Today St. Paul reminds us that we will reap only what we sow.
And he tells us there are ultimately only two ways of being able to do this.
Either we're going to sow in the flesh, or we're going to sow in the Spirit.
There isn't any other way.
And if we sow according to the flesh, he says, we're going to reap a harvest of corruption.
If we sow in the Spirit, we will reap everlasting life.
Again, we all know these things and we recognize them, but we have to remember that we live
in a society which is all about instant gratification.
And St. Paul is telling us that if we sow in the Spirit, gratification is not instant.
In fact, it's just the opposite.
It's not until we die.
We're talking about life everlasting.
so it is something we have to be able to look forward to and not something we're
going to gain immediately. In the meantime, if we sow in the flesh, it
would appear that there's an immediate gain. Whatever it is that we wanted, the
pleasure, whatever it might be, we've got it.
and that's where the devil gets us.
As he gets us always looking right at the immediate,
what it is that we can get out of this right now.
We have to learn to look forward on both counts,
not only when we look at sowing in the spirit,
which ultimately means taking up the spiritual life,
denying ourselves of the things of the flesh.
and being able to to die to self so that we can live for Christ but also with regard to
the things of the flesh to learn to look forward.
Because again, as I've explained before,
we've all had enough experience by now
to be able to look at the areas of sin,
see how the devil tempts us,
because it's always what we're going to gain
in the immediate.
This is going to make you feel good, or this will be pleasurable, or this will be fun, or this will be exciting, whatever.
And for the moment, it seems that he's actually telling us the truth.
We of course know what's going to follow, and that's what we have to be able to put into practice,
to be able to look forward, to be able to know fully well
that if I do this, yes, there might be some immediate gratification,
then there's going to be emptiness and I'm going to be in worse shape than I
was before which is just going to leave the devil the openness to be able to
attempt me some more because now I'm even more empty than what I was and he
was able to tempt me because of my emptiness or whatever it was and I fell
for it
And now I'm even more empty, which means I'm even more susceptible to be tempted.
And you can be guaranteed he's going to be right there.
He knows exactly what buttons to push in each one of us.
And if it works, he's going to keep coming back and push the same button until it doesn't work anymore.
And so we have that choice to make.
And the point that we have to be able to look at very carefully and very seriously is the one that St. Paul makes.
God will not be mocked.
It's a pretty powerful statement.
God will not be mocked.
We live in a world that is mocking God and while we may not be using God's name
in vain or we may not be going to the worship of a false God
We can ask ourselves, how much am I actually mocking Him though?
If I'm putting things in the wrong order, if my focus is on the things of the flesh and not the things of the Spirit,
is that not a mockery of God?
When I know that what is most important is the soul, and yet I put my focus on
the pleasures of the body, isn't that a mockery of God? If I'm being selfish
rather than practicing charity, isn't that a mockery of God?
Those are the kinds of things that we can all look at.
Yes, we look at our society and what's going on,
and there is just open mockery of God.
And we're going to deal with that.
All of us, the innocent as well as the guilty, the good as well as the bad, we're all going
to have to deal with it.
But that's not the issue that we have to worry about.
We have to worry about what's in our own soul.
Am I mocking God in one way or another?
Is there something that I'm doing that I need to change so that I really am living according
to the Spirit, walking according to the Spirit, and seeking in all things to do the will of
God to grow in holiness?