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James: 5 1-6
Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries.
Your wealth has rotted away, your clothes have become moth-eaten,
your gold and silver have corroded,
and that corrosion will be a testimony against you;
it will devour your flesh like a fire.
You have stored up treasure for the last days.
Behold, the wages you withheld from the workers
who harvested your fields are crying aloud;
and the cries of the harvesters
have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
You have lived on earth in luxury and pleasure;
you have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter.
You have condemned;
you have murdered the righteous one;
he offers you no resistance.
The Word of the Lord.
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All week we’ve been reading from the Letter of Saint James, who has very harsh words for his disciples. For example, yesterday he tells them,
“You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and disappears.”
And today he tells the rich among them to, “weep and wail over your impending miseries.”
In the Gospel, Jesus tells us to pluck out our eyes and cut off our hands if they cause us to sin.
Yikes!
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Clearly, Jesus and James are exaggerating. If we took them word for word, we’d all be blind! But serious teachings sometimes require serious words.
So, what are they trying to tell us?
We must rid from our lives whatever separates us from God – money, pride, lust, laziness, doubt, grudges, jealousy, or whatever it may be.
What might be those sensitive areas for me?
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Though we all struggle with weakness in some form, simply nurturing the desire to change – or to become the best version of ourselves – is itself a sign that the Holy Spirit is working within us.
As it is written in the Book of Exodus: “The LORD will fight for you. You need only to be still” (Exodus 14:10).
That purifying stillness is found, above all, in prayer.
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Image credits: (1) Harmony Christian Church (2) Janis Cox (3) Refiner’s Fire, by Robert and D’Ann Nash
Enlightening.