Do the readings today speak to you? They should.
And if you’re saying to yourself “well I don’t think that way, they must be talking about other people…”, then perhaps you need to take a look in the mirror, look into your eyes, and ask that question again.
Because they apply to you. They apply to me. They apply to all of us. We all pass judgement on others in one way or another. We all place ourselves before others and before God at times.
There are times when we think, well at least I’m not as bad as that guy. No, in some ways, maybe not. But in other ways, he’s not as bad as you. A sin is a sin.
They say that pride is the root of all evil. Well, the root of pride is thinking that you are not the problem.
It may sound harsh, but its true. We are human. Take a look in the mirror. St. Paul is speaking to us today in his Letter to the Romans. Jesus is speaking to us the Gospel today.
Until we realize this, things will never change. But we’ve had thousands of years of human history and we continue to make the same mistakes. We continue to fall into same temptations and traps and sins.
The thing is, I don’t think we’ll ever change as a whole. Not as a society. In a worldly respect, we truly are doomed when left to our own devices. And God knows this, which is why He came and saved us from ourselves. We will always have our selfish tendencies. We will always judge others. We will always succumb to some level of pride, to some level of evil. Some more than others, but yet, evil is evil. We can never change on our own.
And if we continue to put our faith only in our fellow man or woman, we will only be disappointed. We are all broken.
So where is the hope? It is Christ. That’s why He came. That’s why He gave us the Sacraments. To save us from ourselves. To provide His Grace – the Grace of His Presence and the Grace of His Forgiveness. Because without it we are not capable – of anything – but evil.
Yes, we can be changed. Yes, we can become less judgmental and less prideful and less selfish. Yes, we can become more patient. And yes, we can become more tolerable. But only through Him. Only through His Grace.
No, we can’t do it by ourselves, no matter how hard we try. And when we start to think that we are better, that our ways are better, and that others are lesser – we need to take a look in the mirror. We need to not only see who we are, but search for Him deep within us, and the person He meant for us to become.
