Americans are accustomed to thinking of ourselves as blessed, but our blessings can also be our battles. Blessed yesterday to eat a lunch of fresh sweet corn from the local market, I ate one too many ears. Then, having made corn and bean salad with the leftovers, at dinner I ate too much again. I still feel uncomfortably full this morning. Forgetting self-control in the midst of abundance, I overindulged.
How easily we forget that every day is fraught with dangers and temptations. We are truly in a battle though the attacks often sneak up on us. In addition to self-control, middle-class Americans are tempted to pride in our productivity. We easily listen to the slimy reptile that whispers, first in one ear, then in the other, "You deserve all the good things you have." We don’t deserve wealth any more than a poor Indian deserves deprivation. I saw an image once of a lowest-caste Indian worker diving into raw sewage to dislodge a blockage. Why isn’t that me rather than him? Why was I born in America? I’m not better than him, nor do I deserve more of the world’s goods. I forget our essential equality at the peril of poisoning my heart.
Sweet Jesus, we want to receive the blessings of self-control and reject the poison of pride. Please draw us all–from the richest to the poorest–into your heart.