Readings:
1 Corinthians 8:1-7,11-13
Luke 6:27-38
Reflection:
As a child I found myself obsessed with telling the truth. My mother’s friend once brought a salad over to share with our family. I was about 7 years old and thought I could offer some honest and helpful feedback. “This salad is yucky. Why are there pieces of pear doing there? That is a fruit, and fruit does not belong in salad”.
My mother’s friend’s eyes teared up and I quickly learned that words do have power, even the truth (particularly the truth in most cases).
Even though I intended to be ‘helpful’, my actions caused harm.
On the flip side of this, though, I have also caused unintended harm when not thinking things through.
Another story involving food, of course. Once again, I was around the 7 years old Mark and my parents got me up for mass. We often would go without breakfast until after the mass and I was a hungry little boy. Post-mass there was a morning tea and someone had made homemade sausage rolls. I greedily ate much more than my fill (I assure you; it was far too much). I then later saw a lady in tears talking to my parents and she was pointing towards the sausage rolls. “Oh no,” I thought. I was about to be in trouble. It was, in fact, the opposite. The lady who had made the sausage rolls was, in fact, overjoyed that I had eaten the whole tray of sausage rolls. She thought no-one would eat them, that they would be left behind in favour of the other baked goods other people had made.
My intentions were exceptionally selfish but caused unintended good.
I, it seems, had fallen into the stereotype that young people are given. “We act before we think.”
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure” – Marianne Williamson (Not Nelson Mandela). This quote exemplifies the power we have been given from God. Us as young people all too often fail to realise this and act as if our actions mean nothing. I believe that is because we lack the life experience to realise how powerful our actions can be.
Our actions (and words) indeed have power. The reading today tells me that I really should think BEFORE I act.
Jesus could have spent his time in this reading healing people for 2 days. Instead, he chose to spend a day in prayer before acting. Unlike myself, Jesus spent an equal amount of time between prayer and reflection AND acting.
I still have a lot to learn from Jesus in this manner. I am not 7 years old anymore but will often cause unintended goods and harms due to my impatience and belief that I know I can do something good. Perhaps I can be more like Jesus in that I can spend more time reflecting and in prayer so I can discern the difference between thinking I can do something good and ACTUALLY doing something good. “
Thomas Warren.