One
night, an old Cherokee chief was sitting at the campfire with his grandson.
As
he stared into the fire, the light of the flames cast deep shadows in the
wrinkles on his face, a face weathered over his many years, a wise face. And the old man began to speak.
“A fight, a battle, is going on
inside of me,” he told the young boy, “it is a terrible fight between two
wolves.
“One wolf is evil, full of anger, hatred,
greed, lust, vanity, sorrow, regret, self-pity and pride.
“The other wolf is good, full of joy
and peace, love, humility, kindness and faith.”
“My
grandson,” he continued, “This same fight is going on inside of you, …and inside of every other person
on this earth.”
The
grandson pondered this for a moment and then turned to the old man and asked,
“Grandfather, which wolf will win?”
Ahe old man smiled and simply said,
“The one you feed.”
I heard this story quite some time ago, and it came to
mind as I was pondering today’s reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians. St. Paul, in his own way, is describing this
evil wolf when he speaks of the parts of us that are earthly – immorality,
impurity, passion, evil desire, greed, idolatry and dishonesty. Jesus, in our Gospel, focuses on just one of
these – greed - and warns us to take care to guard against all greed.
Now I don’t know about you, but this Cherokee legend
rings very true in my life. For both
wolves live inside of me at all times and both struggle one against the other
with my life and my soul as the prize.
And the wise old grandfather is right – this same fight goes on inside
each one of us, huh? Now maybe not every
one of us struggles with every one of the vices on the list, but I’ll bet there
are one or two or three that are the main struggles, the main burden for each
of us.
You don’t have to look very far in the world around us to
see each of these sins manifest themselves.
Anger and hatred are on the front page of every newspaper in the
world. Lust is but a click of the TV
remote, or a mouse click, away. Greed is
manifest all around, evident in the logos on our cars, the address of our
homes, the crowded parking lot at the mall.
What both St. Paul and Our Blessed Lord are telling us
today is this – the two lists – one of vices, one of virtues, the two wolves,
if you will, they’re incompatible. They
won’t live together nicely. We can’t
serve two masters, Jesus tells us. I
cannot be attached to money and be generous at the same time. I cannot be greedy and grateful at the same
time. I cannot be filled with lust, and
be truly loving, at the same time. I
must choose. One or the other.
The Cherokee grandfather tells his grandson you must starve
the evil wolf. Don’t feed him. And in his own way, St. Paul’s instruction is
the same as the grandfather’s. Paul commands
the Colossians to put these things “to death” he says. To death.
It’s not enough, though, to starve the evil wolf. It’s not enough just to try to shed ourselves
of our vices, of our sins. We must feed
the good wolf. We must put on
virtues. Put on Christ. We must seek what is above, where Christ is
seated at the right hand of God, St. Paul tells us.
And we Catholic Christians are indeed blessed to have the
ultimate food to feed our “good wolf,” the ultimate weapons in this epic battle. For we have the Sacraments.
We have the Sacrament of Reconciliation where we humbly
admit that we have failed, that we have sinned, we throw ourselves on mercy of Christ
Jesus. And let me tell you this – the last
place the evil one wants you and me is in that confessional. For there is great grace there to transcend
our sins and live a more virtuous life. We
are blessed here to have this sacrament available to us every Saturday at all
three of our sites.
And we have the Eucharist – where we receive the very
Body and Blood of Our Lord, where we literally “put on Christ” and are
empowered, strengthened to go forth from here to serve. To serve the needs of others, rather than to
focus inwardly on ourselves in sin. We
here at St. Kateri are blessed to have masses at multiple sites and multiple
times every weekend, and every day of the week.
Christ is here to feed us, if we only seek Him.
And we must pray.
Regularly. Without ceasing. Morning and night. Talk to Jesus. Tell Him our struggles. His mercy and love are overflowing. He will shower us with His grace, with His
help, if we only ask Him.
And we have a heavenly intercessor in His Blessed Mother,
Mary. She listens to our pleas, she
holds us tenderly in her arms, and she points the way to Her Son, Our Lord.
The good news is this – the good wolf is way stronger
than the evil wolf. Jesus Christ is
infinitely more powerful than the evil one.
The answer to the little boy’s question, “which one wins” is this –
Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior wins.
If we’ll only let Him. If we’ll
only seek Him.
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