By Fr. Glenn Jones:

Hmmm … so many videos nowadays of people shoplifting, stealing, attacking the weak, etc. Now we have to wait for the clerk to come open the case even for a can of $1 shaving cream! But, if they’re locking it up, that means people are stealing it. Sigh. No wonder Amazon stock keeps going up; at least with them you don’t have to go through the hassle (and often the danger, in larger cities) of going shopping, waiting for clerks to unlock, broken carts, etc.

One wonders where the sense of honor has gone, much less the simple sense of right and wrong and respect for property. Of course there has always been theft (and plundering), but does not the thief tacitly admit that he either cannot afford what he steals, or he’s too unindustrious and unmotivated to do for himself in legitimate fashion. Despite bravado one may display when challenged, such activity seems a capitulation to baser nature, but also an abject surrendering of personal honor. But even though witnessing such activities sparks righteous anger, in a way it evokes some pity as well, we wonder if such persons can ever rise to a greater sense of self-worth and achievement.

I thought of this in a roundabout way while reading of the apostles disputing among themselves as to whom among them was the greatest (Luke 9:46), which occurs just after the inner circle of Peter, James and John had witnessed the Transfiguration. When you read these events in their sequence, you just want to shout the challenge: “Really!?! You just got a mere glimpse of Jesus’ glory upon the mountain, and you’re worried about how great YOU are?!” We’re reminded of groupies who think they are notable because they hang around with someone notable.

Poor Jesus. You have to wonder how frustrated He must have gotten with them sometimes, just as He did when He came down from the Transfiguration mountain and found the hapless apostles’ fruitless attempts to exorcise a possessed boy: “O faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you?” (Luke 22:41), reminding us of Paul’s frustrations: “You stupid Galatians! … I am afraid I have labored over you in vain.” (Galatians 3:1, 4:11)

Yet, I can’t help but wonder if God, in His own divine way, still gets frustrated with us … perhaps perpetually. We read of His munificence: “What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? (When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?” (Isaiah 5:4), or “O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me!” (Micah 6:3) Yes, frustration … especially with us Christians, who often act hypocritically, professing to love God and Jesus, and then acting quite in opposite manner. We know better!

 The 1960/70’s comedian Flip Wilson’s trademark laugh line was, “The devil made me do it!” Yeah, ha ha … but the devil can’t really make you do anything; it is our own weakness of determination and will that leads us to give in to doing that which is wrong … to do that which is against the teaching of God. This is the seduction of our own desires, as we read: “God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one; but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.” (James 1:13-14) As in the story of the Garden, Satan can whisper in our ear as with Eve, but it is she who reaches out for the forbidden fruit by her own surrender and acquiescence.

Fortunately, Jesus having lived a human earthly life and, in fact, being truly human as well as divine, knows the temptations to which we are subject, as we hear in scripture: “ … we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning.” (Hebrews 14:15) And, in His great mercy, even while being crucified, He nonetheless begged: “Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34) Yet we are ever strengthened by St. Paul: “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13), and that wonderful: “I can do all things in him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)

Will criminals and evildoers ever have a literal “Come to Jesus” moment of inner revelation? Who knows; we pray so. Will they ever find that self-worth to practice honesty, integrity, graciousness, courtesy, and the other virtues? Certainly it’s doubtful that all will, but we hold out hope for some. The Christian’s task is to be examples of those around us of virtue, so that perhaps the straying will see our contentment with the hope of eternal life. As St. Paul hoped and worked, with no little concern: “I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” (1 Corinthians 9:22)

So … let us strive to take the logs out of our own eyes first, so that we may see clearly to help remove the specks from our brethren’s eyes. As the saying goes, the strongest person is he who masters himself … we adding “…in virtue”. That, with humility before both God and neighbor, is what makes one truly great.

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“He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)

Editor’s note: Rev. Glenn Jones is the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and former pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Los Alamos.