Today’s Readings:
Exodus 19:1-2,9-11,16-20
Daniel 3:52-56
Matthew 13:10-17
I was in a conversation recently and someone expressed his displeasure with how preachers emphasize hell and divine punishment over God’s love and mercy. He said that it is the reason a lot of people go to confession; they go to confession because they fear what God will do to them if they remain or die in their sins. He thinks that we should emphasize the love of God because God wants us to love Him and He wants us to experience Him as a God who is merciful and loving. While this has some truth to it, I think that there is a part of it that can become misleading if we do not pay attention. This is the fact that there are two sides to every story, two sides to every coin. This is the same with God. There are two sides to our relationship with Him.
God is equal part love and justice. It is the justice part that a lot of people are uncomfortable with. This is because they want to remain in their sins. God does not want us to fear Him or to fear what He will do to us as much as He wants us to love Him and experience His mercy. Jesus mentions our reluctance to experience God’s love in today’s Gospel with the words, “The reason I talk to them in parables is that they look without seeing and listen without hearing or understanding” (Matthew 13:13). This is not a problem on God’s part; it is a problem on our own end. We do not want to encounter God. We fear what will happen if we get too close to Him. We are afraid of the demands that a closer relationship with God will require of us. We want the good things which God gives to us. We pray just enough to get what God gives us. We fast so that God will bless us with our dream job, with a spouse or visa to leave the country. However, we do not do these things because we love God or wish to know Him more.
Why should I fast? I do so because I wish to cut off any form of distraction (whether physical or spiritual) in order to focus my mind on God. I pray and offer novenas in order to enter into a conversation with God. I read the Scriptures because I want to hear God speak to me. I go to the sacraments in order to be strengthened by God’s grace. We desire the gifts but not the Giver and herein lies the problem. We desire the things that God desires when we come closer to Him. Moses drew closer to God and he became the bridge between God and his people. You have such a privilege too by virtue of your Baptism by which you have been brought into communion with God, to be the bridge that connects this world to heaven. And we too will make it to heaven if we constantly keep in close touch with God who knows us, loves us and wants us to enjoy peace and joy here on earth. He does not want to scare us into loving Him. He does not gain anything from that. Rather, God wants us to understand that we are happier (both on earth and in heaven) if we keep His commands, love Him and try to understand His purpose for our lives.
JUDE-MARY OWOH
Prayer:
May the grace of God help me to grow in my love for Him, make daily progress on my spiritual path, and bless me in every possible way through Christ our Lord.
Father, let Your Resurrection power, the breadth of life rejuvenate, and quicken my spiritual growth, in Jesus' name.
Lord deliver me from powers that use unimportant but necessary details to draw men away from You, in Jesus' name. Amen.
Let the blood of Jesus cleanse me from every physical and spiritual filth and contamination, in Jesus' name.
Let the blood of Jesus revitalise and renew my strength, in Jesus' name.
Lord breathe your breadth on my bones, body, soul, and spirit, in Jesus' name
Lord visit every Christian home with your love and mercy, and reawaken the head of the family to his divine duties, in Jesus' name.
Father, we hand over our children, youths, and young adults to Your fatherly care, raise them up by Yourself, in Jesus' name.
Lord, raise a generation of genuine ministers of God to serve You according to Your word in Matthew 6:33, in Jesus' name.
Thank You Lord for holding our nation together by Your mighty hand of Power; our nation will be great, in Jesus' name Amen.
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