Monday of Week 23 – 1 Cor 5:1-8; Luke 6:6-11

I have been told as an undoubted fact that one of you is living with his father’s wife. This is a case of sexual immorality among you that must be unparalleled even among pagans. How can you be so proud of yourselves? You should be in mourning. A man who does a thing like that ought to have been expelled from the community. (…) The pride that you take in yourselves is hardly to your credit. You must know how even a small amount of yeast is enough to leaven all the dough.

A spoonful of tar in a barrel of honey. Defending yourself and your own when you need to stand up for truth and goodness. Not only does it offend, it also destroys the person who persists in sin, because he doesn’t suffer its consequences.

There can be many mixtures concoctions, on the scale of the Church or the world. Unfortunately. But these are not just in words to others. These are words for me. Who am I defending and why? I find words of justification; I cook up an understanding and explanation. I look for advantages that cover up flaws. I take a specific side. . . Is it because I like it? I am liked? And the other side is different, alien, unliked?

A spoonful of tar in a barrel of honey. What good is honey treated in this way, even if it was once the sweetest? It is of no use to me.