My daughter was excited yesterday to tell me about a new movie coming out. The movie is called Harriet and is about Harriet Tubman, a woman whose courage and bravery should be a story we are all familiar with. Most of us have no idea what slavery is like. We have lived most of our lives in freedom, able to pick and choose as we want. Being reminded of our dark past is important so that we don’t have an even darker future, and to remind us that slavery still exists today. I bring this up because, in the first reading from the Letter to the Romans, Saint Paul reminds us that true freedom doesn’t mean doing whatever we want, it means doing what we ought. I spoke a bit about that yesterday, but it again is part of the message for today.
Paul presents us with a choice. We can choose to remain slaves to our sin, which means we do what our flesh wants regardless of its consequences, or we can choose to be obedient to God. He speaks of this obedience in terms of slavery, becoming slaves to God. The interesting thing though is that he also speaks of wages. Slaves don’t get wages, right? In fact, you’d expect that if someone did something unhealthy physically that they would get ‘paid’ for that. Spiritually we see the same principle. If you live off fried foods and soda, you’re gonna get sick. “The wages of sin is death.” If you live off the spiritual junk food then you’re gonna get sick spiritually. Every small thing adds up, a pebble becomes an avalanche, and before you know what was not a serious matter has become grave and mortal.
Then Paul says something very powerful, something that reminds of us the immense mercy of God. “But now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit that you have leads to sanctification, and its end is eternal life.” Many people have this view of God, both in the modern and ancient world, that shows Him as some kind of tyrant. As if the ‘rules’ He doles out are simply to keep the man down or to keep the ‘patriarchy’ in control. Rather than realizing that God is showing us how to live in relationship with Him, that even when we begin to see obedience as a necessary part of serving God, it comes with a wage. You don’t have to pay a wage to the slave! God doesn’t owe us anything, we owe Him everything. Yet, when we begin to do the things He reveals to us, when we act properly, choosing what we ought instead of just what we want… we receive the gifts that come with it, including righteousness and eternal life.
Just as a married man must begin to act like a married man, not able to simply go about his life as if he is single, those of us in covenant relationship with God should look different to the world. As we see in the Gospel, and in today’s United States Political climate, that can cause friction and divisions along many lines, not just with family. Following Jesus isn’t easy. Sometimes we have to choose not only the thing we don’t want to do but the thing that will make others resent or despise us. Harriet Tubman chose to fight against the status quo, to risk her life and everything she had to free others from injustice and tyranny. We, too, have to stand up for those who do not have a voice, from the intellectually disabled to the unborn child, from cradle to grave. The choice is a clear line in the sand. Do we choose life or death? Cultural acceptance now? Or a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ and His Body, the Church, both now and for eternity?
* On a side note, I am not big into politics though I do like to discuss them from time to time. I want to encourage every person out there to get out and vote. Be the change you want to see in this world. Vote for the person who is most likely, to the best of your understanding, to stand up for the things we ‘ought’ to be doing, not just the things we want.
A reflection on the readings for October 24th, 2019: Thursday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time.