Week 15 Tuesday (Year 1)

Readings: Exodus 2:1-15; Psalm 68; Matthew 11:20-24

The names of these towns - Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum - are beautiful and have nothing of the negative associations that still attach to the names 'Sodom' and 'Gomorrah'. And yet Jesus says that those infamous cities of the Book of Genesis will be judged less severely than the pretty towns dotted around the lake. It is not that the lakeside towns have sinned more but that they have been offered more and have been indifferent to it.

A parallel today might be between the richer parts of the world (or of a country or a city) that regard themselves as more developed and more civilized than many poorer places but that remain indifferent to the needs of those poorer places.

It is always easier to tabulate sins committed than sins omitted. Moses experiences this in the first reading today - his killing of an Egyptian becomes known and he must flee. They know what he has done. It is easy for others to condemn him, others whose sins are not 'in the public forum', whose sins are perhaps of omission rather than commission, and how is that to be measured?

But the Lord sees the heart and does not judge as human beings judge. So he sees not only deeds and words but thoughts and even omissions. Someone has said wisely that the balance of good and evil in the world, the balance of justice and injustice, is as it is not so much because of the amount of evil that is done as because of the amount of good that is left undone. We have been offered so much more, but if we remain indifferent to it, and to the needs crying out, then the last state of our house is worse than the first.

As we begin to read about Moses, another of the great heroes of God's people, we will see that he is a far from perfect man, just like Jacob before him and David after him. They are all men of action, however, not afraid to do what they see needs to be done. It means running the risk of failing, even of offending. But the alternative is worse - to stay on the sideline, a spectator in life, hoarding our gifts, held back by cowardice or selfishness, blind to the possibilities for good that surround us.

The one who never made a mistake never made anything, we say. So let us keep an eye out for the wonderful things the Lord is doing in our neighbourhood, and seek to collaborate with him in those.