Photo Credit: Kevin Carter, “the Vulture and the Girl”
Deacon Tom Writes,
“We’ve Got to Change Our Evil Ways!”
Carlos Santana’s hit song didn’t have the same meaning that St. Paul had in mind in when he was writing the Corinthians. But the title of his hit song, “You’ve Got to Change Your Evil Ways” is a message we could take to heart. In today’s reading Paul recalls the history of the Jewish people and their forty-year experience of wandering in the desert. He reminds the Israelites all during that time they, “all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink” nonetheless, they were “struck down in the desert” because their spiritual food did not change their evil desires.” Paul tells them to take heed because these words, “Have been written down as a warning to us, upon whom the end of the ages has come.” As we listen to these words today, do they give us a better awareness that the Eucharist is our “spiritual food and drink/” Do we get the message that Jesus is really present in the Eucharist to help us on our desert journey? Do Paul’s words lead us into a deeper awareness of Eucharist as a reality in which we experience Christ and, like the bread and wine, we too are permanently changed and transformed into the “Mystical Body of Christ”?
To live in the “Kingdom of God” that Jesus reveals to us throughout his ministry requires that we make some significant changes to the way we think, in how we live our lives, and how we relate and interact with one another. The process of making these changes is known by various names but they all are intended to produce the same results… “repentance,” “a change of heart,” “metanoia.” The need to examine our lives and change our evil ways are challenges we face not only during our Lenten journey but throughout our entire lives. It is hard work; it is necessary work if we are to become productive members of the Kingdom of God that Jesus invites us to seek.
The warning Paul gives us today is that we not become like the Israelites of antiquity who ate and drank the spiritual food provided them but to no avail. We have the food of “Everlasting Life” in the Eucharist and it is indeed life sustaining and life giving…if, and only if… this bread of Angels that we eat encourages us, no, better yet, gives us the heartfelt desire to “change our evil ways” and live as Children of God in whose image we have been made! In God’s divine plan, if there is no transformation there is no new life! And, if there is no new life, then our evil ways will have dire spiritual consequences.
Just as we read in the gospel, if there are no figs, of what use is the fig tree? If the Eucharist produces no new life in us, then really, we are no better off than our spiritual ancestors who, because they failed to change their evil ways, were struck down in the desert and never entered the Promised Land.
On to the rest of the day, with Santana’s hit song playing in my head!
Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom
Please Visit www.deaconspod.com and listen in as the three deacons engage in a contemporary conversation exploring the treasures our Catholic faith has to offer to those on the threshold, those thinking of joining our Catholic Community or walking away from it..
OTHER RESOURCES
Recommended Reading: Fr. Martin Laird, O.S.A. “Into the Silent Land”
Sitting in stillness, the practice of meditation, and the cultivation of awareness are commonly thought to be the preserves of Hindus and Buddhists. Martin Laird shows that the Christian tradition of contemplation has its own refined teachings on using a prayer word to focus the mind, working with the breath to cultivate stillness, and the practice of inner vigilance or awareness. But this book is not a mere historical survey of these teachings. In Into the Silent Land, we see the ancient wisdom of both the Christian East and West brought sharply to bear on the modern-day longing for radical openness to God in the depths of the heart.
Recommended YouTube Video: This is a good Lenten practice that will feed your spiritual growth all year long. Give a listen... Centering Prayer with Thomas Merton
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