of invitations and excuses - 31st week tuesday 2013

Invitations were sent out but what came back were excuses.  What is an excuse?  An excuse means to justify and defend, to reason and to explain for the purpose of mitigating a fault or justifying a decision.  The people who were invited to the banquet have to find reasons for refusing the invitation.  They felt somehow that they need to justify their absence.  They felt somehow that they would certainly offend the king and so they have to provide reasons to justify their absence and therefore mitigate or lessen the kings anger, and therefore also lessen their guilt.  Only a person, a human person can do this, only a person can make excuses and only a person in fact feels obliged to make excuses.  Why, because when we were created our nature is such that we cannot do anything unreasonable, specifically we cannot do anything that is not reasonably good.  Antes kita magbuhat sang isa ka butang may rason gid kita kag ina nga rason sa aton panan-aw kag paghangop maayo.  Indi kita makabuhat sang isa ka butang nga indi maayo sa aton panan-aw.  Indi kita makabuhat sang isa ka butang nga indi naton ma rason nga maayo.

May kakilala ako nga na addict sang computer games.  Ginapamangkot ko sia, ti nagahampang ka pa sa computer.  Dayon niya sabat, “bal-an mo Father, ang computer games nga ginahampang ko daw nagatuon ka man sang ancient history – matun-an mo si Caesar, ang iya mga generals, ang iya mga away sa amo ni kag amo na.”

We do something because it is reasonably good.  We cannot do something reasonably bad.  So bisan addict ka na sa computer games rasonan mo lang nga total katuon ka man sang Roman history.  Kon kaisa kon naga-ugtas kita nagasiling kita, na kay marason gid, marason ka pa.  But that is our nature.  We feel the need to justify our actions, we feel the need to make excuses bisan kon kaisa balik-awot, kon kaisa balingag.  I think this is something God placed in our hearts so that though we may stray from him from time to time, we cannot go that far from him.

The people in the gospel made excuses.  They feel the need to justify themselves.  Pero kon isipon mo laban-laban wala gid man siguro tuyo nga magkadto.  But you see they have good excuses, and our minds are capable of making good excuses.  Ngaa wala ka nagasimba?  Sako ako.  Aber ano gid na ka sako nga ang isimba mo which will take you less than 1 hour and 30 minutes makabuhin sing daku sa imo 24 oras.  Ukon lets face it, sa tuod-tuod lang tamad ka lang, indi bala; you don’t feel it is important, indi bala?  Kon kaisa ginabutigan naton bisan ang aton kaugalingon to lessen our guilt – that’s how the mind works since Adam and Eve – it will always make excuses.  That is why it is important to be aware of our excuses, how we justify ourselves, how we justify our actions. Because they may lead us to the truth – to the truth of what we really feel, to the truth of our values, to the truth about ourselves.  Sift through the excuses and see the real score, the truth, and not just simply a justification, not just a rationalization, not just an excuse.