Elevator or Stairs

Not blaming our birth for virtues and vices

10/29/2023

Rom 7:18-25a Brothers and sisters: I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh. The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not. For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. So, then, I discover the principle that when I want to do right, evil is at hand. For I take delight in the law of God, in my inner self, but I see in my members another principle at war with the law of my mind, taking me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Miserable one that I am! Who will deliver me from this mortal body? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

I have a little riddle for you to see how smart you are. Since you attend OCA, you should all be very smart. A few days ago I went to visit someone in the hospital and the patient was on the fourth floor. I decided to take the stairs because I figured I needed a little exercise and because I had biscuits and gravy for breakfast and I needed to work it off.

But have you ever noticed how it’s always the skinny people who always take the stairs? Now, here’s my riddle: is it because people take the stairs that they are skinny, or is it because they are skinny that they take the stairs? Put differently, which comes first, the skinniness or the stairs?

Now, sometimes we blame our birth for our vices as well as our virtues. We say, “Oh, she’s just skinny because she was born that way, not because she takes the stairs at the hospital.” Or, sometimes we say the opposite: “I am overweight because I was born that way.” And there may be some truth in accidents of birth.

But here is the deeper biological and theological fact. We are all born lazy, we are all born gluttonous, we are all born lustful, we are all born proud, we are all born envious, we are all born greedy, we are all born angry. In other words, we are all born with a tendency to sin called original sin, that is, we are all born with a tendency to take the elevator rather than the stairs, even the skinny people.

In the first reading today we find the “locus classicus” (meaning the classic location) in the Bible where St. Paul speaks about original sin and concupiscence. He writes to the Romans: “The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not. For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.” In other words, I know the good thing to do would be to take the stairs, but I end up in the elevator and do not do the good I want. Even though we know Baptism washes away original sin, there remains the tendency to sin called concupiscence.

Boys and girls, can I offer you some additional examples of fighting concupiscence like taking the stairs rather than the elevator? Why? Well, because we are all born lazy and lustful, greedy and gluttonous, and our Christian life is a constant battle against this concupiscence. Let me give you ten examples.

One, if you like to drink coffee, take it black without an sugar or creamer. Two, when you sit in a chair (or a pew in church), practice good posture, sit up straight and don’t slouch. Three, when your alarm clock goes off in the morning, get up the first time it rings, don’t keep hitting the snooze button. Four, When someone asks you a question, answer “Yes sir,” or “No, ma’am,” or “Thank you, ma’am,” or “No thank you, sir.” I did that going through the McDonald’s drive through last week, and it put a huge smile on the server’s face.

Five, Take your hat off when you walk into a building and put it back on when you walk back outside. Ladies can keep their hats on inside. Six, when you park your car look for a spot far from the door so others can take the closer spots. Seven, at dinner always fill other’s iced tea or water or soda glass before you top off your own.

Eight, try to limit your screen time on your phone, or laptop, or Ipad to 2-3 hours a day; instead, get outside and play sports, or read a book (written on a dead tree), or visit a friend. Homework does not count toward the 2-3 hours. Nine, when you drive, try not to go more than five miles over the speed limit.

By the way, our bishop always drives exactly the speed limit. I know that because one day I passed him on I-49, and I felt worse than passing a state trooper. And ten, when you get up in the morning make the Sign of the Cross before you run to the bathroom. And say an Act of Contrition every night before you lay down, close your eyes, and fall asleep.

Now let me ask you that riddle again but in a different context. Is it because someone practices these things that they are a Christian, or is it because they are a Christian that they practice these things? Which comes first, being a Christian or living as a Christian? Well, it’s both – we learn by doing. But mostly it is because we know we are born with a tendency to sin, and we are constantly at war with ourselves. As the Pogo cartoon strip famously said: “We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us.” Elevator or stairs?

Praised be Jesus Christ!