6th Sunday of Ordinary Time/ “Preventative Medicine”
6th Sunday of Ordinary Time/ “Preventative Medicine”
The least favorite season of the year is flu season. No one likes to have the flu. When we feel the symptoms starting our heart sinks.
We all know what they are. First, we probably get a scratchy throat. Next, we get the chills. We then realize we then have a fever. We feel weak. We feel tired. Maybe we feel nauseous. Our body aches all over.
How do we treat the flu? We go to bed, if we are lucky, so we can sleep. We drink plenty of liquids. We cover our selves up so we can break the fever. We take aspirin to numb the body aches. If things get bad enough, we go to the doctor to get antibiotics.
But what prevents the flu from ever starting. If we are conscientious, we might get a flu shot. The best way to prevent getting sick though is to have good health habits. We need to get eight hours of sleep a night. We need to drink plenty of fluids. We eat a healthy diet with plenty of vegetables. We exercise four times a week. Lastly, we try to maintain a good attitude. We meditate. We pray. If a person does these things, they are going to be far less likely to get sick.
But what happens? We feel like we are too busy to get an adequate amount of rest. Our diet can consist of a lot of fast food, deserts, all the things that taste good. When the alarm goes off in the morning to exercise when it is below zero, we roll over. Or, we spend some more time watching television. And then there are those spiritual disciplines that can help our overall health. We can’t find time for those. Praying doesn’t produce measurable benefits that we can see right away.
Jesus was often accused of being lax in his moral teaching. Usually that was because he was extending mercy and forgiveness to those who had sinned. But Jesus defended himself in his sermon on the mount saying, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law…no I come to fulfill it.” We could say that Jesus did not want to wait until a terrible sin had been committed to punish people, no he wanted people to be aware of symptoms that said they were heading in the wrong direction in life. Jesus wanted to stop sin with preventative care.
He mentions several serious sins he feels can be prevented. The first is murder. He asks what is the vice we need to pay attention to if we want to avoid killing another person? We need to be aware of the deadly sin of anger. If we are constantly angry at others, we may not kill them, but we certainly are going to lash out at people. And people are probably going to avoid us which leads to loneliness. We need to deal with angry feelings as soon as they erupt in life. We may say we are not hurting others with our short temper, but is that true?
Jesus speaks of adultery. What does he say? He says that we need to be aware lustful feelings we have. What is lust? Lust involves sex without love. Sex in a committed relationship that’s based on love is virtuous thing. Pornography, promiscuous behavior, using other person for personal gratification without love revolves around the deadly sin of lust. We need to ask is lust the driving force in my sexual life or is love the driving force in my sexual life. For a Christian it the question is what is the loving thing to do? We need to ask is the sexual act a narcissistic act or is it a selfless act.
Jesus address divorce. He ties divorce to the belief that we can own another person. Marriage doesn’t mean that one person dominates another. One partner doesn’t have more rights than the other. In other words, deadly sins like pride and envy can lead to marital strife. If we find that we can’t respect vowed relationships, our own or others we might be heading for trouble.
Jesus also speaks breaking oaths and vows. What he says reminds us of the old Walter Scott saying, “Oh what a tangled web we weave when we first learn to deceive.” We need to recognize that lying is harmful. If we have no regard for the truth than we are never going to enjoy the trust of others.
How do we become ethical people? We do so by become ever more reflective people. How well do we know the motivations we operate out of? We live in a world that tempts us to be shallow and self-serving. Such behavior leads to a moral sickness that can destroy our spiritual health. Jesus wants us to live in peace and joy. The more we pay attention to the Spirit of God working in our life, the more self-aware that we are. And the more likely it will be that we will be the virtuous people Jesus asks us to be.
Rough draft, grammar may not be perfect.