Everyday is a struggle to remain sinless and strive for Holiness. People, smells, sights, sounds, work and more, almost anything will contribute to the challenges we face. And yet we will not be deterred for we are Christians! We all have a higher calling, that is to love as our Lord Jesus Christ loves us. He who died for our sins to set us free.
We cannot say we didn’t know or that we were ignorant. For we can clearly see the signs of sin before us and its nature, and docile to the promptings of the Holy Spirit we can avoid sin and move on closer to our call to Holiness.
We need to recognise that by nature we are drawn to sin and so we need to arm ourselves with the word of God and the Holy Sacraments our Lord provides for us. To turn back quickly to our Lord God should we fall into sin else we may be brought to judgement on a day we least expect. Amen
First reading
Romans 7:18-25
I know of nothing good living in me– living, that is, in my unspiritual self– for though the will to do what is good is in me, the performance is not, with the result that instead of doing the good things I want to do, I carry out the sinful things I do not want. When I act against my will, then, it is not my true self doing it, but sin which lives in me.
In fact, this seems to be the rule, that every single time I want to do good it is something evil that comes to hand. In my inmost self I dearly love God’s Law, but I can see that my body follows a different law that battles against the law which my reason dictates. This is what makes me a prisoner of that law of sin which lives inside my body.
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body doomed to death?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Gospel
Luke 12:54-59
Jesus said to the crowds: ‘When you see a cloud looming up in the west you say at once that rain is coming, and so it does. And when the wind is from the south you say it will be hot, and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the face of the earth and the sky. How is it you do not know how to interpret these times?
‘Why not judge for yourselves what is right? For example: when you go to court with your opponent, try to settle with him on the way, or he may drag you before the judge and the judge hand you over to the bailiff and the bailiff have you thrown into prison. I tell you, you will not get out till you have paid the very last penny.’
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