Hot and Cold

By Steve Hall

Saturday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time
II Samuel 12:1-7, 10-17
Mark 4:35-41

“David besought God for the child. He kept a fast, retiring for the night to lie on the ground clothed in sackcloth. The elders of his house stood beside him urging him to rise from the ground; but he would not, nor would he take food with them.”

“They woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Quiet! Be still!" The wind ceased and there was great calm.” (Mark 4:35-37)

Sin is sin!

David knew his sin. if not before, then certainly after the chastisement of the prophet. The disciples did not know theirs. At least, it was probably not at the fore of their thoughts considering the storm that was raging. But then, it didn’t really matter.

Sin is sin; a circumstance of life; a condition all are born to; an unquestionable fact that we can sometimes identify by the directives we have been given and which we seldom follow. Sin can have the immediacy that David finds confronting him in the story of the rich man and the poor man as told by the prophet. More often than not, however, our sin avoids the fresh air, hides from the sunlight and pretends moderation and we end up being distracted like the disciples in the boat.

The refrain for one of the psalms in Thursday’s Divine Office this week contains the following line: “You alone, I have grieved by my sin; have pity on me, O Lord.” The line echoes many similar lines in the Old Testament; but what does it mean? Most commonly we interpret it as assigning human attributes to God, knowing full well that God doesn’t have human emotions. Yet, “There’s a grief that can’t be spoken. There’s a pain goes on and on.” Likewise, There’s a care that can’t be spoken. There’s a love goes on and on. Perhaps this is the grief intended in the Scripture.

Perhaps, too, we might reconsider what is intended when we use the word ‘sin.’ To do so we should first recall that the Commandments were given by God for the specific purpose of forming these descendants of Jacob into God’s Chosen People.

We are told we can know our sin by knowing the how, when and where by which we transgress those God-given laws and their subsequent elaboration by the Church. Under such circumstances, King David could readily recognize his violation of the divine Law; the disciples would remain oblivious. But our sin is in our very separation — separation from our creator.

When I was young, and sometimes yet today with my grandson, we would play a simple game. An object was hidden. The one who was ‘it’ had to find that object. The one ‘in the know’ gave simple clues of ‘hot’ and ‘cold,’ ‘warmer’ and ‘colder.’ These clues told the active player if his movement at the moment was leading him closer (warm) or further (cold) from the object being sought. Through these simple clues the active player could determine his proximity to that elusive item.

As long as we Identify sin according to directives, injunctions, decrees or commandments we will hinder our spiritual growth. It would be like only giving our attention in the game to discovering what was ‘cold.’ Our sin is our separation from our creator. To overcome that separation it is necessary not to just not get ‘cold’ but also to turn up the heat. All of Scripture urges mankind to become warmer. The New Testament brings that to perfection. “What must I do to obtain eternal life?” the young man asked. He is reminded of the commandments and in reply affirms his commitment to observing them. In other words, he has dedicated himself to not growing ‘cold.’ Jesus then points him to what is missing. He needs to work at growing ‘warm’ or even ‘hot’ by detachment from this world and following Jesus himself.

So often we become complacent when we are not getting colder. Our adversary is OK with that because he knows we will get use to the cold.