The Weighed Way

October 7: Tuesday of Week 27 of Ordinary Time, Year A-II:

Galatians 1:13-24; Psalm 139:1-3, 13-14, 14-15; Luke 10:38-42

What is Jesus saying to us as stewards of his kingship? 

(To support Reaching Jesus: 5 Steps to a Fuller Life... Step Five).

The Weighed Way

“Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way” (Psalm 139:24).

Before his conversion, Paul couldn’t have been more right or more wrong. He was, in his law-observance, a Pharisee, and “as to righteousness under the law, blameless” (Philippians 3:5). He was so “zealous for the traditions of the ancestors” that he became “a persecutor of the church.” He was so good he was awful.

There is a right and wrong way both to be good, and to be conservative. A “conservative” is a faithful steward who identifies “good” with “conserving” everything God has entrusted to his Church.

The wrong way to be conservative is to cling blindly to everything we grew up with. This inevitably incorporates changes introduced by the liberalism of previous centuries. The right way is to be like the wise steward who “brings out of his storeroom what is new and what is old” (Matthew 13:52), but selectively, separating the good from the bad. This makes two things—knowledge and discernment—essential to good stewardship.

When Paul persecuted Christians, he did not know Jesus or his teachings. And his Phariseeism left no place for discernment. Everything was spelled out in the law; what was there to discern? An uninformed conservative (or liberal) does not know the original truth and practice of the Church, or what developments are consistent with it. And without discerning prayer, no one does.

PRAY: “Lord, teach me your way.”

PRACTICE:   Teach yourself to learn and pray

                  Weigh everything along the way.