Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent

Original painting in the
Blessed Sacrament Chapel
at Robley Rex VA Hospital
Louisville, Ky

Hear the word of the Lord,

princes of Sodom!
Listen to the instruction of our God,
people of Gomorrah!

Lest there be any confusion, we should understand that Sodom and Gomorrah had been obliterated more than a thousand years before Isaiah’s prophecy. He is speaking of the leaders of Jerusalem whom he insults with this jibe. He considers them no better than the vicious pagans who were destroyed at the time of Abraham.

But, he is telling them and us, ”There is still time!” The prophet pleads with his people to wash yourselves clean and put away your misdeeds. Sometimes we think it’s too late to change our ways. We seem to be hardened in our ways: 

• I smoke; I’ve tried to quit; I can’t do it. 
• I am impatient; I cannot control my anger. 
• I can’t control my eating, 
• I can’t control my gambling, 
• I can’t control my lusting, 
• I can’t control my shopping, 
• I can’t control my arguing, and so forth....

Or worse, I will try again. When someone says he will try to quit drinking or smoking, or try to control his temper, or try to get out of an adulterous relationship, you can bet he won’t quit. He has no intention of quitting, nor does he believe it possible. He only promises to try.

Trying to do something begins with my own will. But when it comes to an entrenched habit, the will is too sick to do anything. And yet it denies that sickness in order to avoid the very steps which seem even worse: surrender and obedience.

Jesus insists we must die to ourselves if we would be his disciples. We cannot follow him and bring along the baggage of willfulness. Rather we must be willing. They are polar opposites in the spiritual life of a Christian. (An excellent book on this subject: Gerald G May, Will and Spirit, a contemplative psychology)

Don’t try. Just do it – in obedience to the Lord.

Jesus ran head on into that same willfulness among the leaders of his time:

…they preach but they do not practice.
They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry
and lay them on people’s shoulders,
but they will not lift a finger to move them.
All their works are performed to be seen.

They “talk the talk but they do not walk the walk.” It is so difficult to realize the difference between talking and walking, between willful and willing. We must pray daily for a willing spirit, begging God to take our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh; and then we must seize those graceful opportunities to change our hearts that will suddenly, unexpectedly appear.