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March 13, 2020In today’s Lenten scripture passages, the reader is confronted with two difficult passages: Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery and Jesus recounts the Parable of the Tenants. Both Joseph’s brothers and the workers in the vineyard have an opportunity to choose goodness over greed, but they allowed the prospect of immediate profits to cloud their judgment.
We are often confronted with choices that pull us between what is convenient and what is right. It is convenient to consume resources without thought of the future, but is it right to deprive the next generation of soaring trees and clean air? It is convenient to turn away from stories of injustice, but is it right to allow the continued suffering of the marginalized and vulnerable locally and globally? Pope Francis and others remind us that our Christian tradition says, “No!”
Sometimes it is difficult to see past the immediate benefit to the lasting harm. But we are called to make tough choices so that we can help move the world toward peace and justice. May the spiritual disciplines of this season: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving help us to realize that accountability to God is not just at the end of life, it is a daily matter.
