CONVERTS FOR HEAVEN OR HELL


MONDAY, TWENTY FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

1 Thess 1:1-5,8-10; Ps 149:1-6,9; Mt 23:13-22

The Idolatry in the Temple

The prophet Isaiah proclaimed the will of Yahweh to send the survivors of the children of Israel to all nations and languages, bringing them into the family of God. Those who will function in that capacity as messengers of Yahweh would be purified of their own wills and desires, to be able to tell people of God’s will and bring them to conform to the divine will by their words and deeds. What Isaiah expresses has always been the noble role Israel was called to play as the people of God. God chose them to carry out his holy will, as a royal and priestly nation, dedicated to proclaiming the will of God to the nations and peoples. As priests of God, they were to give the holiest of things to all peoples and nations, that is, the word of God, enshrining his holy and immutable will. The sacred role is not reserved for Israel alone, but is the role anyone called and elected by God has to play. It is ultimately the role of the Son of Man, who incarnated the will of the Father for us on earth. The prophecy talks about a remnant or survivors because all who were chosen and failed to enter the role, but did their own will, met with death and destruction.

The refusal of most of the children of Israel to embrace the will of God for them brought them disaster. The destruction is because the only path to the blessed end is the doing of the will of God. Our Lord pronounced woes on the scribes and Pharisees in the Gospel due to this. “Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who shut up the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces, neither going in yourselves nor allowing others to go in who want to. Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who travel over sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when you have him, you make him twice as fit for hell as you are.” These are solemn words. They travel to make converts, but for themselves and not for God. They convert people and foreigners to themselves because their religious practices and observances are for their own pleasure and praise of themselves, and not to teach the will of God or to do it. Since the worship of self is idolatry, such a religion is evil before God and will surely end in destruction and death. Hence, Jesus judges them and their converts as subjects of hell. The loss of the word of God is the loss of spiritual light for our journey and mission. Thus, our ignorance of God’s word is ignorance of Jesus and ignorance of the Father’s will. We are blind when we proceed without the knowledge of Jesus Christ. When this is the case, we are not only heading for destruction, we are also causes of death and destruction in the world, because we blindly lead people away from God, into darkness and death.

Unlike the scribes and Pharisees, whom Jesus condemned, Saint Paul praised the Thessalonians for their faith and practice in their daily living. “We always mention you in our prayers and thank God for you all, and constantly remember before God our Father how you have shown your faith in action, worked for love and persevered through hope, in our Lord Jesus Christ.” They received the true Gospel from Saint Paul because he was faithful to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. He made converts to Jesus Christ, and not to himself. The lives and works of his converts gave glory to God and brought light and salvation to many. We have the same vocation, to proclaim the Gospel of salvation to all who come in contact with us every day. It is a difficult task because it involves dying to self and our own will, and doing the will of God in Christ. It is a vocation to sing the praise of our God who has called us out of darkness to his wonderful light in Jesus Christ. “Sing a new song to the Lord, his praise in the assembly of the faithful. Let Israel rejoice in its Maker, let Zion’s sons exult in their king.” The singing of the new song belongs to all the redeemed in Jesus Christ, in unison with all creation doing the will of the Father. It is a new song for us, who are used to doing our own will till the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh and blood. Let us sing in unison to proclaim the glory of the Lamb who has shown us the love of the Father in our redemption.

Let us pray: O God, who cause the minds of the faithful to unite in a single purpose, grant your people to love what you command and to desire what you promise, that, amid the uncertainties of this world, our hearts may be fixed on that place where true gladness is found. 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. 

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