THE ONE THING NECESSARY

TUESDAY, TWENTY SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Gal 1:13-24; Ps 139:1-3,13-15; Lk 10:38-42

Charity receives from God

Saint Paul uses his own life to highlight the subtle departure of the way of sin or wickedness from righteousness. Growing up with his parents who were practising Jews, he learnt the tradition of his people, the Jewish people, and became a Pharisee. He was zealous for the Law of God and persecuted Christians who were seemingly unrighteous in the view of the Pharisees and their ancient tradition. Nothing in his human ability would have helped him to realise he was in error and utterly sinful before God. “You must have heard of my career as a practising Jew, how merciless I was in persecuting the Church of God, how much damage I did to it, how I stood out among other Jews of my generation, and how enthusiastic I was for the traditions of my ancestors.” He correctly referred to his life then as following the tradition of his ancestors and not the tradition of God.

It is important to receive directly from God what we must hold onto and pass on. What we receive from God is solidly established in the tradition of the Church and will illuminate its practice. We must note that the practice may remain the same, but the emphasis makes a world of difference. The evil one leads unwary souls to place the emphasis wrongly; the wrong placement of emphasis is the subtlety we speak of in our obedience to the Law of God. If God’s grace were not given to us, the serpent would surely lead each of us astray. Paul recognised the work of grace in his coming to knowledge of God’s will. “Then God, who had specially chosen me while I was still in my mother’s womb, called me through his grace and chose to reveal his Son in me, so that I might preach the Good News about him to the pagans.” Thus, the Gospel is always revealed to us directly from God. The Gospel is about Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word of God, who illumines every man that comes into the world. It is the Father’s will for each of us to receive the gift of his Son as Paul did, but we must pay attention to God for this to happen. Paul went to Arabia for three years to listen attentively to God. Through attentiveness, he was able to distinguish between divine worship and following a ritual or tradition.

Many people follow ritual in the Church, but do not worship God. We can easily become one of them. When we follow ritual or tradition only, we worship ourselves and not God. Our happiness or contentment comes from knowing that we have attended Church on Sunday and have not consciously committed any sin. We sing in the choir, join many pious associations, pay tithe, give away to charity, etc. We do all these to please ourselves and not to please God as such. The Law or ritual is not evil, but we must receive it from God as a real presence on which we place emphasis and worship. Our Lord enlightens us in the narrative on Mary and Martha. When Martha complained of Mary’s attitude of sitting at the feet of Jesus listening, our Lord replied: “Martha, Martha, you worry and fret about so many things, and yet few are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part; it is not to be taken from her.” Our first religious and eternal duty is to give our attention to God and understand his divine will for us. Every other activity flow from there. God gives himself when he reveals his will; we receive, worship, and dedicate our lives to it. The divine will for each of us reveals who we are and why we were made. “O Lord, you search me and you know me, you know my resting and my rising. You mark when I walk or lie down, all my ways lie open to you.”

Let us pray: Almighty ever-living God, who in the abundance of your kindness surpass the merits and the desires of those who entreat you, pour out your mercy upon us to pardon what conscience dreads and to give what prayer does not dare to ask. 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.