IS THERE A MONKEY ON YOUR BACK?
Monday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
My dear encountered couples:
Attachments are hard to break. I’m not talking about our attachments to people. I’m talking about attachments to things. Though many people die of emphysema from smoking, millions still find it impossible to give up smoking. Though it is public knowledge that thousands of people die from illegal drugs every year, there are always many more new customers to take their place. Though we are told that every sip of alcohol destroys numerous brain cells, many of us would never think of missing the afternoon Happy Hour. (For some it begins early in the morning.) Though AIDS is running rampant, singles bars are still doing an overflowing business, and street corners continue to offer their wares late into the night. Yes, attachments are hard to break. What are yours?
We all have some. Might be something very innocent. Like maybe music, television, cars, golf, or Saturday afternoon, Sunday afternoon, and Monday night football. Maybe our attachment is our fingernails - we like to bite them. Or is it food? Some people have never seen a calorie they don’t like.
If there is something you are attached to that you would like to give up or which you know you must give up, PRAY! Admit to God your weakness and inability to control and conquer whatever it is you are attached to. Jesus came to save us not only from our sins but from any attachment that might interfere with our following him. Sometimes our attachments are our sins. Sometimes they are like idolatry, they become more important to us than God.
The young man in our gospel story today was attached to money. He wasn’t about to give it up. It was more important to him than Jesus. How so very sad!
