God, our light, our stronghold and our salvation (Friday, Week 4, Year 1)

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It’s a normal experience for people to dish out brief but highly condensed pieces of advice or words of encouragement towards the end of a letter written to a friend, an associate or a family member. Oftentimes, those last words seem to be weightier than other parts of the letter maybe because of the emotion with which those words are written. If care is not taken, one may hurriedly go through such important details without paying serious attention to the messages they convey.


The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews seems to be concluding his letter, and such brief advisory expressions have greatly characterized the concluding part of that letter. There are many areas being retouched in today’s section of the letter (cf. Heb. 13:1-8): he briefly talks about love, hospitality to strangers, care for those in prison, marriage, love of wealth, imitation of religious leaders, and so on. 


The responsorial psalm (Ps 27:1a) implicitly tells us that one can only be actively attentive to the virtues outlined above if the person takes “the Lord as his/her light and salvation”. If I understand the Lord as my light and my salvation, then I will make sincere efforts to love, show hospitality to the stranger, care for those in prison, respect marriage, eschew materialistic love, imitate my religious leaders, and so on. It is only when I accept that the Lord is the stronghold of my life that my life can become a storehouse of virtues and every good work.


But when the “self” or the flesh occupies the centre of attention in my life, vices will surely abound. Greed, lust, lies, immorality, stealing, murder, etc will fix their headquarters in my life. And this is exactly what became of Herod in today’s gospel account (cf. Mk. 6:1-6). Herod couldn’t avoid the act of killing an innocent man (John the Baptist, a great prophet in Israel and the greatest of all those born of women) because of his rash oath to a little girl. Herod is a clear example of one who does not accept the Lord as his light and salvation. As a consequence, his life radiated a sequence of heinous and gruesome evil acts: morally reprehensible act of concubinage with the wife of his brother; serial killing of his perceived opponents; murder of John the Baptist; and so on. This is the type of life lived outside God; a life that does not take God as its centre and stronghold.


It’s not too late for me to examine my life and make some amends! If I have decided to follow the Lord, I must follow Him very closely, sincerely and consistently; and the consequence is having a free and relaxed conscience. But if I have not given my Christian state a serious thought as regards how I live and relate with others, today affords me another opportunity for a serious sober reflection. Let it not be that I have been deceiving myself, thinking that I am deceiving God.    


Prayer:

Show me, Lord, Your way and help me walk in the path of Your statutes, Amen!


Have a blessed day!



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