THE BASIS OF OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS

TUESDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP 

Micah 7:14-15,18-20; Ps 85:2-8; Mt 12:46-50

The Basis of Relationship with Jesus Christ

We started our reflection yesterday by saying that prayer is our search for the face of Jesus. The face of Jesus Christ represents the will of our heavenly Father. The holy will of God is the most sacred thing in the universe, for it runs the universe as an unfailing system. All in heaven do the will of God. No one can separate his will from God’s holy will. This is the source of peace and harmony in heaven.  God’s will represents the holiness of God. Thus, since God’s holiness is unchanging, his will is immutable. God cannot change his sacred will; that will imply imperfection in God. So, when the scriptures say God repented or use similar expressions, we must understand the saying to mean that the condition changed, or men changed or repented to fall in line with God’s immutable will. In many such expressions, we are to understand the authors’ desire to present God anthropomorphically in his interactions with the people. When we ask for forgiveness, our contrite hearts are conditioned to work in harmony with divine will. Confession of sins shows a willingness to accept God’s will, which is the basis of our relationship with God.

We understand prophet Micah’s pleading with God to renew his relationship with his people Israel. “With shepherd’s crook, O Lord, lead your people to pasture, living confined in a forest with meadow land all round. Let them pasture in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old. As in the days when you came out of Egypt grant us to see wonders.” The purpose of the shepherd's crook is to draw back straying sheep to the flock. As we heard from Sunday readings, Yahweh complained of the shepherds who scattered his flock by doing their own will and not what God wanted for the sheep. The sheep scattered because the shepherds lacked the knowledge of God’s will, which is eternal pasture for his flock. So, they cannot lead the flock to the heavenly pasture. This is the cause of their foraging in the forest instead of in the green pasture of Bashan and Gilead. Hence, the flock's coming back to green pasture is not by God changing his divine will but by the shepherd and flock acknowledging their sinful departure from the will of God and returning to it.

Hence, the favour of the Lord is not once, as the Palm seems to present, but constant and forever. It eludes sinners because they walk in darkness without the word of God. Acknowledgment of sins and confession, joined with a renewed willingness to do God’s will re-establishes us in his favour. Our Lord confirms this explanation in teaching that a true relationship with him is based on doing the will of his Father in heaven. He answered the man who distracted his teaching by telling him of the arrival of his mother and brothers wanting to speak with him. “Who is my mother? Who is my brothers? And stretching out his hand towards his disciples he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.” In this answer, our Lord indirectly points out how the Blessed Virgin Mary is also the mother of all who do the will of the Father and not his mother alone; for she surpasses all of us in this quality of doing the will of God. The doing of the will of the Father is so important that Jesus taught us to pray for the grace to do and accept the will of the Father in our daily lives.

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, the grace to understand the importance of doing your will in our daily lives, which you sent your only Begotten Son to reveal to us for our salvation, that we may truly enter your heavenly communion.