1What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? 2 You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it.
-James 4:1-2
Raca. The rough translation is worthless. Just take a few minutes to think how often you see or hear someone saying worse things than that about someone else on a daily basis? In Mathew 5:22 it says
“Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ d is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell”
Sadly, I think it’s safe to say that at this moment the fires of hell have a lot of fuel. I have to admit that over the last several months on more than one occasion I’ve either said or wanted to refer to someone as raca…and those were good days. Working in (under) Manhattan while also living far to the East on the Island my traveling has given me ample opportunities to unfortunately see the negative changes happening. A while back I wrote about giving the devil a foothold (Eph4:27), don’t fool yourself this has gone far beyond a foothold, we’ve allowed him all the way to the door. But it’s not too late…it’s never too late. That’s the power and strength of Christ. Human emotion can cause both great and terrifying things to happen, but it’s our choice to decide which one will prevail. It was the foothold quote that has been ringing through my head since this morning to the point that I broke out my Bible from my bag and went to that chapter and verse in Ephesians. The verses before and after speak of things like not going to bed with anger in your heart and turning over a new leaf in your actions, words, and spirit. Although the latter part is a perpetual work in progress for me, I do have a ritual before I lay down at night where I simply thank God for the day, thank Him for my blessings, and simply say “I trust you Lord”. And just like that a weight is lifted off of me. As long winded as this is, I can finally get to the point of all this. No matter how strong I am I still look to the Church for guidance. The silence is deafening. The crime and violence in New York is worsening daily, to the point that I spend almost as much time watching out for what I’ll call vulnerable people as I do actually working. Knowing that this is not solely a New York problem and is agitated by some political forces, it troubles me more that the Roman Catholic Church says/does nothing. It saddens me further that I find both the Coptic and Russian Orthodox are more vocal about protecting the family and other faiths then my own. So I feel like we must look to the Apostles, who no matter how fearful, understood the need the world had and the power of God and ACTED. Accordingly it’s come to us, the faithful, like those who came before us in troubling times, who when faced with a world that is seemingly spinning out of control must step up, step out, and stop the wheel.
Remember to live the Faith, and as always I’ll be praying for you.
Faith like Water 