As we were travelling from one Parish to the next, while giving retreats in Lithuania, I saw a huge truck with a caption in very big letters on the side saying : I KNOW THE WAY. Since the truck was white coloured and the writing in red, it was very glaring and it captured my attention. Then a thought came to my mind : “No wonder, people are in so many ways going astray from the right path. ‘The Creator of all things’(Sir.24.8) ‘filled the humankind with knowledge and understanding, and showed them good and evil’ (Sir. 17. 7); He said to them, “Beware of all evil”.
But in our ministry of retreat and counselling, we realise the pathetic situation in the lives of people. People have lost the sense of evil and are much eager to embrace all sort of sinful pleasures and attitudes. The unclean spirits prompt the creatures of God to rebel against their Creator. Their consciences become dull and they even think they are wiser than God. They become so stubborn that they conclude: “We know the way”. King Solomon who asked God only for wisdom and understanding mind to govern his people (1 Kings. 3. 5-9), realised the truth: “Even one who is perfect among human beings will be regarded as nothing without the wisdom that comes from God” (Wis. 9.6).
The Parable of the Blind leading the Blind – P. Bruegel the Elder (WGoA)
A little child of three or four years old says that he knows the way to his kinder- garden, yet the loving, caring parent sees to it that the child reaches safely his school and makes arrangements for his going and coming. We are all children of the loving Father who is our God Creator, who revealed His Son Jesus, His Word, that was made flesh and dwelt among us’. “The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made Him known” (Jn. 1. 14, 17, 18). “God made us in the image of his own eternity” (Wis. 2. 23), and He wants our eternal life to be spent with Him; but in that ‘holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God’ (Rev. 21. 10); “nothing unclean will enter, nor anyone who practises abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Rev. 21.27).
Those who stubbornly and wilfully refuse to follow the way of the Lord are influenced by the unclean spirits, whose intention is ‘to steal and kill and destroy the abundant life the Lord came to give’ (Jn. 10.10). They inevitably suffer the consequences of their misdeeds and even question God, as we come across the cases during our ministry.
The good God who wants the welfare of His children admonishes: “So do not say, “It was the Lord’s doing that I fell away”; for He does not do what He hates. Do not say, It was He who led me astray”; for He has no need of the sinful. The Lord hates all abominations; such things are not loved by those who fear Him.
It was He who created humankind in the beginning, and He left them in the power of their own free choice. If you choose, you can keep the commandments, and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice. He has placed before you fire and water; stretch out your hand for whichever you choose. Before each person are life and death, and whichever one chooses will be given” (Sir. 15.11-16).
“Thus all who dwell on the earth shall know, and all who inhabit the world shall understand, that nothing is better than the fear of the Lord nothing more salutary than to obey His commandments” (Sir. 23. 27. NAB).
Let us pray: ‘Lord, let your wisdom be with us to help us and to work with us.’(The Divine Office- Antiphon-3rd week- Saturday)
Mary Pereira