One of the dangers inherent in trying to live out a life of Christian fidelity is that we are prone to become embittered moralisers, older brothers of the Prodigal Son, angry and jealous at God’s over-generous mercy, bitter because persons who wander and stray can so easily access the heavenly banquet table.
But this isn’t unique to faithful churchgoers. It’s part of the universal struggle to age without bitterness and anger. We spend the first half of our lives wrestling with the Sixth Commandment and spend the last half of our lives wrestling with the Fifth Commandment: Thou shalt not kill! Long before anyone is shot by a gun, he is shot by a word, and before he is shot by a word, he is shot by a thought. We all think murderous thoughts: who does he think he is? And it becomes harder and harder not to think them as we age.
