Readings: Mal 3:19-20. 2Thes 3:7-12. Lk 21:5-19
With our current focus on appearances, it’s easily possible to be taken up by a form of ornamentalism. We don’t limit this to physical structures, but also extend it to our lives generally. We search for what will give us a good appearance (physically and in the minds of other people) as much as possible. And we judge other people simply by picking on a few of these externals.
This would pose no problem if it were not to distract us from doing the internal work that enables us be the good people we want to be. That way, we don’t have the internal resources to successfully go through hard situations when they come (and they’ll surely come if we’re to be true). And we render ourselves more amenable to deception.
May Jesus Christ grant us the grace to keep our focus on God, and not just on the circumstances of time and space.
