29th Sun Ord Time A, October 18, 2020, Is 45:1, 4-6; 1 Thes 1:1-5b; Mt 22:15-21
Back in the 1990s, I went through the Church’s RCIA Program, down in Violet, in order to be Confirmed, as an adult. Around Advent, during one of the program meetings, we were discussing the story of Herod sending soldiers to Bethlehem and killing all the children 2 years old, and under, in an attempt to kill Jesus.
The program’s director said that this story probably was not true because, surely, no one would kill all those innocent children. I had to disagree with that. Not only was that something that could have easily happened, back in such primitive and often savage times, but that kind of evil still happens today too.
After all, we know that millions and millions of unborn babies are killed each year by the evil of abortion. And who could have imagined, back in 2012, just 8 years ago, that twenty elementary students and six teachers would be killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School?
Evil still exists in our world today. Thankfully, it doesn’t always manifest in the extreme of killing innocent people. Evil takes many shapes and many forms and it exists in varying degrees. It wasn’t just something that happened with the Pharisees and the Herodians, in today’s Gospel, as they tried to entrap Jesus, for their own sadistic purposes.
We know that evil wants to infect us, as sure as the Corona Virus. No place is immune. Not our homes, not our workplaces, not our schools, certainly not the Internet, not our families, and, as we saw over a week ago, not even our churches. The word “Vice” used to mean moral depravity, corruption, and wickedness. Now, the term has been watered down and forgotten, by those who want an “anything goes” society. However, vice, and the evil that controls it, still exists.
But, like most viruses, we have the means to fight it. Vice often grows strong because it becomes habitual. To counter vice and its evil we must practice Virtues, instead, and let the virtues become habitual in our lives. The Church teaches that there are 3 Theological Virtues: Faith, Hope, and Charity (or Love) and 4 Cardinal Virtues: Prudence (the ability to discipline oneself), Justice, Fortitude (which is courage or strength of will), and Temperance (which is moderation in thought and action).
And the Church has also given us a road map, of things we can do, that will allow us to put these virtues into practice, make them habitual, and, hopefully, ward off the attempts of vice and evil to “infect” us.
There are seven Corporal Works of Mercy that are concrete activities that we can practice in our lives, that can become habitual: Feeding the hungry, clothing the needy, giving water to the thirsty, sheltering the homeless, caring for the sick, visiting those in prison, and burying the dead.
In addition, there are seven Spiritual Works of Mercy: Converting sinners, instructing the ignorant, counseling the wayward, comforting the sorrowful, patiently bearing adversities, forgiving offenses, and, something that we all can and must do, praying for the living and the dead.
We may be shocked and appalled when evil rears its ugly head, even in our own back yard, but we are not helpless. Sure we can call on St. Michael to defend us in this battle, and we should, but it’s our fight too and we each have to do our part, which can begin by practicing a virtue through a work of mercy.