GREATNESS IN GOD


TUESDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Deut 31:1-8; Deut 32:3-4,7-9; Mt 18:1-5,10,12-14

The Path to Spiritual Greatness

We should always keep in mind that the measure or standard of the world is not commensurate with the heavenly or spiritual standard. There are two sources of this incommensurability. The first is that we judge the standard of this world by the senses, unlike the spiritual standard that is spiritually discerned and judged. The second is that the judgment or discernment of the standard is relative to us because the standards are materially composed. In contrast, the spiritual standard and the judgment of it are relative to God, who is the Father of spirits and the centre of the spiritual world. We understand the nonmeasurability of faith based on this distinction. Hence, our Lord, addressing the disciples’ plea for an increase in faith, corrected their notion of faith by urging them to exercise their faith, which is nonquantifiable, since it is a spiritual reality. Our faith will bring about the desired effect even when it is as small as a mustard seed. The truth is that faith is a relationship God establishes with us when we receive the gift and believe in his word. God works the effect of faith because of this relationship. God cannot increase our faith as a measurable reality, but we can strengthen our relationship with God by living a faithful life. We strengthen our faith by living on the word of God.

The constant exercise of faith in the word of God and the unseen realities prepared Joshua for his role as the one to lead the people of Israel into the Promised Land. “It is the Lord your God who will cross it at your head to destroy these nations facing you and dispossess them; and Joshua too shall cross at your head, as the Lord has said.” Joshua exercised his faith in God constantly by frequent contemplation of the unseen divine reality in the Tent Meeting. Faith in God has informed his life and formed his worldview and daily activities. Moses enjoined him to lead the people of God to confront the occupants of the land God promised them, not depending on his strength or the number of the people or army with him, but on God alone, who has established a relationship with them by his word, in which they believed. “Be strong, stand firm, have no fear of them, no terror, for the Lord your God is going with you; he will not fail you or desert you.” The object of our faith is the word of God and not ourselves; the word of God is the commitment God made to the course of our well-being and salvation. We must never measure our strength by what we feel or have, but by the word of God, which can never fail. The responsorial invites us to proclaim the name of the Lord and his greatness in faith. “Proclaim the name of the Lord. Oh, tell the greatness of our God! He is the Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are Equity.”

Such proclamation and praise of God’s name is the activity of faith. We praise and exalt the name of the Lord at all times, not because God has realised everything we desire, but in faith in his real presence among us and within us. The Lord describes this attitude as that of children before their parents. Our acquisition of a spiritual attitude of faith makes us great spiritually, as Joshua was, who led the people to cross the Jordan into the Promised Land. “So he called a little child to him and set the child in front of them. Then he said, ‘I tell you solemnly, unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. And so, the one who makes himself as little as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’” The little our Lord means here is not in measurable quantity, but spiritually understood as the attitude of faithful dependency on God, as little children depend on their parents. Our Lord went on to explain why such spiritual littleness translates to greatness. When we have faith in God, we represent God and act as his sacrament. “Anyone who welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.” Jesus is the eternal Word. When we believe in him, we make him real and present around us. Our Lord also explained that our faith in the word of God involves the heavenly angels who are ever on guard to execute God's will. Our lives must encourage these little ones, the faithful, and not scandalise them. 

Let us pray: Almighty ever-living God, whom, taught by the Holy Spirit, we dare to call our Father, bring, we pray, to perfection in our hearts the spirit of adoption as your sons and daughters, that we may merit to enter into the inheritance which you have promised. 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

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