THE STABILITY OF THE CITY OF GOD
TUESDAY, TWELFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
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.’
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