The Right thing to do!

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

September 20, 2022: Proverbs 21: 1-6, 10-13; Luke 8: 19-21

Doing the right thing is better than sacrifices says the first reading today. And the right thing... how do we know it? It is imprinted in our hearts. All that I need to know is listen to my heart, listen to that inner voice that instructs me, provided that voice is protected, promoted and purely cultivated. 

The Word of God, comes to us through various ways: direct proclamation is just one among these many ways! 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 on what is right and what is to be avoided. There is the inner voice within us, that "sound of sheer silence" (1 Kgs 19:12), which tells us what is that right thing to be done at the right moment. 

What do we need to do? First of all, be attentive: attentive to the Word that comes across to us. 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 would deceive ourselves by doing it. Thirdly, our task is to be diligent in carrying out, amidst all struggles, what the Word tells us.

The Gospel today assures us that when we do all these 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).