COLLECT: “GRANT, WE PRAY, O LORD, THAT, SCHOOLED THROUGH LENTEN OBSERVANCE AND NOURISHED BY YOUR WORD, THROUGH HOLY RESTRAINT WE MAY BE DEVOTED TO YOU WITH ALL OUR HEART AND BE EVER UNITED IN PRAYER. THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, YOUR SON, WHO LIVES AND REIGNS WITH YOU IN THE UNITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, GOD, FOR EVER AND EVER. AMEN”.
Deut 4:1,5-9; Ps 147:12-13,15-16,19-20 and Mt 5:17-19
Today’s readings place before us the need to observe the commandments of God, and maybe, other commandments, rules and regulations. The readings also urge us about the need to teach others to keep and observe God’s commandments as well as other rules and regulations. We are urged not to teach others wrong things.
One of the Ten Commandments has it that we should honour our parents, so that our days may be long. In other words, the condition for one to live long, not only in this life, but in the life to come, is to obey, respect and honour God and one’s parents. Long life is a blessing. Indeed, God has a reason for giving the Commandments to his people.
These Commandments were to unite the Hebrews (later, the Israelites) as one people and as one nation. The Commandments were to safeguard life, to protect the weak in the community, to guide the people toward a lifestyle that would be healthy, upright and devoted to God, as well as to point out sin and to show the proper way to deal with sin. If the laws do all these things for the people, then it means they are blessed and by implication, they will live long. Any law that is good and has the spirit of God, aims at bringing blessings and benefits to the people.
This is the picture we have in the portion of the Book of Deuteronomy (4:1,5-9) that we reflect on today. Moses is encouraging the people of Israel to look at the law as a blessing, telling them how it benefits them. By their fidelity to God’s Commandments/Law, they appear wise and intelligent, and are favoured with a close relationship with God (living a blessed long life in the here and in the hereafter).
Jesus reinforces the perception that the law is a blessing and it benefits people and those who faithfully follow the spirit (not the letter) of the law are wise, intelligent and they develop a very close relationship with God. Therefore, knowing what the law can do for people e, Jesus assures his followers that he has come not to destroy or abolish the law, but to fulfil it, to put things right and perfect it (Cf. Mt 5:17-19).
Indeed, it is not only the Commandments of God that aim at bringing blessings and benefits to/for human beings, but any law that is good and has the spirit of God behind it can bring blessings and benefits to us and eventually will make us live long, both in this world and in the world to come. The condition is that we must obey the spirit of these laws otherwise the blessings and benefits will not come and therefore we will not live long lives here and in the hereafter.
Therefore, in a society or a nation where people violate the laws and norms and people disobey the laws and constantly break and pervert the laws, that society or nation is bound to experience curses, chaos, failures, and what have you. Similarly, an individual(s) who violates the laws of the society or nation, disobeys and constantly perverts the laws is a cursed person, living a life of failure, confusion and unproductivity. Let us learn during this season of Lent to faithfully obey God’s Commandments as well as the good laws of our Nations and Societies, so that our days may be long both here, and in the life to come. Stay blessed.
WE MEDITATE TODAY, WEDNESDAY, ON THE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES: ‘THE RESURRECTION, THE ASCENSION, THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE ASSUMPTION, AND THE CORONATION’. (WE PRAY FOR FAITH, HOPE, LOVE OF GOD, GRACE OF A HAPPY DEATH AND TRUST IN MARY’S INTERCESSION) “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen”.
PRAYER: “MAY THE HEAVENLY BANQUET, AT WHICH WE HAVE BEEN FED, SANCTIFY US, O LORD, AND, CLEANSE US OF ALL ERRORS, MAKE US WORTHY OF YOUR PROMISES FROM ON HIGH. THROUGH CHRIST OUR LORD. AMEN”.
Rev. Fr. Aloysius Kpiebaya, Catholic Diocese of Wa, UW/R, Ghana. (00233) 0207867239/0545462863. Email: aloybaya20@yahoo.com
No comments yet. Be the first to comment!