The Scourge of Too Much (11/03/2024)

Halloween was Thursday. We did what we always do. We bought too much candy because we were afraid that we’d run out, and we didn’t want to disappoint anyone! And now we have this bowl of candy on the counter. Neither my husband nor I need a single piece of that candy. But it’s there. We could put it in a bag and hide it in the cupboard. But we won’t forget where it is. How does a little piece of inert sweetness rob two very mature individuals of willpower? Well, I’ve had it! As I walked past that alluring bowl this morning, I grabbed it, bundled those temptations in a bag and hid them in my briefcase. I will put them out at Fatih Formation on Wednesday in the hopes that someone will take away all the temptations!

Oh, the enormity of little things! In my mind, as I picked up the little Milky Way, it was such a small little thing. What would it matter? Well, my scale didn’t get the memo. Neither did my blood sugar testing device. It mattered. Little things matter.

As I thought about the temptations only feet away in my kitchen last evening during my daily reflection time on the porch, I realized the LORD had given me a visual. He does that a lot; He gives me visual signs for invisible realities. He’s a great teacher! And I got it. Little things do matter. It is so easy for me to rationalize erroneously that “it’s just a little thing, what difference could it make?” But the reality is that moving away from what is good no matter how far the distance is going in the wrong direction. A little lie, a little bad habit, a little waste, a little selfishness, a little sin… does it really matter?

And I remembered Mother Rosemary’s talk to us as 8th graders about “the slipper slope.” It starts with the “little thing.” It starts with “what difference does it make?” It starts small but it rarely ends there.

The LORD doesn’t ask us to be overly scrupulous. The LORD asks us to be loving: love the LORD our God with all our being, love one another, and love ourselves as children of the LORD. Actions that compromise that are steps in the wrong direction. The LORD asks us to realize that our lives are all about relationships, building them, strengthening them. Steps, actions or inactions that lead to harm of any relationship or harm to another or us are to be avoided.

Before us lies the potential always of being loving, of doing good, of making our way closer and closer to our LORD and of helping one another along the way. Before us is always the potential of being individuals who bring Christ to others and others to Christ. And the LORD knows that the world is full of little temptations. It is our job to recognize them, and to seek the LORD’s help in resisting them. “Lead us not into temptations, but deliver us.”

As we go forward, as we continue our journeys as loving children of our Almighty Father and disciples of Christ, let us seek the help of the Spirit in discerning good and in being strong in the face of temptations, even the little ones. Let us be honest with ourselves and with our LORD, not dismissing the little infractions, but taking them seriously. Let us be servants who refuse to speak ill of another, to spread a rumor, to tell a white lie, to skip a good we could do because of laziness, to waste our resources when there is so much need.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.