Tuesday of Week 34 in Ordinary Time (Year II)
Saint Cecilia, Virgin, Martyr
Apocalypse 14:14-19 | Psalm 95(96):10-13 | Luke 21:5-11
Today’s reading mentions “sharp sickle” twice, in reference to the Great Harvest of the End Times: Christ reaping the “wheat” of those who believe in Him and adhere to His commands, and the angel of the vine reaping the “grapes” of sinners, to be pressed till their blood floods the land.
We too could use “sharp sickles” in our lives, particularly when it comes to cutting ourselves off from sinful behaviour.
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Just last year, I was introduced to a fascinating word: recidivism. It’s a fancy way to refer to a relapse into criminal behaviour, especially after the original behaviour had been addressed through counseling or a prison term.
We like to call recidivists “repeat offenders” and often treat them with disdain, yet if we were honest with ourselves, we’d probably admit that we too succumb to recidivism. We are quick to condemn people with long criminal records as “hopeless cases”, yet I’ve heard several priests comment (without breaking the seal of the confessional) that some folks confess the same sins over and over again, and I’m sure every priest has the same story to tell about the “hopeless cases” who are you and me.
But there’s always hope – Christ has promised that he’s always here to help us get over our sinful inclinations. We just have to overcome our base human nature to slide into repetitive sin through laziness and inattention.
After many personal trials, I’ve settled on a method which sports the unfortunate abbreviation RUST, but seems to be quite effective, at least for me:
- Recognize my sinful behaviour. This is exactly what we’re urged to do as part of confession, and is in fact the first step in just about every self-help program out there.
- Understand the root cause of my sinful behaviour. This requires deep reflection and honesty with myself, and can sometimes be quite painful. Having someone else as a “sounding board” often helps.
- Substitute the root cause with something that’s a better use of the time otherwise spent on my sinful behaviour.
- Terminate any association with the root cause. This…can be tricky.
For instance, I recently recognized that I get angry and frustrated quite easily, and I get especially short-tempered with family.
After much pondering, I understood that I was spending far too much time drinking at the cesspool that my Facebook feed has become, and becoming spiritually “poisoned” in the process (when Catholics can get quite rude with each other in a Catholic group, there’s indeed trouble in paradise).
So I substituted Facebook time with more time reading scripture…and writing this blog. I’m now at the point where I barely get on Facebook any more.
Unfortunately, I can’t quite bring myself to terminate my Facebook account right now. Perhaps someday soon, but not just yet – I’m still using the service to share my daily musings, after all.
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Very often, we convince ourselves that once we’ve recognized our faults, we can simply correct them and all will be right as rain. We like to think that we can maintain our resistance to sin by sheer willpower, so we don’t have to actually remove the temptations from our lives.
It’s been said that the devil’s greatest trick was to convince mankind that he doesn’t exist. Our greatest trick is to fool ourselves into believing that we won’t fall to the same temptation twice.
Let’s stop kidding ourselves, and remove as much temptation as we can from our lives. Prisoners are often advised to cut all ties with their former associates after they’re released; we too should apply a “sharp sickle” to our sinful attachments.
Amen.