Doing the right thing
even if it costs us
I grew up hearing my Dad frequently talk about the importance of “doing the right thing”. Implicit in the exhortation is both the challenge and the reality of the call – after all, if doing the right thing were always a known quantity or easy to accomplish, wouldn’t all of us do it? If there is such a thing as a universal right and wrong – if we were all born with an inherent morality as C.S. Lewis taught1, then it must be that choosing to do the right thing in a given instance carries with it more complexity in understanding, more chances to fail and try again, or more shades of gray rather than black or white. However, sometimes doing the right thing is a clear call, and when it is, what will we choose?
This Sunday’s readings tell the stories of people who did the will of God at some cost or risk to themselves. Jeremiah the prophet was thrown in a cistern, Jesus endured the cross, His followers endured opposition from sinners, and Jesus Himself warns about the division that will come as a result of the choices that must surely be made from a division that Jesus claims to bring and even champion:
Jesus said to his disciples:
"I have come to set the earth on fire,
and how I wish it were already blazing!
There is a baptism with which I must be baptized,
and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!
Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?
No, I tell you, but rather division. Luke 12
Just what is it that has this kind of potential to divide us in the way Jesus describes except for good and evil? Light and dark? Moral or indecent? How will we recognize the good or evil that is perpetrated around us? And if no stance or action is truly neutral, how will we choose to the do the right thing even when it’s hard, even when it will cost us?
Care of or harm to the vulnerable: the young, the poor, the outcast, the infirm, the elderly – this was once a line that divided the good from the ‘not’. Truth or lie. Fair or unfair. Respect or abuse. Standing up or lying down. Courage or fear. Kind or cruel.
As this week’s second reading2 described, there is a great cloud of witnesses watching as we run out this life of faith. Nothing that is secret today will remain unknown tomorrow. If we keep our eyes on Jesus as the perfecter of our faith, and on what He taught, we can persevere in this race we’re running, no matter what.
This week, we’ll be offered thousands of choices to do the right thing, or not. Some will be as easy as holding the door for the person behind us, but others might cost us. When there’s something to lose in doing what is right, what will we choose then?
What I’m reading/listening to/recommending this week:
Book: Struck Down, Not Destroyed: Keeping the Faith as a Vatican Reporter, by Colleen Dulle
Book: Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life, by Suleika Jaouad
Song: We’re Almost Home, by Sweet Honey in the Rock
Raised Catholic rewind:
Find 200 episodes of Raised Catholic on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for continuing to recommend these episodes to friends who might find them helpful on their journey.
Prayer:
God, from your perspective, there is no murkiness to what is right and what is wrong. You teach us in your Word, in the Beatitudes and the Fruits of the Spirit how to live. Help us to recognize what’s right and have the courage to do it today. For us and our dear ones in the name of Jesus and wrapped in Mary’s mantle we pray, amen.
In his book, Mere Christianity
Brothers and sisters:
Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us
and persevere in running the race that lies before us
while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus,
the leader and perfecter of faith.
For the sake of the joy that lay before him
he endured the cross, despising its shame,
and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God.
Consider how he endured such opposition from sinners,
in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart.
In your struggle against sin
you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. Hebrews 12:1-4