The book of Colossians today speaks of alienation and hostility because of sin. Christ reconciles us through his sacraments and purifies us to be worthy to stand in his presence. That is something that might be good to make note of. Christ purifies us to worthily stand in his presence. If we were called before the Lord right now, what is the state of our soul? Could we stand before him with a clear conscience and no guilt? That is the main criteria. Does our conscience convict us of anything? Sometimes we are so stubborn in our beliefs that what we are doing isn’t wrong, that we won’t budge. A person’s conscience knows though, if something is wrong or not. The natural law is your conscience. If your conscience convicts you, even if it is something little, go to confession – hopefully today. If your conscience does not convict you, even if it is something big and other people accuse you of committing a sin, but your conscience says otherwise, listen to your conscience.
The natural law is written in the heart of every man and it knows right from wrong and is often referred to as your conscience.
That is what Jesus is saying in today’s gospel. The Pharisees accused Jesus and his disciples of doing something wrong, because technically it was a clear violation of their rules (the ten commandments) to pick grain on the Sabbath. This didn’t bother Christ at all though. Just because the Jewish people felt that it was a sin to pick grain on the Sabbath, he didn’t necessarily think so. Why? Because he loved his disciples and they were hungry. Jesus was more concerned about their hunger.
King David did the same thing. He ignored the rules and did the right thing, because his companions were hungry. However, it is worth noting that Jesus and King David were rulers and were in charge of others and had the power to do so. The average person probably couldn’t have gotten away with breaking one of the ten commandments, which made up their law. These verses in the gospel does not mean we can pick and choose when to break a rule, but there are occasions when love should be take precedence, not the man made rules.
The main criteria for what is right and wrong is your conscience. Your conscience will not fail you, unless it has been malformed by some other teaching or influence, especially as a child. Parents can teach their children the wrong things by their words and example causing a child’s conscience to become malformed. The criteria for mortal sin is “full knowledge” though. Without full knowledge, even if it is a grave sin, it becomes a venial sin.
Today is a good day to listen to your conscience and go to confession if you need to. Otherwise, it would be a good day for prayer. Our Holy Father has asked us to pray for the world today, for world peace.
