"GOING TO HIM, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE"
The solution to our inability to live up to the high ideals of the
Gospel life is solid trust of God's forgiveness and saving grace.
Ezekiel emphasizes, we can choose either good or
bad; on the other hand, we don't seem able to do all that is asked of us. We
don't always make the right choices in our lives. The words of Jesus in
Matthew's Gospel are pretty dire in their warnings about the consequences of
our failures. When our own weaknesses and failures continue to take control of
our lives, vice grows like weeds and chokes the life out of us. Jesus addresses
the issue of keeping God's loving commandments. The Scribes and Pharisees
equated living a godly life to satisfying the demands of law. But Jesus shows
them a much better way to live a good life. Jesus points to the heart as the
seat of desire, choice, and intention. Unless sinful desires are uprooted and
cut out, the heart will not be whole, and sin will take over.
The true antidote for overcoming what is not true
to the heart is virtue: mercy, forbearance, and kindness which all spring from
hearts full of love and forgiveness. If our minds and hearts must be as free as
Jesus asks of us, our thoughts free of vengeance, resentment, ill will, and so
on, then who can be saved? Jesus tells
us that "for God, all things are possible" (Mt 19:26). We do need to
hold unto hope. The solution to our inability to live up to the high ideals of
the Gospel life is solid trust of God's forgiveness and saving grace.
Today we pray in the responsorial psalm, "If
You, O Lord, mark iniquities, Lord, who can stand? But with You is mercy and forgiveness"
(Ps 130:3-4).