I beg your pardon; I never promised you a rose garden! Saturday, 24^th week in ordinary time – Lk 8:4-15

Many of us read with utmost seriousness several self-help books. We become captive and are riveted to some ‘new thought’ we come across. This becomes our new mantra for a while or as I have come to believe the ‘flavour of the season’ for some. It becomes our social talking point and we seem to peddle the thoughts and work incessantly like as if the passing on of this ‘good news’ will save the world.

 All this passes away when some other ‘new ideology’ floats by. What most people fail to realise is that while these book may seem ‘new’ to us, they books have been simply reinventing the wheel. Perhaps what one often fails to see is that the greatest truths are espoused simply in the Bible; unfortunately what is seen as readily available is not always valued and what is not wrapped in tinsel and glossy paper is not valuable. We seem to know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Deep within in us we know that we long for a wholesome relationship and that relationship can be found with God.  This longing is often obscured if not impeded by sin which makes us ashamed and often mistakenly leads us to believe that as a consequence God does not want to share a relationship with us.

There is no one in their right mind who actually seeks sin, most seek to do good and live in harmony with others. To do this we need to attach ourselves to God and not to a passing ‘flavour of the season’. Yet our human experience has proved to us beyond a doubt, how hard this struggle is because of sin and temptation. St Paul himself confesses to this struggle when he admits, “I want to do good yet I do evil,”