THE STABILITY OF THE CITY OF GOD

 


TUESDAY, TWELFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP 

2 Kings 19:9-11,14-21,31-36; Ps 48:2-4,10-11; Mt 7:6,12-14

God upholds his City for ever

We go further on the theme of this week’s reflection, namely, the training of the new man. Because the new man is truly born in the image and likeness of God, he lives off the Holy Spirit of God. His constant vision of God establishes his ways on the stable plan God made before we were conceived. Because God’s plan and establishment can never totter, the new man lives in the City of God within each believer in Jesus Christ. Established by the word of God, the City is a heavenly and spiritual reality that gradually takes on a material or concrete representation each day as we model our daily living on the word of God and not on the variations and variabilities of this present world. Thus, we have affirmed that when we fix our vision on Jesus Christ, the author and goal of our faith, our lives remain solidly secure on the Rock that is the word of God. To remove our gaze from the Lord and fix it on the riches, pleasures, wealth, or anything of this world is to start riding the turbulent waters of material creatures.

The first reading from Second Kings gives us an illustration of the truth we are reflecting on. The King of Judah, Hezekiah, and the people of Judah form an example of the City of God characterised by faith in the word of God and the worship of the true God of heaven. By that fact, the God of all creation made his dwelling in the Temple in Jerusalem. Thus, when Sennacherib, King of the Assyrians, whose trust was in his powerful army, threatened Hezekiah, the King, and his people, he was afraid because of the report of the destruction of many kingdoms by the Assyrians. But recalling the presence of God of heaven in his Temple in Jerusalem, he took the letter of threat from Sennacherib to God. He made the following prayer in the Temple before the Lord. “O Lord of Host, God of Israel, enthroned on the cherubs, you alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth, you have made heaven and earth. ‘Give ear, Lord and listen. Open your eyes, Lord, and see. Hear the words of Sennacherib who has sent to insult the living God… But now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, I pray you, and let all the kingdoms of the earth know that you alone are God, Lord.’” The King’s prayer was well formulated and offered to God. It conformed to the format of the prayer the Lord taught us, which we treated last week. It could be summed up in the following petition: ‘Let your Kingdom come.’ Jerusalem and her people remained intact because she had her trust in the word of God. Her faith and trust in God made her part of God’s Kingdom. God destroyed Sennacherib and his huge army with no external force.

Hezekiah, the King of Judah, was able to ward off the attack of the fearsome Assyrian army and treated them as an illusion because he had trained himself to fix his gaze on the word of God and not on material things. To achieve this feat, we must learn to walk on the hard and thorny path and enter through the narrow gate into the City of God. “Enter by the narrow gate, since the road that leads to perdition is wide and spacious, and many take it; but it is narrow gate and a hard road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” It is easy to follow the trending fashion, pleasure, music, and lifestyle of the passing world. One who is trendy must understand that he is cruising on the wide road leading to destruction and hell. To such souls, the word of God is not attractive, for their interest is in the passing things. They throw away the most valuable things in the world and keep the most despicable things, worldly fame, praise, pleasure, wealth, etc. The Lord refers to those who have no taste for the word of God as dogs and pigs. “Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls in front of pigs, or they may trample them and then turn on you and tear you to pieces.” To gain access to the City of God that is safe and stable within us, we must train ourselves to relish the word of God and walk the narrow and thorny path of self-discipline and mortification of our senses and desires. Let us learn to dwell in the City of God within, as Hezekiah dwelt in Jerusalem, frequenting the Temple of God. ‘God upholds his city for ever.’

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, the grace to fix our gaze constantly on Jesus Christ and build our lives on his Gospel message, that we may walk the narrow and thorny path and enter the narrow gate into the City of Peace, where he lives and reigns forever and ever.

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