The Right thing to do...

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 25th week in Ordinary time

September 22, 2020: Proverbs 21: 1-6, 10-13; Luke 8: 19-21

Doing the right thing is better than sacrifice says the first reading today. And the right thing is imprinted in our hearts. That is a simple but profound question each of us has to constantly ask ourselves- what does my heart say? what does my inner being say? Because, there is someone so great who resides there in profundity. 

The Word of God, comes to us through various ways: direct proclamation is just one among them. There are situations and persons whom we come across who bring us a challenge to face and respond to. The Word of God comes along, instructing us what is right and what is to be avoided. And before anything else, there is the inner voice within us, that "sound of sheer silence" (1 Kgs 19:12), which tells us at the right moment the right thing to do. 

All that we need to do is first of all, be attentive: attentive to the Word that comes across to us. Have you had experiences of what they call 'the inkling' or 'a feeling' as they put it in simple words...as you are about to do something or take a simple decision, you get a feeling within...or you are about to close your room and get out and you feel a kind of reminder of something...but you just carry on with what you are doing...only later regret that you did not pay attention to what was flashing across in your mind? That is what it means... that we need to pay attention to that soft, gentle inner voice!

Secondly, be sincere: sincere to admit that we have received the word and to recognise the demands that it places. At times because of the demands that the Word places on us, we pretend not to have heard, or not to have understood the real meaning of the Word. It would serve no purpose and we in fact deceive ourselves by doing it. 

Thirdly, our task is to be diligent, in carrying out amidst all struggles, what the Word tells us. We are in no way equating that inner voice to God..all that we wish to see is how the Lord can use such a subtle thing to communicate to us. And should we not be grateful for it and be diligent in doing what we ought to?

The Gospel today assures us that when we do all the three we would be considered not merely disciples, but mother, brother, sister, in short, coheirs with Christ to the Reign of God. But when we stop short of them, we would be deceiving ourselves warns the letter of James (1:22). So, the right thing to do... we have always known it, within us!