In other words, what
passions rule your existence?
Human willfulness
is a powerful force. When, in the Book of Wisdom, the wicked beset the just one,
it is because they themselves are not in right relationship with God – the just
one knows that they are guilty of transgressions
of the law and violations of their
own training. Like the speaker in Psalm 54, who knows that the Lord upholds his life, the just one
loves God and lives to express that love, and so he stands in opposition to
those who reject the covenant standards of mercy
and gentleness and constancy that the Letter of James
describes. Reminding his audience that
they need to rely upon wisdom from above
rather than their own passions and parameters, James exhorts them to cultivate peace by their attention to
relationship with other – rather than jealousy and ambition – and through that
relationship, to cultivate their relationship with God.
The passions of
jealousy and ambition and willfulness are no strangers to Jesus’
disciples. In Mark’s Gospel, rather than
listen to the Lord, who frightens them with stories of his imminent death, they
discuss among themselves who is the greatest. Because they can’t bear to hear what Jesus
says, they express instead their own insecurities and are able to access only their
own limited experience and comprehension rather than opening to Jesus’
teaching. Ultimately, Jesus can only
reach them by taking a child, putting his
arms around it, and saying, Whoever
receives one child such as this in my name receives me. It is a call away from willfulness to
willingness, a call to serve other.
One of our biggest
struggles as human beings is our fear of being inadequate – and that fear often drives us, causing us to do things we are not proud of. But God’s love for us makes us capable of mercy and gentleness, capable of loving in our turn, if only we open to it. To be in right relationship, to live
according to the dictates of wisdom rather than by our own narrow perspectives,
to do God’s will in Jesus’ name: all of
these bind us more profoundly to the one in whose name we serve, and in whose
name we love, letting go of our own willfulness, that we might surrender, in
love, to the needs of our world.
This post is based
on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordle.net
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