OH, I HATE CHANGES!
Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
My dear encountered couples:
When someone tries to make changes – no matter how much the changes are needed or how good they are, many people oppose them. They prefer the “status quo”, leave things as they are. They don’t want anybody to rock the boat. The existing order of things is just fine for them, especially if they are wealthy and the ones in power.
Dictators for example. Though the general populous lives in squalor and misery, as long as the dictators have their palaces and control the treasury and the army, why should they want any changes? Jesus came to introduce a better way of life, and the religious aristocracy, though they hated the Romans calling most of the shots, were frightened of losing the positions they had. The preaching of Jesus made their tenuous security more tenuous.
“I have come to light a fire on the earth,” Jesus told them. “Do you think I have come to establish peace? I assure you; the contrary is true. I have come for division, even in your houses, among the members of your own family.”
Though people are not satisfied with everything, they become used to the way things are and adjust to it. And when someone proposes changes that can possibly make their lives better, they are afraid to take the chance; or they just might be too lazy to try anything new.
Jesus came to save us; that requires ongoing changes and resistance to the status quo. How much are we willing to cooperate with the Holy Spirit within us to let that happen?
