The Right Thing To Do

One of the groups at the Marist Youth Encounter Christ retreat in Esopus two weeks ago came up with a refrain in their skit that rings in my head to this day: "Because it's the right thing to do." It became the benchmark for the group for the rest of the Encounter as everything they did was hailed as "the right thing to do." It made for a lot of fun, but oh, how true it is, how needed for our growth in the spiritual life.
Obedience. Perhaps the hardest virtue to put into practice. It demands letting go of our own will, and is especially trying when we think OUR way is best and our boss, our wife, our husband, think otherwise. It becomes even more complicated when we get into morals. Telling the truth might reveal our weakness or bring on consequences for our actions that we want to avoid. In the end, it is "the right thing to do" and ultimately verfies the old adage, "honesty is the best policy."
Getting up for Mass each Sunday, corraling the family, especially the young who have a hard time sitting still in Church, or even harder, teenagers in their rebellious stage, would be so easy to dismiss as "impossible." To accept and go with the challenge is "the right thing to do" in view of the third commandment and the prizes of nurturing our faith by joining the community of faith, hearing the Word of God and intimate union with Jesus at communion. As we approach Advent, a time of preparation and waiting for the coming of Jesus at Christmas and at the end of time, we might begin to examen our lives, our commitments, and start looking at what we can "clean up", what we can do to avoid the pre-Christmas frenzy foisted upon us by our "material world", and see how obedient we are to doing "the right thing."
Bro. Rene