HUNGER FOR GOD'S WILL


TUESDAY, TENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 

1 Kings 17:7-16; Ps 4:2-5,7-8; Mt 5:13-16

Salted by Communion with God

Without a constant communion with God, it is impossible to please God always or to be like him. As we have previously noted, God sends His word, which is our daily bread, to establish this daily communion with us and gradually transform us into His likeness. The belief that we become what we eat is true, not only with regard to physical food, but also for spiritual food. Our spiritual food consists of what we fill our minds and set our hearts on daily. The Eternal Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us for this purpose, that the bread of angels may become the bread of men on earth. But it is one thing to serve someone a delicious food, and another thing for the person to have a relish or hunger for the food. By sending His Son in human flesh, God has set a heavenly, delicious, and enriching food and drink before us. Cf. Isa 25:6. We have to work on ourselves to desire the food God has given us. We need to pray for God’s grace to desire and relish the spiritual food he gives us daily. With our minds meditating on and contemplating the life-giving words of the Son of Man, we venerate his humble state and dispositions during his earthly dwelling with us, becoming expressions of the will of God the Father for ourselves and for others.

The Psalm expresses the joy of those who truly hunger and thirst for the revelation of God’s will, which is better than the joy of eating any material food and drink. “‘What can bring us happiness?’ many say. Lift up the light of your face on us, O Lord. You have put into my heart a greater joy than they have from abundance of corn and new wine.” The poor widow of Zarephath heard the will of God from the prophet Elijah and harkened to it. Note that the word of God to Elijah says the widow had been commanded to feed the prophet. But the scripture did not reveal any explicit command given to the widow, but what he heard from Elijah himself. “And when he reached the city gate, there was a widow gathering sticks; addressing her, he said, ‘Please bring me a little water in a vessel for me to drink.’ She was setting off to bring it when he called after her. ‘Please’ he said ‘bring me a scrap of bread in your hand.’ ‘As the Lord your God lives,’ she replied ‘I have no baked bread, but only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a jug; I am gathering a stick or two to go and prepare this for myself and my son to eat, and then we shall die.” Elijah, after reassuring her, gave her the word of the Lord. “For thus the Lord speaks, the God of Israel: “Jar of meal shall not be spent, jug of oil shall not be emptied, before the day when the Lord sends rain on the face of the earth.”” God relied on the widow of Zarephath because she had a habit of obeying God, which is her dedication to God.  

The light of God’s face shines upon us in our dedication to the Son of Man and produces a divine structure in us, which makes us channels of God’s expression of his will. This structure produced in us by the word of God is why Jesus called the disciples "salt" and "light of the world" in the Gospel. “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt becomes tasteless, what can make it salty again? It is good for nothing, and can only be thrown out to be trampled underfoot by men.” That this salt can become tasteless means we can lose the structure of faith produced within us by the word of God. So, the structure is not automatic, but depends on our cooperation with God’s will. The same applies to the light within us. “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hilltop cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp to put it under a tub; they put it on the lamp-stand where it shines for everyone in the house.” Subsequently, a habit of obedience to God’s word causes God to dwell within us. This is the desired goal or effect of our Eucharistic celebration and reception. By eating his body and drinking his blood, we become loyal children of God; mirrors reflecting God’s radiant face to the world.

Let us pray: O God, from whom all good things come, grant that we, who call on you in our need, may at your prompting discern what is right, and by your guidance do it. 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

CALLED TO KNOW AND PROCLAIM THE GOSPEL

Image
THE CONVERSION SAINT PAUL, APOSTLE Acts 22:3-16; Ps 117; Mk 16:15-18 Proclamation of the Gospel of the New Covenant Celebrating the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul brings us to a deeper reflection on the meaning and implication of the new covenant in Jesus Christ. As Paul himself narrated in the first reading to his people in Jerusalem, he was so zealous in the practice of Judaism, the religion of his fathers, that his eyes were closed to the new realities and relations God had brought into existence. Though these new realities and relations were prophesied by the prophets and the Law pointed to them, Paul and many of his contemporaries were blind to them. His words are: “I am a Jew and was born at Tarsus in Cilicia. I was brought up here in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was taught the exact observance of the Law of our ancestors. In fact, I was as full of duty towards God as you are today.” These words of Paul testify that zeal without the knowledge of the will o...
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

OUR PRAYERS BEFORE GOD LIKE INCENSE

Image
  SATURDAY, SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP  James 5:13-20; Ps 141:1-3,8; Mk 10:13-16 Let my Prayer come before you like Incense We ascertain the spiritual health of a Christian through the quality of his prayer life. As we have stated many times in our reflections, prayer is the first operation of the spiritual life. Hence, prayer  commences as  a vital activity of our new life in the Holy Spirit. Just as St. Paul wrote that nobody can say Jesus is Lord without the Holy Spirit, nobody can pray without the Holy Spirit giving him the faculty or power to do so. Prayer is a spiritual exercise that requires our being alive spiritually before we can pray. When we receive spiritual life from God the Father through the merit of our Lord Jesus Christ, we reach out to God in prayer as a newborn baby does for its mother’s breast. The Holy Spirit nourishes us on spiritual milk that belongs to Jesus Christ; he is our spiritual food or b...
Read more