18 June 2014
Wednesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
Humans are social beings. From infancy, we practice “learned behaviors” which enclose us all of our lives. We try to get our young to associate with good company – knowing that there is nothing as powerful as peer pressure.
But there is something much more powerful than peer pressure. That is the power of God. His voice within us – sometimes countering that of the group, of the pack – is the voice of conscience. Each of us must ask: to which house am I playing the act of my life? Is it to the applause of other human beings, or is it to God above all, and, ultimately, to God alone?
If it is to other human beings, then I must always be calculating how I appear, how what I do appears. I must surrender my freedom to that of a group image in my mind. But if it is for God that I “perform,” then I become free of all that is less than the Lord of the Universe, and begin to act like a child of the Great King. And, of His great abundance, Jesus assures us that not only will we be “doing the right thing” – which might be its own reward – but that the Father Who “sees in secret” will reward us. And that secret place, the depths of our hearts, will know a peace unshakeable by all the storms of this world, and the masters of public opinion. We will be living in the Truth. We will be living in the company of the ultimate Social Being, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We will be building our home in Heaven.