4 July 2021
I’ve had a pretty good life.
I’m betting most people here can say that.
Oh, we’ve all had broken legs and broken hearts.
We’ve been sick, or buried people we’ve loved.
We’ve not understood why something bad happened to us or someone we loved.
We’ve all had those downers.
But few of us have lived with constant pain–Some have, but few of us.
Most of us have had pretty good lives.
And, at least according to dour old Paul in the second reading today,
a pretty good life is dangerous to the soul.
In fact Paul says that he was given an affliction,
“A thorn in the flesh,”
to keep him from being too proud–having too good of a life.
What Paul seems to believe is that a good life can lead us away from God.
All of us can be seduced the by the good lives we lead to think that the good life,
is more important than Jesus,
than coming here each weekend,
than finding him in the poor and dispossessed.
The good life can make each one of us here proud
and believing that somehow we have a right to the good life.
It’s summer and I love summer a heck of a lot more than I love winter.
Summer is a sign of the good life to me.
And I understand that is dangerous really to my soul.
It makes me want to live for myself and no one and nothing else.
I know that about myself.
Question of the week: If we are completely honest. What is one thing in my current good life that I know is bad for my soul?