FORGIVE, FOR WE ARE FORGIVEN


SAINT PATRICK, BISHOP, MISSIONARY

Dan 9:4-10; Ps 79:8-9,11,13; Lk 6:36-38

Forgiveness as Key to Gospel Preaching

The opening prayer for Saint Patrick asks God to grant us the grace of never ceasing to proclaim the wonders of God to all people through the merits and intercession of the Saint. We consider our cessation of proclaiming God’s glory and wonders to all people the root cause of our sins. We have understood charity as the essence of our Christian vocation and life and explained it as God living and operating in and through us. The Christian vocation is a continuous proclamation of the glory and wonders of God to the people around us. Our sins, therefore, consist of not living our Christian vocation, namely, not listening and following our Lord Jesus Christ. As on the mountain of Transfiguration, the Father recommended his Son to us and bid us to listen to him. Listening to Jesus Christ means following his sacrificial life. Prophet Danial’s confession of the sins of the people of God outlines this lesson for us. “O Lord, God great and to be feared, you keep the covenant and have kindness for those who love you and keep your commandments: we have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly, we have betrayed your commandments and your ordinances and turned away from them.” Our sins consist in turning away from God.

God’s glory and wonders manifest in keeping the covenant with us and his faithfulness to his word. All his nonrational creatures follow the example of God’s steadfastness in the constancy of their essences and operations. He brings us, his injured rational creatures, to a formal commitment to his word, to safeguard us in his word, which is the path to his glory. Bringing us back to communion with him through his word is God's merciful and compassionate act. Awareness of this makes us understand that compassion and forgiveness are essential in our adoption as his children. Thus, Daniel proclaims God’s integrity as central in his dealings with his people. “Integrity, Lord, is yours; ours the look of shame we wear today, we, the people of Judah, the citizens of Jerusalem, the whole of Israel, near and far away, in every country to which you have dispersed us because of the treason we have committed against you.” They committed treason by acting against the very foundation of their covenant and communion with God.

The same applies to us as members and children of the Church, the Bride of Jesus Christ, the crucified Lord. What brought us into communion with God through the Holy Spirit is the forgiveness we received through the sacrificial death of his Son, Jesus Christ. For a Christian not to forgive sins is a treasonable act against the blood of the Lamb that saved us and constituted us the body of Jesus Christ and the children of God. Our vocation is to proclaim the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ by living the pattern of his life. His injunctions in the Gospel summarise this mandate. “Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge, and you will not be judged yourselves; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned yourselves; grant pardon, and you will be pardoned.” These describe the life of Saint Patrick, born in 385 and died in 461. He was a great missionary to Ireland. He modelled his life on that of Jesus Christ and convinced many people of God’s infinite mercy and forgiveness. He endured many hardships and opposition from friends, fellow Christians, and foes alike. He worked as a simple bishop among those he served formerly as a slave and fearlessly preached the Gospel. Many believed in the Gospel, accepted baptism and became Christians. The Church in Nigeria benefitted from his missionary work because many Irish priests and religious worked in Nigeria.

Let us pray: O God, who chose the Bishop Saint Patrick to preach your glory to the peoples of Ireland, grant, through his merits and intercession, that those who glory in the name of Christian may never cease to proclaim your wondrous deeds to all.  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.    

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

WE CANNOT ENTER INTO HEAVEN WITHOUT FAITH

Image
OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP  Isa 7:1-9; Ps 48:2-8; Mt 11:20-24 If you do not stand by Me, you will not stand at all The Lord Jesus Christ takes up the issue of rejecting or ignoring the Gospel message when it comes to us in the gospel reading today. The word of God contains all the blessings of heaven which God had given us in Christ before the beginning of the world. Hence, a rejection or refusal to accept or listen to the Gospel message is a rejection of all the heavenly blessings we have received in Jesus Christ. These divine blessings have import for our lives here on earth. While still dwelling here on earth, those who believe in the word of God already possess the heavenly inheritance God will fully manifest to us when we exit this mortal tent. By faith, we enter into the eternal kingdom and the promised inheritance. The importance of faith for our reception of the heavenly blessings here on earth is illustrated in the first reading...
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