Informed convictions and Single minded perseverance!

WORD 2day: Friday, 32nd week in Ordinary time

November 13, 2020: 2 John 4-9; Luke 17: 26-37

Commandments make it easy for us to choose the right things in life. They are similar to the laws, which are already reasoned out discernments made, for the sake of providing individuals and societies ready made choices, to maintain order and keep going. Just as any society needs law, a religious or moral community needs commandments. 

The Jews had their commandments... which they believed were given to them by God! The commandments showed them the right way to go, the right choices to make and the right decisions to take. Jesus makes it further simple for them and for us, simplifying those commandments in their plurality, into just one key criterion: LOVE.

The readings these days portray a sense of urgency as we approach the fag end of the the Liturgical year. Like a person or an organisation evaluates a project towards its completion, so we are invited to think about our choices and the single mindedness in life, at the end of this liturgical year. Can we look back and make an evaluation - as to how  we have journeyed with the Lord all this while?

At times we feel bad to obey a commandment or to keep a law,  as part of our spirituality - because we think it undermines our "progressive" thinking and capacity for mature commitments. We feel it is childish to stick to commandments and obey a directive! But maturity in fact lies in Informed Convictions and Single minded Perseverance -  knowing what the commandments intend and seeking those very goals is Informed conviction; knowing what my weaknesses and limitations are and making use of the commandments to bind myself to something good and growing in it, is Single minded perseverance. 

Informed convictions and Single minded perseverance... the way to achieve them: listening to the Lord  daily and living every moment of our life in God's light.