Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from? Is it not from your passions that make war within your members? You covet but do not possess. You kill and envy but you cannot obtain; you fight and wage war. You do not possess because you do not ask. You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

We are at constant war with ourselves. The sins of pride, jealousy, wrath, lust, avarice, sloth, and gluttony do battle with us every day. They seek to tempt us into wrongdoing and lead us into destruction. When we fall into their traps, our virtue fails and we become selfish sinners performing every foul practice. Worse yet, these vices try to take our good motives and passions and twist them to their own ends. Faith, they try to turn into self-righteousness. Hope they try to turn into impudence. Love, they try to turn into obsession. They encourage us to ask for the wrong things or ask for the right things, but in the wrong way. They lead us astray by offering us falsehoods instead of truths and empty pleasures instead of fulfilling responsibilities. It is only when we listen to the Wisdom of God that we will know the peace that comes from being pure, merciful, and charitable.

What vices are at war within us? How can we protect ourselves from them? How can we align our passions with the Will and Wisdom of God and not our own?

O Lord, help us to ask for what is right and be at peace with you and your children.

Amen.