SHARING THE HOLINESS OF GOD


MONDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT   

Levi 19:1-2,11-18; Ps 19:8-10,15; Mt 25:31-46

Seeing Jesus Christ in the Needy

Meditating on the words of God, spoken through Moses to the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt, it is evident that God intended the community of the people of Israel to reflect his own holiness as the people of God. The question remains whether human persons can attain the holiness of God in this mortal life. The Commandments were given as the guiding principles of the relationship between the people and God, as well as the relationship among themselves. The instruction given by God through Moses was for the people to constantly ruminate on the word of God they had received. God affected the people through the revelation of His divine will for them through Moses. The constant meditation on the word would instil the Spirit of God in those who obey the instruction given to them. Thus, the reason they were to live justly and wisely is that God is with them in their communities. Their lives were to demonstrate this fact to all.

The communion God desired with the people of Israel would be possible only through their sharing the holiness of God. They could share in the holiness of God only by faithfully living on his words. The possession of the word of God is the possession of God. So, Moses instructed them to imitate the holiness of God. “Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. You must not steal nor deal deceitfully or fraudulently with your neighbour. You must not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God. I am the Lord.” The whole instruction is accentuated with the statement: ‘I am the Lord.’ This shows that the power and authority of the instructions draw from that of God. The words came with the divine Spirit as from God to the people. The awe and the fear of the Lord their God were to drive the hearer to keep the injunctions. Based on this, the psalmist writes: “The law of the Lord is perfect, it revives the soul. The rule of the Lord is to be trusted; it gives wisdom to the simple.” Hence, to hear and keep the word of God is to grow in wisdom and cultivate healthy virtues for a happy life. Because we are always experiencing different realities and things, we must find a way to keep the word of God within us. Without this continuity of the word of God within us, we risk forgetting the demand of God’s presence with us. We are creatures of habit; we must form the habit of listening and meditating on the word of God.

The Christian people inherit the presence of God that was given to the people of Israel in the Old Testament in a new way. The word of God is not just given in abstraction, as was the case with the Jewish people, but concretely given in Jesus Christ. In place of relating to the abstract word of God, we are to establish a personal relationship with the Incarnate Word of God, Jesus Christ. His presence and His Gospel must be the foundation of our relationship with one another. This is the basis for the requirements for scaling the demands of the last judgement. We must see Jesus in everyone and relate to them on that basis. We are his sheep if we hear his voice and do as he instructed us to do; that is, treat everyone as Jesus Christ. “Then the King will say to those on his right hand, 'Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take for your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world. For I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you made me welcome; naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me.’” In developing this mindset of seeing Christ in everyone, we follow the example of Jesus Christ, who sees each of us as a child of God, whom he suffered to save from eternal damnation. Hence, the damnation of any soul would be the lack of the same love with which Jesus loved him. Inability to reciprocate the gesture of Christ to them, for which he sends the Holy Spirit to us.

Let us pray: Convert us, O God our Saviour, and instruct our minds by heavenly teaching, that we may benefit from the works of Lent. 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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