and responded ‘At some point, I realized it really was easier to do the right thing.’ Spinning a complex of lies and stories was too much to remember. When we steal or cheat, the lack of trust in our relationships makes it harder to get the help that we truly need. Using people to get what we want leaves us in situations where we are being used and lonely. But when we tell the truth, when we keep our promises, when we love and help others, the world becomes a beautiful place, and we are not alone anymore.
Isaiah and Jesus’s message today are the same universal truth. “The way of the just is smooth…” Yes, there are moments when doing the right thing is harder. There are times when our gratification will be delayed. There are times when we must suffer for the sake of righteousness. But the overall track of the just life is a gentle upward journey. Sin and injustice, conversely, lift us up for a moment and then cast us downward into a pit. It’s a place that’s very hard to get out of.
We have all sinned; we are continuously falling into that same old trap. We cannot save ourselves; “Salvation we have not achieved…” We labor and suffer under the heavy burden of sin. We need Jesus. Thankfully, the humility we need to approach God and admit our mistakes is modeled for us in the Humility of Christ. Let us forget our pride, as Jesus forgot his when He became human; May me meekly approach the throne and exchange our endless and impossible burden with the easy and light yoke of Jesus. Then, we will joyfully proclaim ‘The way of the just is smooth... for you have accomplished all we have done.’ Amen!
-Chris Nieport