Temptation

To begin, it was a wonderful evening of imbibing, pipe smoking, animated discussion and debate, and peaceful, boozy snoozing last night. My father-in-law and I both had a helluva good time. The shared bottle of Wild Turkey was empty at our feet as I walked out the door with my wife as we went home after her gathering.

* * * * *

At mass this morning, a very critical idea was brought to my attention though the homily given by our priest. In a very unique way he brought to my attention the following concept:

"We will be most tempted in life through that which we are most accomplished (that which is our greatest gift)."


What is meant here is that if you are wonderful and skilled at say, being a builder/carpenter, it is far more likely that your temptation to sin will NOT be in something you know little about (say for example, in the stock market) but instead will be in the urge to skimp on or cut corners in the items you build.

I think this is suprisingly profound and likely true. It *is* where we are most skilled that we could most easily sin and be successful at being so without immediate consequence.

For me, as a professor, I need to contemplate on this idea today. What is my greatest gift? It is likely my knowledge of science. I hope that I do not use my knowledge in a hurtful way for others, and I believe it will be good for me to think through to see if I can find any aspects of where I use my knowledge to hurt others. I sincerely hope not.

PipeTobacco