Serving God with an Undivided Heart (Wednesday, Week 23, Year 2)

-

The gospel reading invites us to reflect once again on the beatitudes (cf. Luke 6:20-26). Jesus intently looked at the disciples and said that the poor, the hungry, those who weep and those persecuted on account of the Son of man are blessed. This is another set of hard teachings from Jesus that we may not easily assimilate or make sense out of. Who even wants to be poor or go hungry or seek persecution so that he or she will be considered a blessed or happy person? On the contrary, these are the things that bring sorrow or unhappiness to us. So, what is Jesus trying to communicate?

When you observe very closely, you will discover that when people are in conditions of poverty, deprivation and oppression, they more easily turn to God as the source of their happiness. So, there may be something about excessive wealth, being overfed and living in a condition of “no suffering” or “no-skin-pain” (as Nigerians would say) that makes it difficult for us to be closer to God or be single-minded in seeking or serving Him. And that is what we should try to be cautious about. Let the riches of the world not make us distant from God. Let a life of excessive pleasure not draw us away from God. The beatitudes should not be seen as encouraging hate, branding oppression as good or promoting wretchedness, misery or poverty. The point is that we should seek to be in a state where we can serve God with an undivided heart. 

St Paul may be saying the same thing in the first reading (1 Cor. 7:25-31). Possibly, there were Christians in the Corinth who looked down on the marriage institution or wrote off celibacy as evil. To such people, St Paul advised that there is nothing wrong in being a married person or remaining unmarried. Either state is good as long as we are single minded in seeking and serving the Lord, the source of our happiness.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gifts versus the Giver (Monday, Week 20, Year II)

-
Image
A gift, by the virtue of what it is, is given. In other words, there must be a giver. Gift can come or be in the form of a good friendship or relationship, material thing, good job, personal talent, and so on. Every cherished gift is the delight of our eyes, the pride of our power and the desire of our souls. The gifts that we possess should then remind us of the giver. It smacks of arrogance and ingratitude when gifts are used without acknowledging or making reference to the giver. For the Jews, the Temple or Sanctuary was the delight of their eyes, the pride of their power and the desire of their souls. It was a precious gift which they jealously guarded. However, they adorned the Sanctuary but did not truly adore the One for whom the Sanctuary exists. They were too attached to the “gift” (sanctuary) but were completely detached from the Giver of the gift – from Yahweh. Ezekiel prophesied to them that this sanctuary which was their delight will be profaned and taken away from them. M
Read more

Persecution and Triumph, the Two Realities of Christian life (Saturday, Week 33, Year 2, The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary)

-
Image
The book of Revelation is full of symbols and imageries that need to be carefully interpreted for us to understand the message they communicate. In today’s first reading (cf. Rev. 11:4-12), John was told about two olive trees and two lamp stands serving as witnesses to the Holy One. Who or what do these two sets of witnesses (olive trees and lamp stand) stand for? When we read further in order to understand what happened to these two witnesses, it may be a bit clear to us that the “two witnesses” may be pointing to Moses and Elijah, judging from what they did on earth and what they stand for. Moses stands for the Law; and Elijah stands for the Prophet. Anyone who bears witness as Moses bore witness to the Law of God must be persecuted by the beast as the first reading (from the Book of Revelation) recounted. Anyone who bears witness to the messages of truth as Elijah and other prophets did must be persecuted just as the prophets were persecuted. Persecution is a fate that awaits every
Read more

Enkindle the Embers of Unity, Quench the Fire of Disunity (Wednesday, Week 22, Year A)

-
Image
For some time now, we have heard Paul talk about the spiritual and the unspiritual: what it means to live and operate on the level of the Spirit (the spiritual) and on the level of the flesh (the unspiritual). Paul was very emphatic about this topic possibly because he was addressing a group of people who were too intellectual and academic in their approach to the things of God and all of that. Remember that the Corinthians were Greek; and the ancient Greeks were known to be too particular and more interested in intellectualism, sophistry, philosophy and human wisdom. And we must not forget that Paul has been very suspicious of over-reliance on worldly/human wisdom in understanding and appreciating the things of the Spirit. To rely more on human/worldly wisdom is a sign that one may be operating on the level of the flesh; and to operate on the level of the flesh breeds a whole lot of vices such as division or sectionalism, hedonism, and so on. In today’s section of that letter to the C
Read more