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August 30, 2017

Wednesday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 427

1 THES 2:9-13

PS 139:7-8, 9-10, 11-12AB

MT 23:27-32

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A friend I know was given one of those automatic coffee makers that take a little cup and turns it into a steaming cup of fresh, gourmet bean water.   It was a little dirty so they spent some time cleaning it up.  After some polishing, some general purpose cleaner, and a few cups of hot water they put it on the counter and there it sat gleaming waiting for the first use.  A few days later a smell began to fill up the house.  At first, we didn’t know what it was.  Eventually, we narrowed it down to the coffee maker.  The outside looked great.  The coffee itself seemed ok.   The smell that came out of that thing?  No one would want to put that in their body.  

Jesus today talks about one of the greatest problems with Christians in today’s society, likely in all time periods.  That many of us are just like that coffee maker.  We spend our time at Church on the weekend, we clean up our act outside, and to the rest of the world, we look like really good people.  The inside never changes though.   The tombs that Jesus spoke of were decorated on the outside to make them look expensive, beautiful and clean.  Inside though was the rotting and decaying corpses of those who had gone on, swelling and stinking in the heat of the desert sun.  Just like that coffee maker, they were producing things that looked like healthy, yummy cups of expensive brew, but what was really coming out was dark and rotten.

The problem is that so many people try to do the change alone.  Yes, you have to work at change.  It won’t just happen overnight for most.  In a world where racism is still very much alive and people defend the right to murder innocent, unborn children, it can seem like we are lost.  Pornography has now become a mainstay of television and new evidence shows that our children are being exposed to hardcore porn as young as six years old.  How then can we hope to stand alone?  We don’t have to.  We have been given every tool we need to clean up the inside, especially as Catholics who have Confession.  Not only do we get the guarantee that He himself gave the Apostles that whose sins you forgive are forgiven, but we receive extra grace to help us keep it clean and wholesome inside.  

So are you making use of that?  The grace and Sacraments were given to us through the Church to help us not only begin to look more like Christ on the outside but the very presence of Christ inside of us changing us to look like the image of God we were created to be.   If you haven’t been in a long time, maybe now is time to start thinking about it.  One of the more beautiful things our new Pastor has done is begin to offer Confession before every single Mass.  That means every day of the week someone is hearing confessions.  It’s available in English, Spanish or even Polish.  What are we waiting for? An invitation?  I just invited you.  Come join me, I need it too.