Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Today’s readings
Rev 4:1-11; Ps 150:1-6; Luke 19:11-28
Imagine this scene. A man dies
and arrives before the Judgment Seat of God. The divine Judge goes through the
Book of Life and does not find the man’s name. So He announces to the man that
his place is in hell. The man protests, “But what did I do? I did nothing!”
“Precisely,” replies God, “that is why you are going to hell.” That man could
as well be the servant in today’s parable of the pounds who was given one pound
but buried it in a tin can in the backyard. Read the report of the servant: “And another
came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a
napkin” (Luke 19:20). This servant didn’t maximize the pound given to him. He
did nothing. Period! In short, he was lazy. Offer the lazy man an egg, and he’ll
want you to peel it for him.
We often think that we sin only
by thought, word and deed. We forget a fourth and very important way through
which we sin, namely, by omission. In the “I Confess” we say these words: “I
have sinned through my own fault, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I
have done and in what I have failed to do.” Yet how readily we forget the sin
of omission.
