Book of Sirach 17:20-24
To the penitent God provides a way back, he encourages those who are losing hope and has chosen the lot of truth. Return to him and give up sin, pray to the Lord and make your offenses few. Turn again to the Most High and away from sin, hate intensely what he loathes, and know that justice and judgments of God, stand firm in the way set before you, in prayer to the Most Holy God.
Today is the U.S. Memorial Day holiday. I have a tendency over long weekends to binge watch television shows. I'll turn on my Roku and then watch a fave Amazon or Netflix show while enjoying a bottle of vino. This weekend's selection just so happen to be Season 4 and 5 of "Hotel Impossible." I enjoy the show because I never know what the hotelier personalities will be like or how sleazy the properties. In one Episode, the owners were so broke that they used a rusty old car washing machine for laundering bed linens. In another show, the lady acted more as a laundry lady than the manager of the hotel. Watching this show got me thinking about laundry mats, dirty clothes, and sin......
Do you have a few dirty clothes in your hamper? Have they been around since Lent or were they washed at the Easter Vigil? Did you wait until Pentecost to give your spiritual clothing a bleach followed by a Bounty soft air dry and crisp starch ironing? Hopefully that pile of dirty laundry "Sin" has been cleansed and forgiven. We all harbor a lot of filth and disgust. We alł do things that are bad in God's eyes. Yet, the seasons of Lent and Easter are special times of the year for us to realize our faults, repent, make alms, and try our best to be better Christians!
Ordinary Time is a perfect chance to put into action everything we said we'd do better. We have the Holy Spirit with us! He provide us with a spiritual washer and dryer. It's up to us to throw a load of our dirty laundry in the wash or a set of towels in the dryer. With the spirit as a guide, we can monitor the wash and dry cycles. Select the correct heat and timing cycle. Make sure the whites aren't mixed in with the colors! Then our once dirty laundry turns out fresh and sparkling clean.
Sometimes we will wear the same dirty clothes over and over again. We begin to no longer smell the foul odor or notice the sweat and food stains. We feel comfortable in our old habits, addictions, and indifference. We stew in the stench of our apathy and defiance. Just like a hotelier who refused to demolish his mold and asbestos infested cabins, we can refuse to acknowledge how much sin is taking over our lives.
The Holy Spirit gives us the opportunity to cleanse our minds, hearts, and souls through the Sacraments. He gives us the chance to live good lives through the guidance of priests and religious, bishops and cardinals and even the Pope. No need to wear the same dirty clothes each day. Why hang on to the old clothes when the new are within reach? Why waste away in frustration, guilt, anger, and disgust when God is there to lend a helping hand?
As I type this meditation, another thunderstorm is plummeting my neighborhood with rain. The Dallas area has gotten so much rain lately that all of our rivers and lakes are overflowing. Everything is green and lush amongst the non-stop rain. I feel like all the washing machines in heaven are overflowing with water from the spin cycle! I feel like the dryers are shorting out causing lightning in the skies.!......Ok, I can see my analogy is going a little overboard. Hey, at least I have my clean laundry in my basket. I just need to hang up the clothes as the thunder roars and the rain beats hard on my roof.....
-J.
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