Hanging on the wall in my office is a shred of bark on which a calligrapher penned this line by Robert Frost. “Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” Looking back over our lives, we can all think of instances where we made choices that have made a real difference in our lives, such as the person we married, the career we pursued, the education we sought, the friendships we maintained, and the place we call home. Choices made in response to a commandment have, for better or worse, made a difference as well.
In the first reading, Sirach assures us that if we keep the commandments, they will save us, yet which road we take is up to us. “Before man are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses will be given him.” In other words, God gives us the free will to decide which road we wish to venture down.
We are who we are because we have free will; the choices we make shape our lives, literally and figuratively. When people have the right kind of relationship with God, they can read what God has put into their hearts. When they are distant from God, they begin to define their own code of conduct, likely ignorant of the wisdom behind God’s commandments.
Sirach exonerates God from all blame for the evil in the world and rightly so. The consequence of sin can be placed directly at the feet of those who choose to do so. Like Topsy in the classic, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, we might say, “The devil made me do it,” but we made the choice to listen to the devil in the first place and that is the concern Jesus is raising in the gospel.
The choice to keep or ignore God’s commandments is yours but so too are the consequences of your decision. As Sirach points out, the evil choices will burn us like fire while the good choices will refresh us like water.
Every age in human history has reflected its own wisdom. Aristotle contends that we become what we are as persons by the decisions we make. Jesus comes along and essentially proposes that we make the decisions we make because of the persons we are. We make or should make decisions precisely because we have been graced by baptism.
Paul tells us of a timeless wisdom that comes from God. “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him, this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.” The more we love God, the more we can see this wisdom which will enable us to appreciate the beauty of God’s law, not just the commandments but also the moral teachings of the Church.
Some of us tend to read the commandments literally, perhaps unaware that they are really the reader’s digest of God’s moral teachings. For this reason, Jesus calls on his listeners to go to the root of each commandment. Far from declaring them obsolete, he broadens a few of them to include thoughts and words in addition to deeds. By covering all dimensions of human behavior, Jesus hopes to lead us to a fullness of life with his wise counsel on how to avoid temptation in the first place. In a nutshell, he is instructing his disciples to watch out for the little things that undermine our relationships.
For example, I suspect few of us have ever actually killed anyone, but how often have we allowed uncontrollable anger to harm another person or even kill a relationship? Anger in itself is not a sin, but how we express anger can be deadly. Jesus provides the antidote, “Go and be reconciled with your brother.” Unfortunately, pride sometimes stops us from apologizing, so in the mean time, the fury of anger eats away at us and our relationships with others and God.
I also suspect that adultery is an uncommon experience yet speaking as a confessor I know that chastity is likewise not so common. How often has lust tempted you to act inappropriately? Lust can impact a relationship, leading to sexual misconduct such as fornication, date rape or child molestation that, like anger, can destroy lives and relationships.
Two monks were on a long journey. They came to a ford in a wide river and wanted to cross. Standing there was an exceptionally beautiful woman with a low cut dress who also wanted to cross. One of the monks picked her up on his shoulders and waded into the river carrying her across. When they reached the other side he put her down and the two monks continued their journey. When at long last they got to where they could spend the night the other monk scolded his companion.
How are we going to explain to the Abbot the disgrace you have brought on the monastery? People could have seen you carrying that woman across the river. Had he forgotten that he was a monk? How dare he touch a woman, let alone one so provocatively dressed? He went on and on. Finally, the first monk said: “Brother, I left that woman on the bank of the river; you seem to have been carrying her all day.”
Also on my wall is another piece of art by the same calligrapher; this one features a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, “What lies beyond us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” What we choose to dwell on has the potential to enrich or destroy the dignity of others as well as our own. Jesus urges us to take the road that leads to reconciliation, respect for others, compassion, and love. Granted, this path is a challenging one yet a more rewarding one as well.