8th Sunday after Pentecost 30.7.17 Means and Ends
In the movies the bad guys will use bad means to get their
desired objective. They will shoot you in the back if it suits them. The good
guys would never do that!
As Christians we have to be good all the time, so we cannot
use evil means to get to a good end. Many think that the end justifies the
means, but no, it has always been Church teaching that we cannot do evil to
achieve good.
For example, Euthanasia. We hasten someone’s death to spare
him pain. A good end but the wrong means.
To achieve good we must do good all along the way. The end
and the means converge.
All our actions and intentions must be good, as being united
with the will of God, who is incapable of evil, either intent or action.
The temptation will come to us to bend the rules, to cut a
corner, so that we can reach the desired objective more easily. We are tempted
to improve on God's way. Recall Moses, who was told to speak to the rock and it
would bring forth water. He hit the rock instead, trying to improve on the
instructions – for which he was severely punished (Num 20,8-12).
Whereas, if we go with God's way, slow as it may seem, the
overall effect will be far better.
They even tried to tell Our Lord how He could improve on
things (Mt 16,23-26). Peter is trying to talk Our Lord out of His prophesied
death. It does seem a natural response, but not the right one.
Our Lord took a longer route, giving up His power
(temporarily). How can it be better to be nailed to a cross, than to be doing
miracles? But it was better.
Constantly, we are tempted to break God's commands: Thou shalt not commit adultery. People
say that is too hard altogether, so they do commit adultery in one or other
form of impurity.
Thou shalt not steal:
the people defraud and cheat each other, and all to gain some sort of temporal
advantage.
We all lose out when God’s ways are ignored. Repeated sin
brings trouble on the whole society, making us insecure (for example, having to
lock our houses, being afraid to go out at night).
If we would obey instead, we would save ourselves a lot of
trouble.
Better to be honest, and wait for the daily bread that has
been promised.
We have to exercise some trust here - just try it and see
what happens.
I will not steal, cheat, lie defraud. I will treat everyone
as I would want them to treat me. With integrity, justice etc.
It can go two ways for us if we obey God in all matters. It
might lead to prosperity, an increase in our fortunes; or it might lead to adversity
and apparent failure, in which case the blessings will be in another form, less
obvious, but sooner or later it must come good.
There must always be a way out of every problem without
resorting to sinful behaviour. People will say this is not the case. But it has
to be true, whether we can see it or not.
So we are going to do this from now on – live in the spirit
not the flesh (epistle). We will be the good guys, not shooting anyone in the
back.
It is highly possible someone will shoot us in the back, but
even that will be made right by God.
As
Scripture puts it in many places – for example - The last shall be first (Mt
20,16); those who trust in the Lord are like Mount
Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. (Ps 124,1); those who sow in tears will reap with shouts
of joy (Ps 125,5-6); many are the trials of the just man but from them all the
Lord delivers him (Ps 33,19).
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