27 February 2018
Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent
The Pharisees are a frustrating bunch. Not only because they oppose Jesus at every turn, but because they are so close to the truth. Jesus acknowledges their teachings and says “do and follow all things whatsoever they tell you” (Mt. 23:3). The main problem does not lie in what they say, but in what they do—and in that regard, we should not follow them. If the Pharisees themselves stopped to reflect on what they taught, and stopped to actually live out the things that they taught, they would be on the right track.
That is the difficulty of so many of us—we know what we ought to do, but we have difficulty doing it. In the Examination of Conscience, after we review our faults and express contrition, Ignatius asks us to plan for the future. We are to consider what we will be doing for the rest of the day (or the next day, if it is in the evening) in as concrete detail as possible, and consider how we may do better. We will not magically get better, and old habits die hard, but if we take a moment to stop and think in advance about how to live out the Christian life, we might just bridge that gap between what we know and what we do.