Fairground Attraction

In today's Gospel Jesus talks about how sin comes form inside us. This is not the best message for his listeners who are part of a system which has essentially externalized everything by providing rules, regulations and fixes.

In a liturgical and fairly rigid church system we have to be careful we do not play "coins in the slot" Christianity. Our faith is not a question of "you get what you pay for" - although spiritual hard work often does reap its own rewards if undertaken in the right kind of way.

But spiritual hard work works because it seeks to determine those points at which we suffer from that list of sins which Jesus points out. Being influenced by the Celtic Christians I would hasten to add that for most of us Spiritual hard work includes a physical element - interacting with others, doing not just thinking - I am not a fan of the dialectical split into body and spirit - whilst both need care our daily routine needs to be coherent and seemless - we are whole people - orare est laborare et laborare est orare - to pray is to work and to work is to pray.

So when we feel drawn from God and pulled into places which we find disappointing ultimately we would do well to remember that it is not in rules and recitation that we find our ultimate healing but in finding the places where the brightness of God's glory has become smudged and tarnished in our lives. That is out own work to do - sometimes with help - but even and endless a jar of dimes will not cure our longing for God  - we have to seek out the frayed places and offer them to the Master Weaver.