Taken from a Homily at All-school Mass
There are few feelings worse than getting caught doing something wrong. Has that ever happened to you? You’re doing something you know you shouldn’t, like sneaking a cookie, and suddenly Dad comes around the corner and asks, “What are you doing?” First, you freeze, knowing you’re not supposed to be doing that. Then, your stomach jumps into your throat because you know you’ve been caught. It’s a terrible feeling.
I remember once when my family was watching a football game, one of my nieces kept touching the TV. She was tiny—just a toddler. We told her to stay away from the TV, but she was curious and wanted to touch it. Then it happened that, right when she toddled over and reached out to touch it again, a great play happened in the game, and we all cheered loudly, “Whoa!” But, she thought we were yelling at her! She froze, her face full of panic, and pulled her hands up to her body, thinking she was in big trouble. Even at two years old, she knew the difference between what she was supposed to do and what she wasn’t!
We all have an instinct about what’s pleasing to others. Like when you’re in line at school, and your teacher asks everyone to be quiet. You know you should stop talking, but sometimes you don’t. And when the teacher looks over, you feel that pang of guilt because deep down, you know better. We know what it is like to have a sense of what we should or should not do; what is or is not pleasing. You see, we have an instinct as to “better” or “best,” “bad” or “worse”. It is a little feeling that lets us know if something is pleasing. That little feeling, that nudge to do the right thing, is a gift from God. He gave us that instinct to use.
It’s like a sense of smell… but for your soul. When something smells bad, you wrinkle your nose. When your soul senses something wrong, it gives you that same kind of warning—a little “soul wrinkle” on the inside. When we do something wrong and get caught, that feeling tells us we knew it was wrong all along. If we didn’t know, we wouldn’t feel bad, right?
The Holy Spirit works in us the same way. Just like we want our parents to be pleased with us, we should want to please the Holy Spirit, too. As St. Paul says, “Do nothing that will sadden the Holy Spirit” (Eph 4:30). Even in the opening prayer of the 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time, we asked God to help us “do what is pleasing to Him.”
It’s simple. When you’re about to do something, just ask yourself: “Would God like this?” If the answer is yes, go ahead. If the answer makes your soul “wrinkle” then don’t do it.
It’s like asking, “Would this make Mom sad?”or “Would this make Mary sad?” —Whether it’s your earthly mom or Mary, our heavenly mother, if you think it would displease them, then it’s probably not the right choice.
So ask yourself a simple question: “Is this pleasing to God?” If we lived by that simple question every day, life would be so much better. We’d make better choices, stay out of trouble, and most importantly, grow closer to God.
So, next time you reach for that extra cookie, or think about doing something you shouldn’t, stop and ask yourself, “Is this pleasing to God?” And if the answer is no? Just don’t do it.
Father Jarrod Lies, Pastor