Tuesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Several years ago I briefly took some classes in karate. A friend had suggested there was both a physical and spiritual dimension and it attracted me. I learned one of the principle doctrines of all the martial arts is balance. In a karate competition you keep your balance and try to throw your opponent off-balance. When you lose your own balance, you lose.

Saint Peter says something similar in today’s first reading:

Therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned,
be on your guard not to be led into the error of the unprincipled
and to fall from your own stability.

As we strive to live by the love of God each day our first concern must be to keep our balance. When a karate contestant throws his fist or foot so hard that he loses his balance, he leaves himself vulnerable to a severe counterattack. He will be flat on his back within seconds.

As “soldiers of Christ” we too must maintain our stability – spiritual, moral, mental, financial, physical – as we announce the gospel. As frail and insecure mortals we continually search for salvation in perishable things like money, family, work or pleasure.

We look for scapegoats and pariahs to bear the burden of our disappointment. We fall prey to ideas and ideologies that promise to make sense of everything. If commitments seem to fail, we refuse to commit to anything. In all of these ways we fall from stability.

Religion is a particular danger for religious people. As any trial lawyer will tell you, to lose your temper is to lose. To think the salvation of your soul or another’s soul depends upon your winning this argument is to over-invest yourself. Thinking that this political issue or this religious controversy signals the End-Time only betrays your own arrogance, as if God has waited for you to be born before He wraps it all up.

In all humility we practice our faith day by day, content with the knowledge that God Is Still In Charge. We hear and believe Jesus’ command, “Do not be afraid.” Few will be swayed by our arguments but many will see our serenity, and that will be proof for them. (Matthew 8:4)