God does not force us to do good things, nor does He, in turn, wait in Heaven to punish us if we do not do so. He gives us complete freedom to choose for ourselves. The interesting thing about the Gospel for today is that they talk about journeying to a new village after the disciples have threatened to call down fire from heaven to kill those who did not agree with them, those who irritated them. Jesus rebuked them for this. Sometimes we get the image of God that He wants to burn us up, that God is purposely harming us because we are sinners. That’s a small twisting of what is really going on. It IS because of our sin that we are suffering a lot of the time, but we chose that sin. God gave us the freedom to choose the good.
That’s part of what Saint Paul is talking about in his letter to the Galatians. You and I are indeed free. We have the ability to choose regardless of what desires we have. That freedom is not a license that says we can do whatever we want, but rather a freeing from those things that keep us from choosing the good choice. Anyone who has ever been addicted to something knows that addiction can indeed prevent you from choosing what you know to be good. God can free us from that. In a way, we are addicted to the vices of this world. Most of us can’t say them if asked, but I heard a podcast recently where Jeff Cavins gave a nice acronym to remember them.
PALE GAS
Pride, Anger, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Avarice (Greed), Sloth
Those are the things of this world that try to keep us from being free. Christ set us free from them. Then why do we struggle to actually live them out? Mostly because we don’t spend our time actually practicing the virtues given to us by the Holy Spirit via our baptism. That is we don’t spend our time practicing our virtues to avoid our vices, instead most of the time we are allowing those vices to control us and not making a choice at all. Just like any other habit, virtue requires work. It requires effort. It requires practicing those things that are the cures for these vices. That’s really what I feel Jesus was showing them when they went on to a new village. We too are journeying to a new village, and even though our Pride, our Anger might cause us to want to cast down fire from heaven… we must practice our humility and forgiveness as we journey on to heaven.
So if you struggle with a vice, choose the corresponding virtue and practice it. It takes 28 days to form a habit. What’re 28 days when you have an eternity waiting for you at your destination? God doesn’t want us to call down fire from Heaven to smite our foes. He wants us to draw on the fire of the Holy Spirit to bring Salvation to all who believe.
A reflection on the readings for June 30, 2019, the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.