Proverbs 23:26-35: Private and Public Transgression
Friday, June 14, 2019
Infidelity, prostitution and alcoholism. It is easy to brush these three nouns aside to say that they have nothing to do with us; but we might want to ask ourselves: Do we remain constant to principles that flow from the Gospel, are we willing to sell ourselves for something we know has little value, do we numb our senses in an attempt to live a life of denial rather than reality.
These words represent not only private or individual separations from God; they are transgressions against the whole, the entire Mystical Body. We have reflected on this concept before during our Noontimes that we fool ourselves if we believe the often repeated sentence: I’m not hurting anybody but myself – so leave me alone and stop judging.
It is true that we ought not judge one another, for judging is left to God alone. But it is also true that as members of Christ’s Body we are called to speak and to listen to one another. We are called to rebuke. We are called to show mercy. We are called to forgive and to be forgiven. We are called to unite in the hope that all will be whole, that all will be one.
Where do we find pleasure? Where do we find joy? In a conversation with a friend over the week end, this topic held us for fifteen minutes or so. Pleasure is temporary, sense-numbing thrill-seeking. Joy is eternal, magnifying, uniting with goodness. St. Paul reminds us in Romans 14:17-19 from the morning prayer in MAGNIFICAT: The kingdom of God is not a matter of food and drink, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Spirit; whoever serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by others. Let us then pursue what leads to peace and to building up one another.
In today’s Gospel from John 17 we hear Jesus say in prayer to the Father: Father, the hour has come . . . I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything they gave me is from you, because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them.
Paul speaks to us, and the Corinthians, and then he poses a question (1 Corinthians 6:12-20): The body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body . . . Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? . . . Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.
We are not our own . . . when we hurt one, even ourselves, we hurt all. We have been purchased at great sacrifice. We are greatly loved. When we hide in the shadows and seek temporal pleasure . . . we throw away a gift of great value . . . the gift of eternal life. So let us call ourselves and let us call one another to joyful union that satisfies for an eternity. Let us forgo pleasure and seek joy. Let us give up that which satisfies today for that which will fill us for eternity.
Cameron, Peter John. “Prayer for the Morning.” MAGNIFICAT. 5.26 (2009). Print.
Written on May 26, 2009 and re-posted today.
Images fro: http://dalyplanet.blogspot.com/2011/02/tv-police-fox-handcuffed-in-daytona.html and http://coachdawnwrites.com/2011/11/j-is-for-joy-6-things-i-love-about-coaching/joy-jump/
The Noontimes 