shunning

2 Thessolonians 3:6-10,16-18; Psalm 128 Blessed are those who fear the Lord; Matthew 23:27-32

St. Paul says, "We instruct you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to shun any brother who walks in a disorderly way and not according to the tradition they received from us."

Shun those who walk disorderly!

When we here the word shun, our ears prick up. Really! Did St. Paul really say that! It certainly is lot different that this day age where we are told to tolerate everything and all things, that is unless its true Christianity then society says we should shun it.

We are told to be accepting of everyone's choices and decisions. We have to make concessions. What works for them is good for them even if we think otherwise.

This is not what Paul says. He asks us not to tolerate, not to make concessions, to rather take a stand and correct them, to order them properly, this is what the word shun means in the greek; it means to set straight.

Why shun? BEcause a wrong decision is always wrong, and it reflects bad on those who are sekeing to follow more perfectly. Christians who support abortion, gay marriage, sex outside of marriage, artificial contraception are wrong. They are not living in accord to the tradition we have recieved.

We should not turn the other cheek, or turn the blind eye but rather we should stop, look then straight in the eye, and say get your life straight. Somethings are not good choices and if we let someone fall into the pit of destruction then we ourslves are guilty of murder.

Why? Why do we do this.

Becasue we should want what God wants for all peoples. And God wants them to encoutner true greatness, to become what they are made to be. He doesn't want them to settle for less and this is exactly what they are doing. We have a duty to remind them of the greatness the human heart is meant to achieve in cooperating with God's good grace. Because anything less disfigures the image and likeness of God we are created in.

A few words from Pope Benedict spoken this past Sunday
"Man is often tempted to stop at the little things, those that give a 'cheap' satisfaction and pleasure, those things that instantly gratify, things that are as easy to obtain but are ultimately illusory...finite things can give glimmers of satisfaction or joy, but only the infinite can completely fill man's heart...God came into the world to reawaken the thirst for great things in us...learning to pray is learning to desire, and thus learning to live."

God comes into the world to reawaken the human heart to greatness!

Is this not what Jesus does when he cracks the whip or calls the Pharisess and scribes on the mat, "you hypocrites, whitewashed tombs, filled with dead man bones..."

Jesus comes to shun, to put back into order what is disordered in order to reawken us to true greatness and thus we learn to desire what God himself desires, to want what he wants, to love what he loves, to live a life like his, in abundance.