Daily Reflections ...

Human beings are the only creatures able to fall short of their nature. Dr Peter Kreeft explains that cats are always ‘catty’, dogs are always ‘doggy’, a rock is always ‘rocky’, but a human being can be inhumane. He quotes Boethius, who wrote that:

“Whatever is must be good, [and] it follows from this that whatever loses its goodness loses its being. Thus, wicked men [and women] cease to be what they were. To give oneself to evil is to lose one’s human essence. Just as virtue can raise someone above human nature, vice can lower those whom it has seduced beneath human nature.” 

The power of sin is that in it we lose our essence, our humanness. We become less than we were born to be – we no longer completely reflect the image of God. We do this most profoundly when we desire to possess something that is less than ourselves. 

The last three readings have focussed on Judas and his love of money. He desires to possess something less than himself – money. As his desire for money increases, he is willing to give up his humanness to get it. He takes issue with Mary because she was generous with her perfume, he steals from the common fund, and eventually, he betrays Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. His sins have changed him; he becomes something he likely never set out to become. And when he is finally confronted with the horror of what he has done and what he has become, he throws the silver at the feet of the Pharisees and takes his own life.

We wage war against the desires of the flesh (1 Peter 2:11) because sin robs us of our humanity. Through sin, we experience less, not more. We become slaves; we lose our freedom, we lose our being because we’ve lost our goodness, and, in the process, we become inhumane. 

Through Christ’s death and resurrection, we are set free. There is good news to the poor; the captives are set free, the blind see, the lame are healed, we are cleansed from sin and made fully human and fully alive.

by Peter Pellicaan