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Most of us, if faced with a stark and easily recognizable moral choice, do the right thing. Not long ago at the hardware store, I checked out and got to the car and then noticed an item that the clerk hadn’t scanned. I double checked the receipt and I hadn’t paid for it. So I went back and paid for it. Those are easy decisions and I think most people would do the right thing and not steal, even if presented with an easy opportunity to do so. The harder problems come when things are not so black and white. I’ve often admired Job, whom we see in the first reading, for not giving in during his trials. Even in the face of terrible hardships he is able to say “I know my Vindicator lives and that he will at last stand forth upon my dust.” I would have been easy for Job to have just given in and given up and concluded that the whole world was against him and that he was powerless to do anything about it, and his book is a remarkable testament to the power of faith and the human spirit. There have been a lot of Jobs throughout history who didn’t have his courage. I fear that if faced with his struggles I might not have made it through. But the Book of Job stands there as an inspiration for the rest of us who might not have had his fortitude. In the Gospel, Luke tells us of the commissioning of more disciples to go out from town to town. Jesus warns ominously that the towns that do not receive them will be in a worse position on Judgment Day than Sodom. But are we all so good at recognizing it when God comes calling? Sometimes I get so caught up in the day-to-day world that I wonder whether I wouldn’t have been in one of those households that wasn’t so keen on receiving two strangers. Do we let those tiny whispers from God go unanswered? I know I do sometimes. Paying attention to those small calls is a lot harder than going back into the hardware store to pay for something. |