UNREGENERATED NATURE CANNOT PLEASE GOD

MONDAY, TWENTY THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

1 Cor 5:1-8; Ps 5:5-7,12; Lk 6:6-11

The Yeast of Evil Within

Contrasted with the life of faith, which is genuinely God’s life in our soul, is a life arising from faithlessness. This life is that of our unregenerated nature wounded by the original sin of Adam and Eve. Our unregenerated human nature is capable of many natural goods it can achieve in various spheres of life. Many confuse these goods to be the same as Christian goods achieved at the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. They are not the same, for the principles of these two categories of goods are different. They may be the same materially but differ essentially because of their principles; that is, their beginning and the end for which they are done. Those who propose and uphold the ability of our unaided human nature to achieve this set of goods are proponents and believers in humanity, and their religion and philosophy are called humanism. Many people come to the Church every Sunday but are not numbered among the faithful but are practitioners of humanism. These believe in themselves and the ability to do good to people and may even morally appear better than many Christians. They are not Christians because they do not believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and the necessity of his death and resurrection for their salvation. Let us beware of these people and watch over ourselves not to fall into this false religion that can camouflage as Christianity.

To unveil this hideous evil, which can easily dwell in the midst of the faithful to deceive and destroy, the Lord allows these persons to manifest their unregenerated selves by permitting them to manifest their sinful nature. We see this in the situation described by St. Paul in the first reading. “I have been told as an undoubted fact that one of you is living with his father’s wife. This is a case of sexual immorality among you that must be unparalleled even among pagans. How can you be so proud of yourselves? You should be mourning. A man who does a thing like that ought to have been expelled from the community.” The sin revealed the true identity of the sinner, who had no regard for the word of God but trusted in himself. For this reason, Paul advised casting out of the community and handing him over to Satan. The proposed punishment is an act of charity for the man to come to the knowledge of his utter weakness when it comes to Christian holiness and recognise the saving power of the Lord. Next, Paul touches on the very source of the sin, pride in self, as we have explained above. “The pride that you take in yourselves is hardly to your credit.” Pride in self and self-accomplishment is a sin that corrupts our every thought, word, and action like yeast leavens the dough. The apostle admonished us to watch over ourselves because this sin can easily infect us in the faith community, as happened in the Corinthian community of faith.

We see the same corruption of faith in God among the scribes and Pharisees. The Israelites were called to believe in God and his word. But their faith was gradually corrupted. They turned from believing in God to believing in themselves and their self-righteousness. “Then Jesus said to them, ‘I put it to you: is it against the law on the sabbath to do good, or to do evil; to save life, or to destroy?’ Then he looked round at them all and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He did so, and his hand was better. But they were furious, and began to discuss the best way of dealing with Jesus.” Humanism thrives very well in a legalistic religion but will fail woefully in a religion of truth and spiritual worship of God. In the former, what is important is what is done outside and not inside. In the latter, what is done inside is of primary importance because it is done before God and for the love of God. Many of us who answer Christians massage their pride and nurture their sinful lifestyle by maintaining their holy observances and rituals externally before people. Some shout their prayers, and sometimes in tongues, for people to know we are praying and prayerful. Is that really what the Lord says we should do? Let us follow St. Paul’s advice and have only the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. St. Peter Claver, whose optional memorial is today, was a Catalan and Jesuit priest who made himself the slave of the Negroes in Colombia and served them for the love of God till death. We ask for his intercession to develop authentic Christian spirituality.

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, the grace to worship constantly and always in the inner and spiritual temple you made within us, so that following the Holy Spirit inspiration in all things, we may carry out every action for the love of you and the good of our neighbours.