The Sixth Day in the Octave of Christmas

Lectionary: 203

I am writing to you, children,
because your sins have been forgiven for his name's sake....
Do not love the world or the things of the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world,
sensual lust, enticement for the eyes, and a pretentious life,
is not from the Father but is from the world.
Yet the world and its enticement are passing away.
But whoever does the will of God remains forever.

Vatican News has posted several English versions of the Catholic Act of Contrition. In the first ones penitents state their intention "to avoid the near occasion of sin," or "to avoid whatever leads me to sin."

These phrases echo Saint John's warning, 

"for all that is in the world, sensual lust, enticement for the eyes, and a pretentious life is not from the Father but is from the world.

Yet the world and its enticements are passing away." 

The other prayers certainly have merit but I appreciate the penitent's stated awareness of the danger in which we live. It should not be denied, ignored, or overlooked. 

Very often penitents must admit they have been entirely too comfortable amid these dangers. Isaiah the Prophet announced good news to Jerusalem that

"You shall defile your silver-plated idols

and your gold-covered images;

You shall throw them away like filthy rags,

you shall say, “Get out!"

We can wonder if the Holy City was glad to hear that Good News. They would soon be delivered not only from the stuff they have wanted and thought they must have; they will be relieved of the desire; and will discover an astonishing, unimagined, unexpected, and undeserved freedom from all that stuff. They will wonder why they ever wanted it, and why they put up with such nonsense for so long! 

Who taught us that idiocy? Good Lord, and we taught our children the same thing! Have mercy, O God. 

Periodically, in religious life, we discover the sinful habits of the dominant culture, and then realize how awful they are. They may be customs, habits, practices, expressions, or attitudes. They may be words, stories, or jokes that embarrass the laity who overhear them. They may be attitudes or habits the laity notice. They're not right but they don't seem flagrantly wrong. Hopefully, suggestions are made, the friars are reminded, and the evil becomes unacceptable. 

Jokes that were funny are not funny anymore. Habits and attitudes that were considered normal and even necessary are the world's ways; they are filthy rags and must be thrown away. 

This purification often comes gently, and we thank God for it. For if we fail to amend our ways, and fail to atone for them by making the reform permanent, we certainly face a most severe rebuke from the Judge who died to set us free.