Doing the Will of God is his Delight

Reflection on Today's Readings, Monday, 16th Week in Ordinary Time Year II, 20th July, 2020
Texts: Mic. 6:1-4.6-8; Ps. 50:5-6.8-9.16-1721.23; Matt. 12:38-42
One thing that is very difficult for man to give is his will. He could make a lot of excuses instead of giving his will. This plays out in the relationship between God and Israel. God established covenant with the people of Israel and they were to respond to God's love by giving him their will in exchange for his will. It is written thus: "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might" (Deut. 6:4-5). The people of Israel preferred giving offerings and sacrifice to God  instead of giving their will. The people of Israel wanted to do their will instead of God's; they concerned themselves with questions of what sacrifice to offer so as to be pleasing to God. The answer was given thus: "He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" They were asked to do the will of God, not their own will.
The will of God for us is to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with him. To do justice is to give to God and our neighbours their dues and to keep our promises. To love kindness is to be compassionate and charitable. To walk humbly with God is to be ready to listen to him and to obey him. In all walking humbly with God is to subject one's will to his will and to be like him.
The scribes and Pharisees, in today's gospel, were looking for sign before they could give their will to God. Jesus Christ told them that his words are enough to  bring them to repentance: he is greater than Jonah at whose words the Nineveh repented, and Solomon whose words won the heart of the Queen of the South. Hence, what was demanded of them was to keep his words, not looking for sign from him.
Signs, offering and sacrifices are meant to help us to do the will of God; we are pleasing to God by doing his will. Since we cannot do his will by our own power, we need his grace. Signs, offerings, and sacrifices dispose us to receive the grace we need to do his will.

Lord our God, have mercy on us, pardon our stubbornness, may your grace bend our will to yours. Amen.

Fr. Andrew Olowomuke