BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO KEEP THE WORD OF GOD


SATURDAY, TWENTY SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Gal 3:22-29; Ps 105:2-7; Lk 11:27-28

The Blessedness of the Faithful

Pual’s highlight of the role of the Law in our reception of the Gospel helped to bring the uniqueness of the blessing received by Christians to the fore. The Law, given to Moses to relay to the children of Israel, Abraham’s descendants, was a great privilege God gave them. Moses confirmed this privilege by telling them to keep the Law of the Lord because that would make them different and distinct from every other nation. All other nations would exclaim and acknowledge the uniqueness of the blessing of the Israelites when they witness the wisdom of the Law guiding their lives and their communion with God fostered by their obedience to the Law cf. Deut. 4:6-8. But this great and unique blessing bestowed on the children of Israel by the gift of the Law was not to separate them from the other men as such but to help make them ready for the gift of the ultimate salvation God promised to all nations, Jews and Gentiles alike. The Law, a revelation of God, is truly divine and promotes their communion with God. But the holiness of the Law was also a hurdle they could not jump over, and therefore, used to chain and discipline their spirits to long for the ultimate deliverance from sin and death. In this sense, the Law also made them equal to the Gentiles concerning sin. “Scripture makes no exceptions when it says that sin is master everywhere.”

Subsequently, sin imprisoned the Gentiles in their unbelief, and the Law they received from God, which they were unable to keep, held the Jews. So, both the Jews and the Gentiles need a Saviour. “In this way the promise can only be given through faith in Jesus and can only be given to those who have this faith.” The Law, according to Paul, was a guardian keeping the Jews and making them ready for the coming of Jesus Christ. This role the Law played for them was also a privilege given to them because of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who faithfully received the promise of salvation from God and hoped for its coming. The Law was instrumental in preparing and guarding a people who would receive the promised blessing to Abraham. Thus, God promised Abraham that he would inherit God, and Abraham received the fulfilment through his progenies. The blessing God promised to Abraham was the Son of Man, who is the Son of God. The purpose of the Law was to prepare a people who would believe in the word of God, hope for its fulfilment, and receive him in due time.

Because the physical progenies of Abraham were chosen for this intermediary purpose and set apart for that, all the unique blessings they received for that purpose ended when the blessing came. Thus, the coming of Christ removed the separation between Jews and Gentiles and made the two one before God. “All baptised in Christ, you have all clothed yourselves in Christ, and there are no more distinctions between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female, but all of you are one in Christ Jesus. Merely by belonging to Christ, you are the posterity of Abraham, the heirs he was promised.” Here, we understand Paul as implying that the physical descendants of Abraham were not the promised posterity, as such, but only those among them who believed and kept the word of the promise given to Abraham. These received the Law but put their faith in God to save them, not by what they have done, but by their trust in God. Our Lord confirmed this conclusion of Paul in the Gospel when he corrected a woman on our basis of blessedness. “As Jesus was speaking, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, ‘Happy the womb that bore you and the breasts you sucked!’ But he replied, ‘Still happier those who hear the word of God and keep it!’” Our greatest blessing comes from our faith in God, which brings us into communion with God. The word of God is an everlasting covenant with those who receive and keep it in their hearts. The concrete realisation of our covenant with God is Jesus Christ. Union with him is the perfection of our Christian journey. This is what we dare not ask of God, but he has granted us.

Let us pray: Almighty ever-living God, who in the abundance of your kindness surpass the merits and the desires of those who entreat you, pour out your mercy upon us to pardon what conscience dreads and to give what prayer does not dare to ask. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

BECOMING A DEPENDABLE FRIEND

Image
FRIDAY, SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eccl 6:5-17; Ps 119:12,16,18,27,34-35; Mk 10:1-12 Making and being a Good Friend The usefulness of a faithful friend is the subject discussed in the passage of Sirach we are considering. From the qualities that make a good friend, we understand that faithfulness depends on the perfection we attain in the formative school of wisdom. The first lesson we learn in nature is faithfulness. The quality of faithfulness is so closely aligned with nature that we consider nature and faithfulness synonyms. The faithfulness of nature, and subsequently of wisdom, is hinted at when we read that wisdom stands at her post/gate daily to beckon the passers-by to turn in and partake of her table. Everything that God made participates in this faithfulness of wisdom in the sense that each remains faithful to his will without failing or leading our minds astray. First, Sirach admonishes us on friendliness to people in general: “A kindly turn of speech multiplies a ...
Read more

UNDERSTANDING OUR AFFLICTIONS

Image
ST. JEROME, PRIEST, DOCTOR Job 1:6-22; Ps 17:1-3,6-7; Lk 9:46-50 Salvation of the Just from the affliction of evil We have the beginning of Job in the first reading today. The reading has many hidden lessons we can learn to foster our relationship with God. The first that seems very obvious is the fact of Satan attending to God with the sons of God. By this, we must understand that every rational creature of God is among his sons. They all attend to God, from whom they receive life and sustenance. God sustains all his creatures in being, both material and immaterial creatures. They also ask God for permission to carry out a course of action. Nothing moves in the heavens and on earth without God knowing and permitting it. The attending of rational creatures is what we call prayer. The good and bad angels pray to God for permission to carry out actions or bring about ends that agree with his divine will. God usually hears or permits these prayers based on his divine justice in acco...
Read more

The offsprings of the Old man and the New Man

Image
Monday, fifth week of lent/2024 Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP Offsprings of Old man and New Man To be able to live the new life within the new Covenant in Jesus Christ, the old life must come to an end. The distinctive difference between the old man and the new man is the focus of desires. The old man and all who live by him have their desires focussed on the satisfaction of self. On the other hand, the new man and those living by him desires only to fulfil God's holy will. Thus, the old man and his offspring obey the law of sin and death. Living for self alone breeds sins, and sin causes death. So, the old man and all living by him are dead and harbingers of death to others. They are adept at manipulating the Law of God to perpetuate their interest and selfish desires. An example of this skill is the treatment the two old judges of Israel in Babylon meted out to Susanna, wife of Joachim, employing the Law of Moses as given in the first reading. “Two elderly men had ...
Read more