Daily Reflections - September 24, 2012

Blessings or No Blessings

 

“Envy not the lawless man and choose none of his ways; to the Lord the perverse man is an abomination but with the upright is his friendship.”

Sometimes we wish these words from the book of Proverbs were that simple. The Holy Book says the lawless is an abomination to the Lord but sometimes it’s difficult not to envy the lawless especially when the lawless seems to prosper even if the Bible says he is an abomination. This is difficult to see when our criteria of abomination and prosperity is only on the surface level — the material and the physical.

While it is true that prosperity and blessings come with living according to the ways of God, the prosperity promised to the just is a prosperity that exists at the deepest level. It is a friendship and prosperity that can also exist amidst, alongside of, and despite the greatest suffering. In a similar vein, the abomination promised to the perverse is an abomination at the deepest level. An abomination that can co-exist alongside of and despite the greatest temporal success. That is frightening. Temporal success can blind one to the internal abomination that is really going on in  one’s soul, in one’s inner life. That is why God tells us not to envy the lawless.

There’s a famous American actor who is good-looking, with a beautiful wife and children. He’s a star of a TV sitcom which reportedly pays him a million dollars per episode. Last year, he checked into a rehab for drug and sex addictions. His home studio cancelled his contract and his wife left him with the children. He would pay sexual partners as many as five a night to accompany him during his lonely nights. He looked blessed on the outside, but inside he was cursed. When you have to pay for companionship, that’s as lonely as one can get.

While we claim the blessings promised to the just, we keep to heart the admonition of today’s psalm: “He who does justice shall live on the Lord’s holy mountain.”Fr. Joel Jason

 

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: Are you given to envy to the point that you actually envy the lawless? How much do you persevere in pursuing the good?

 

Lord Jesus, in the midst or absence of material blessings, I journey on the path of Your righteousness. Bless my resolve, Lord. Amen.