Doing What I Do Not Want

Homily for Friday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

In today’s verses from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, we heard a provocative line. St. Paul writes: “For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.” Our actions are often in conflict with what we know to be good and true. Even when we know what is expected and proper, we do not always choose the good. All of us can probably recall a time when we did not choose to do what was right. Afterwards, we thought, “I know I should not have said that” or “I know I should have acted differently.” What is the cause of the disconnect between the good I want and the evil I do.

Sin asserts itself on our choices, and we fail to do as we should. Just a few verses before today’s reading, St. Paul writes: “What I do, I do not understand for I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate.”

This may resonate in our hearts in terms of past experiences. Sin is real. We can know what is right but still fail. It is only in following Christ and the Church’s guidance that we can intentionally choose the correct direction of our lives. We should treat every event that happens today and in the future as a call from God to conversion.

Jesus reminds us in the Gospel of an urgency to convert our actions and to turn ourselves toward God. Offer our sins to the Lord who wants to take them away and forgive us. May each encounter help us grow toward God’s design and away from the temptation to sin.