Mtr Mary Trainor

Dear friend,

The Shopping Cart Theory, circulating on social media, makes the case that a person’s fundamental goodness can be measured by whether they do or don’t return their market baskets to an appropriate place.

Most commentary agrees that, as a quick tool, it’s pretty true.

Torn between right and wrong? What’s best versus what’s easiest? What’s good for me versus what serves a greater good? The Shopping Cart Theory, its author claims, offers a path to a good decision.

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Today, we attend two trials, as reported in Matthew’s Gospel.

The one with which we are most familiar is the trial of Jesus, now before Roman authorities on trumped-up charges. He is put before the fifth governor of the Roman province of Judea, in hopes the governor will order the Galilean’s execution.

The second man on trial is that same Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.

Pilate clearly knows Jesus is not guilty of a capital crime. He is also aware of the warning to his wife in a dream: Don’t kill this man.

He wants to have it all: Spare Jesus’ life while maintaining his political career. In the end, we know, he chooses ambition over justice.

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As believers, we face this dilemma every moment of every day. Walk the cart back in the best interest of all? Or make it easy on myself by leaving it loose in a parking lot?

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In all our actions, little or big, we show who we are. The Shopping Cart Theory, while a novel way of gauging moral and ethical responses, is nothing new. It is as old as the Bible itself. Consider Luke 16:10–“Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much….”

Mtr Mary