Divine Minesweeper

This past Sunday, I went to the Melkite Rite Church nearby.  The Gospel was about the rich man who observed the commandments, but wanted to know what else to do to gain Eternal Life.  Often, I have heard the gloss which describes the man's lack of generosity, of being willing to live a great life, not merely a good one.  However, Fr. ____ , in his sermon illuminated a different aspect of the story.  He said that the rich man was looking at Eternal Life all wrong, as we do so often ourselves.  We regard our actions and so often say: "I didn't do anything wrong, I broke no commandment, so I must be doing alright." However, this scarcely puts us on the right path.  Avoiding evil is a lukewarm response to the Gospel, at best; and we all know of Our Lord's words about the lukewarm at heart. When we look at our actions with an eye to having avoided sin, we are playing minesweeper with Eternal Life as the prize.  At any moment we are likely to strike a mine (a sin) and damage or destroy ourselves.  Rather, we should take the positive aspects of the law, as shown by Our Lord, and make them a road map.  If we take His words, we have an infallible map to Eternal Life, and can avoid the mines.  We should aim at the prize--we should run so as to win-- rather than drift along hoping to avoid mines.

-Quaestor