Friday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 429

Miss Green County at the Ky State Fair

…we earnestly ask and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that,

as you received from us
how you should conduct yourselves to please God–
and as you are conducting yourselves–
you do so even more.

Alcoholics Anonymous has a useful expression, “Don’t just talk the talk, walk the walk.” While he celebrates the promise of sobriety, sanity and serenity, it means nothing if the recovering alcoholic is hogtied by grievances, resentments and arrogance. It is too easy to expound upon the glorious ideals of the good life while ignoring the hard work of doing them.

In this oldest document of the Christian tradition, Saint Paul reminds his Thessalonian disciples that the gospel is not a philosophy about life; it is a way of life.  It is “how you should conduct yourselves to please God.”

Saint Francis was never a scholar; he never learned to think abstractly. He did not ponder “justice” or “mercy” as ideals. He was not a romantic; he did not ponder the way things should be and try to live as if they are that way. Where the romantic rushed off to fight for ‘Freedom, Justice and the American Way,” Francis lived realistically. He conducted himself so as to please God.

This is often a hard principle to grasp. A priest and very dear friend of mine used to preach often about “this idea of hope.” He was talking about the virtue but somehow that analytical word idea pushed itself between the experience and the reality. We can talk about, redefine or manipulate the idea of hope but none of that is actually hope.

The “Pharisee,” as we encounter him in the gospels, is the one who talks the talk but does not walk the walk. He knows the idea and has convinced himself that he “gets it.” He will not hesitate to stand before the altar and boast of his virtue, all the while thinking he is the most humble of men. He might even practice penance without truly acknowledging his sin. He would give “his body to be burned but has not love.” The Pharisaic mind is firmly anchored in the imaginary world of ideas and ideals, without any connection to reality.

In the end he will hear the judgment of doom, “Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.”

              Therefore, stay awake,

              for you know neither the day nor the hour.”