It's now become quite fashionable to adopt a more relativistic code of ethics, taking as one's motto, "An ye harm no one, do what ye will." (So long as you don't harm anybody, do whatever you want.) The older ways of a more restrictive ethic are passé, a marker of a narrower mind.
There is a slight problem with that way of life. The primary focus is on one's self, one's impulses, and only peripherally on others. The only mastery over one's self that is called for is to ensure inadvertent damage doesn't bleed into the self-governing spheres of other people. So long as no one else is impacted, one can engage one's impulses to self-destruction if that is the desire.
The Christian way of life, as St. Paul puts it in today's Epistle reading (Eph. 2.1-10) makes note that reveling in our impulses (in theological speak those are called passions) is an enslavement and an eventual dance to self-destruction. They are empty, and serve no real purpose other than to separate ourselves from others...and from God. Following the impulses heedlessly and not gaining mastery over them is a poison, like a snakebite from a viper or cobra or a whole host of venomous critters. The reading from the Old Testament (Num. 21.4-9) illustrates Israel's physical encounter with said beasties and the supernatural healing they received, which is an allegorical type, a metaphysical rendering of the poisoning we read about in St. Paul.
The problem is, the impulses are, well, impulses, and no matter how much we master them we slip up. We get a nip from that old serpent, and the cycle starts again. We're human after all. So is it pointless?
St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans goes to long lengths to paint how hopeless the situation would be except for one thing, and that is God reaching out to lift us out of the cycle and make up the difference. In today's Epistle, St. Paul states that by Our Lord's death he shared in our death and paid with us that price, but in His rising from it we too partake in that life for the ultimate deliverance from death. Just as the Israelites in Numbers looked on the effigy of the serpent raised up to alleviate the physical problem of snake venom, Our Lord in the Gospel flat out drew the parallel for us that He like the effigy would be raised up so that all who would look on Him, that is, trust Him and His mission, would share in His life.
So in the end, we need to trust Jesus' mission. That mission teaches us that the way of life isn't self-focus, giving into the impulses, and doing whatever the heck we want. The mission is to master our impulses and seek the well being of others, not as peripherals to our story but the main focus of our story. Fight for justice, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, comfort the bereaved, bury the dead. All this becomes possible when we control our impulses so there is something there to give to others. Yes, we are human, but Jesus Our Lord made up for that by paying the ultimate price and sharing His life with us. The redemption is all-encompassing and empowers us to strive to be better, not just because it's "right" but because it is the way of life. Trust the message, trust the Person, and be free of the venom of the serpent's lies.
