Vigilance

Have you ever been driving down the highway and suddenly see the CHP standing in the shadows with a radar gun aimed right at you?  I have.  I bet my reaction was the same as anyone would be. Instinctively I tapped the brake then checked the speedometer and realized that:

            •My speed was fine

            •If I had been speeding, it would have been too late to do anything about it

Today’s passage from Luke about being a vigilant servant resonates with this scene – both my image of God as a divine traffic cop trying to catch me committing a sin and the happy realization that my speed was fine.

Growing up, I feared going to hell for things like inadvertently eating meat on Friday. What if I forgot to ask if the clam chowder contained bacon and it did? Could I finish my lunch, or should I waste good food? Or should I go to Mass on Sunday even if I risked exposing half the church to a raging virus?  I considered myself to be “vigilant”, but I also turned God into an ogre who was very difficult to love.

As an adult I think I can discern the “spirit of the law” a little better.  I think that Jesus is asking us to be vigilant by continually evaluating how well we are living out the central principles of the Gospel. Jesus was no hair splitter, but he asks a lot of us – big things like taking care of the poor and the oppressed and trying to forgive those who have wronged us.

 Jesus knows how we all struggle with our favorite sins, but I suspect that if we continue to struggle and at least try to do better, we’ll find that our master is a loving God who says in effect that “your speed is fine.”

Therefore, we can do and must do what Jesus would do whenever we interact with the world, loving everyone no matter how they treat us, forgiving them no matter how often they sin, being patient and kind, reaching out to offer healing when they seek it, standing up for the downtrodden, explaining the truth when people are willing to learn it, and so on.