Mt 5:20-26 Making A Mountain Out Of A Molehill

Mt 5:20-26  Making A Mountain Out Of A Molehill

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Jesus said to his disciples:  “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven…”

I have to admit I was stunned when I first read it.  I didn’t know what to write back.  Of all the things I had written, I never thought this would be something that someone would criticize me for.

If you’ve been reading my blog, then you’ll remember a meditation I wrote a few months ago where I wrote about a very short conversation I had with a flower girl at a wedding.  I was about to say hello to the bride when I noticed the little girl standing in front of her.  That's when I asked the child if she was getting married.  We all laughed.  The child’s mother responded, “Not until she gets a college degree!”  I never expected that answer and so I reflected upon it.  But what I never imagined was an e-mail from a reader telling me "how wrong it was to ask such a thing.”  

Of course you have to have thick skin if you want to be a blogger.  I would even dare to say you have to have thicker skin if you want to leave a comment.  But I have to admit that I was knocked off my feet by this individual’s statement. 

I didn’t know how to respond.  I can’t even remember the last time I received an e-mail that left me dumbfounded.  What answer could I give?  “You’re wrong!” was the first thing I wanted to write.  “You’re making a mountain out of a molehill” was another possibility.  But how could I back up my response?  What example could I give?  The individual that wrote the e-mail never gave me a reason why they felt it was so bad.  Well, I decided to drop it and not respond at all.  I let it be. 

Then one day, while I was purchasing a birthday gift, I noticed a mom buying a baby doll for her child.  It was not a Barbie, it was a baby doll.  Then it clicked!  It was a Holy Spirit moment.  As soon as I got back to my office, I searched my computer files for the e-mail.  I was ready to give my response.  I had my answer ready.  This is what I was going to write, “If you considered my question to the flower girl has being wrong then I can only assume you would consider it highly offensive for a five-year-old girl to be given a baby doll, correct?  After all, wouldn’t that be encouraging little girls to have babies?  Wouldn’t that be encouraging ‘single parenting’ or children having children out of wedlock?”  If they answered yes, then I would know they had a problem.  If they answered no, then the hypocrisy would be clear to me.  In the end, I couldn’t write anything because I couldn’t find the e-mail. 

Of course someone could say to me: “You should be more humble”.  That's true!  But humility has never meant silence.  Instead, humility means to look up to the truth and bend to accept it.  Some people love to make a mountain out of a molehill because they love to bend the truth and make others look down to accept it.  They work hard, very hard, at making a silliness look serious.

Truth does not come from majority opinions.  It does not come from the Mass media.  The Truth comes from Jesus Christ.  He is the mountain.  We are the molehill.  And sin turns everything around, but only in our minds. 

The heart of Christ’s message is reconciliation, and reconciliation requires one big brave virtue:  humility.  Humility allows us to be honest with ourselves and with others as we seek the truth; and be honest with ourselves and others when we have made a mistake.  Many tragic (and avoidable) events in history were based on a lie.  The Supreme Court’s decision in Roe vs. Wade is one of them.  It would take years and a conversion to Catholicism before a mature Norma McCorvey (Jane Roe) would later come out and publically confess to the world that she had never been raped.  It’s very sad to think that the case that legalized abortion was based on a lie. It is very sad that a mountain of lies was created from a molehill of a lie.

If deception and the devil go together like division and war, then Truth and God go together like forgiveness and grace.  When we search for the truth we end up finding God.  It’s no wonder why the first universities were founded by the Catholic Church.

Recently, I read an article about the Boy Scouts of America (BSA).  Over and over again this wonderful organization has been placed in the frying pan by the liberal media because it excludes “openly” homosexual members.  Jon Langbert, the gay father of a Cub Scout in University Park, was asked to leave the organization.  He is upset with the decision and stated, “I’ve given up on getting the Scouts to change.  It’s hard to get people to admit they are wrong.”  Yes Jon, I agree.  It’s very hard to get people to admit they are wrong, especially when you provide no clear arguments to prove them wrong.  So maybe, just maybe, you may be wrong and the BSA is right and have the data to prove it.  

Yes, this information is finally starting to pass through the liberal media’s giant grip.