When I read the first reading from the Old Testament, it reminded me of the difference sense of God I perceive as presented in the Old Testament vs the New Testament.  As a pre-Vatican II child in the 50s, I attended Cathechism prior to making First Communion and Confirmation. Our text was the Baltimore Cathechism complete with its pages of questions and answers for us to memorize.  It seemed to me as a young child, that everything was concrete and literal.  There was no gray, everything in this world was a black and white as the ink and pages of the Cathechism. God was a God of brimstone and damnation.  While we learned of God’s love for us in giving his only Son for our redemption, I felt I was motivated more by fear of damnation rather than love and salvation. Fast forward some 35 years later to the early 80s and post Vatican II, when my son was now in CCD preparing for his First Communion.  As I reviewed the lessons with him, I quickly recognized the emphasis on love.  I had attended Folk Masses as a college student in the late 60s and early 70s, I felt the difference in the liturgies and especially the songs.  Songs of love and unity, of forgiveness and redemption, of walking hand in hand.  Fast forward now another 20 years to 2000.  My son (now a grown man with a child) and I were having a conversation about the changes from my studies in preparation for First Communion and his own with a definite emphasis on our loving Father and Son.  My son pondered if we had strayed too far from the God of brimstone and damnation with the emphasis on love.  I posed a question to him about love and fear of his parents and what was the critical motivation and as he answered about love and not disappointing as being greater than fear, he stopped midsentence and said, I got it!!

Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you,
but do not follow their example.
For they preach but they do not practice.

The gospel for today reminds me of what my parents sometimes said to us as children: Do as I say not as I do. Please do not think that my parents were not good examples of very positive behavior and role modeling.  Rather, I think they were aware of their own shortcomings and feet of clay.  While they would always strive to do the right things, they were keenly aware that we will all, including them, fall short at times.  Their saying this was not to discourage us from emulating those positive behaviors, rather to caution us that their actions were at times incongruent with how they wanted us to act. Clearly, at times when the actions and teachings were out of sync, they wanted us to remember the teachings.  Jesus is encouraging us to do the same.

As I grew older that was an important lesson for me to remember. I learned that even those I admired would at times do (or say) things that were not worthy of my emulating.  Just because someone was in a position of authority be it in work, in education, in church, in government -- it wasn’t a guarantee of correct behavior.  Policies in any of those environments may speak to the “high road” and one could assume that activities would be laudable as well. However, the actions were/are at times reminiscent of the “road not taken.”

It seems even more important as reach my mid-70s with less time ahead of me than behind me, that those around me especially my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren see congruency in my actions and words.  As I’ve mentioned previously in these reflections that I truly believe that my life is God’s gift to me and what I do with it, is my gift to God.  What do others see?  What do my grandchildren see?  Is this belief evident in what they see? Hear?  Ooh, my feet of clay still show . . .

Two songs to convey what my words may be lacking – the second one to remind those of my generation when we first started singing of our love so clearly!!

To Not Worship You   MercyMe                    By Our Love       for King & Country