Checking our direction

The texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary challenge our diligence in seeking the direction from God for our action. The Prophet Ezekiel speaks of the delight of God in the choice of the wicked to turn away from their sins. The choice is the initial movement. When the journey of life offers the classical biblical choice between life and death, cited by Friar Jude Winkler, it is not often an immediate choice of mortal consequence. We choose to move in a direction towards a target. The understanding of those who navigate across land and sea using compass or gps is that we are moving towards some destination, in some direction at all times. We choose how to set our compass. The path we choose has consequences to our life. Is it leading to a moment of passage into a profound experience of Presence, as my friend Deacon Bob recently wrote, or is it leading to the desolate self destruction of self gratification as Friar Jude points to the residue and consequence of the poor choice in our lives. The Text from the Gospel of Matthew, as Friar Jude notes, is Jesus as God extending the legalistic observance of the Law to a living appreciation that our movement toward "breaking the Law" begins with setting our course away from the direction leading to the kingdom of heaven and intimacy with the Divine. In moving away we begin the sequence of negative consequence for our choice which the Gospel passage advises we reconcile early to avoid complete separation of our spiritual life and health. The plea of the psalmist for the help of the Lord is our path to recalibration of our compass to the direction of Life.