Saturday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 436

You once were alienated and hostile in mind because of evil deeds; God has now reconciled you in the fleshly Body of Christ through his death, to present you holy, without blemish, and irreproachable before him....


The title of recent best-selling ebook, Fifty Shades of Grey, describes the entire visual spectrum of pornography. They see only shades of grey, ranging from bad to worse. Glory does not appear there.

In the real world the Christian sees light and dark. We remember when we were "alienated and hostile in mind" because of our "evil deeds." Now, united in the "fleshly Body of Christ," the Lord presents us "holy, without blemish and irreproachable" to God our Father. 

The Christian studies the "two ways," a theological/philosophical understanding of life. There is good and evil; virtue and wickedness. Though our political and economic decisions require compromise, we search for the right and shun the wrong.  Fifty shades of grey is way too complicated; it requires hopeless hair-splitting. It leads only to indecision. 

A Jesuit once explained to me how the Christian should make decisions. First we line up every conceivable choice. We immediately delete the impossible, absurd and immoral. After that culling, most problematic situations render several good options. But which should we take? We ask God for guidance. The Jesuit explained the Lord will touch one of them and the perceptive Christian will see the glow of God's finger. 

The Best way to see the Fair

The process may take a long time. We must often wait for God to show us what to do. Perhaps the time for decisive action has not arrived. Wisdom waits. We will know what to do and when to do it when the Spirit says, "Now." 

It is always better to do the right thing at the right time. Doing it too soon or too late may be catastrophic for everyone involved. All the more reason to "Wait on the Lord." 

Reconciled through the "fleshly body of Christ," we want nothing more than to be "holy, without blemish, and irreproachable before him."