Forget Not His Benefits

 Reflection on Today's Readings, 7th Sunday of Easter, Year B, May 16th, 2021
Texts: Acts 1:15-17.20a.20c-26; Ps. 103:1-2.11-12.19-20; 1John 4:11-16; John 17:11-19
Today's psalm says, "and never forget all his benefits." The problem we have some of the time is that we forget the benefits of God, the good things He has done for us. When we forget the benefits of God, we go astray. The remembrance of His benefits makes us fervent and firm in faith and hope. Simon Peter reminds us of God's benefits thus: "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy" (1Pet. 2:9-10). The point, here, is that He called us out of darkness into His marvellous light, showed us His mercy and granted us the benefit of being His people. Today's psalm adds, "For as the heavens are high above the earth, so strong his mercy for those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far from us does he remove our transgressions." One of His benefits is that He forgives us our sins.
Judas Iscariot forgot the benefits of God and he lapsed into sin and forfeited his office, the gift of God to Him.  We see in judas Iscariot the danger in forgetting the benefits of God. When we forget the benefits of God, we are at loss, as judas Iscariot losed his office. Judas did not value the benefit of having Jesus, he prioritised financial benefits and forgot the benefits of having Jesus in his life.
God, in the first reading, bestowed His benefits on Matthias; He made him an apostle, a witness to His resurrection. Matthias moved from being ordinary disciple to the status of apostle.
John, in today's second reading, talks of the benefits of God and the responsibility it places on us. He says, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." God has shown us His love, so that we can also love others. We are not to waste the benefits of God in our lives. The benefits of God must be fruitful in our lives. God has blessed us so as to be blessing to others. God has given us gift so as to learn how to give gift to others. He forgives us so that we may forgive others. He made us His people in order that we may proclaim His mighty deeds. He helped us that we may help others. He loves us so that we may love others. Failure to love others is a denial of God's love to us. God's love always overflows. John, in the second reading, says, "if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us." When we forget  the benefits of God, we lose the sense of good, we lose the sense of love.
One of the benefits of God's love to us is His Spirit. It is the indwelling of God's Spirit in us that gives us the assurance that we are in God. John, in the second reading, puts it thus: "By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us his own Spirit." If we forget the benefits of His Spirit, then we will lose contact with God; for it is by His Spirit we know that He is in us. If we do not forget the benefit of God's Spirit, we will not grieve Him by our sins. If we do not forget the benefit of the Holy Spirit, we will cherish holiness and we will keep our body, His temple, holy. 
Jesus is also the benefit of God's love, for God so loved the world that He gave us His only-begotten Son (John 3:16). In the second reading, he says, "And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Saviour of the world." Until we recognise the love of God, we cannot value the gift of Jesus to us. The benefits of Jesus emphasized in the second reading is that by our faith in Jesus God abides us.  It is said, "Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God."
Today's gospel reading reminds us that Jesus pray for us. We should always keep in mind His prayer for us. If we forget His prayer for us, the prayer will not have any effect for us. He prayed for our protection and unity. If we keep in mind that He has prayed for our protection, we will make our own the words of the psalm: "Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff—they comfort me" (23: 4). If we do not forget that He has prayed for our unity, we will always strive after peace and unity. He also prayed that we may be made holy by His words. He says, "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth." This calls us to live on God's word. If we do not forget that we are Sanctified by His word, a day will not go by without studying and meditating on the word of God.

God our Father, we thank you for all your benefits, grant that we may not forget them but always rejoice in the benefits of your love and goodness. Amen.

Fr. Andrew Olowomuke