Reflection on Today's Readings, Sunday of 13th Week in Ordinary Time, Year B, June 27th, 2021
Texts: Wis.1:13-15; 2:23-24; Ps 30:2 and 4-6.11-12a.13b; 2 Cor. 8:7.9.13-15; Mark 5:21-43
We might have asked the question, 'why death'. People who are battling with one ailment or the other could not understand why there is sickness at all. Evil is not limited to death and sickness. We have evil like oppression, injustice, slander, hatred, malice, abuse, maltreatment, terrorism, kidnapping, armed robbery, bribery and corruption, abuse of power, etc. In our dear Country there are a lot of questions bordering our minds now. We could not understand why the innocent are kidnapped, why the innocent fall victim to terrorism. COVID19 pandemic is a global challenge that borders everyone. We border ourselves with why there are so much evil in our society. In the face of all these evils our faith is questioned. If the earth and everything in it belong to God as psalm 24 claims, why are there so much evil on earth! How can a God so good create a world filled with so much evil! 'Perhaps, He is not good' we may think. He might be a good God but not the creator of the world. He might be a good God and creator of the world but powerless to conquer evil. He might have been overthrown by an evil God.
However, today we are reminded that God does not will death; it is not His making that we should die. Sickness and pains are not His making. In all, there is no evil in God and He does not create evil. The first reading makes this clear when it says, "God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living. For he created all things that they might exist, and the creatures of the world are wholesome, and there is no destructive poison in them; and the dominion of Hades is not on earth." All the evil we are experiencing are not God's making. God created us to live for ever. He created us to be in good health of mind and body. Immortality and good health are His will for us.
The life of immortality and good health is righteousness. The reading says, "For righteousness is immortal." This means to enjoy immortality and good health is to be righteous. We are to be right with God and man if we are to put an end to evil in the world. If righteousness prevails in our nation, terrorism, kidnapping, bad governance, armed robbery, bribery and corruption etc will be no more. We will also overcome death and sickness. Evils such as injustice, slander, hatred, malice, frustration, oppression, and the likes have led to sickness and death of so many. Righteousness heals the world of such evil. Righteousness is the way out of our problems.
What devil has stolen from us is righteousness. The reading puts it thus: _"For God created man for incorruption, and made him in the image of his own eternity, but through the devil’s envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his party experience it."_ Evils are the making of the devil; he introduced sins into the world. Our nation, our families and as individuals are witnessing the consequences of sins. Sin is a deviation from righteousness; it is the rejection of righteousness. Those of us who welcome hatred, malice, anger, envy, injustice etc belong to the party of the devil. Let us give up hatred, malice, injustice, envy, oppression etc for a better world.
St. Paul, in today's second reading, admonishes us to excel in righteousness. He puts it thus: "As you excel in everything - in faith, in utterance, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in your love for us — see that you excel in this gracious work also." He reminds us that we have at our disposal in Christ the grace to excel in gracious works. Gracious works are the works that build up the world, rather than tearing it apart. We are to help one another and create balance in our world. St. Paul puts it thus: "I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of equality your abundance at the present time should supply their want, so that their abundance may supply your want, that there may be equality." we are to create a world where righteousness prevailed, oppression is no more, hatred, malice, anger, envy and the likes give way for peace and love.
God is not powerless to conquer evil. This is clear in today's gospel reading as Jesus Christ is seen healing the sick and raising the dead. In Jesus we come to realise that God does not will death and sickness. If God had willed it Jesus would have not healed the sick and raised the dead. The gospel reading also shows that it is in Jesus Christ that we conquer death and sickness; in Him we receive the grace to live in righteousness. Hence, in the second reading, St. Paul says, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich." Let us turn to Jesus Christ, our righteousness; He has won for us righteousness by His passion, death and resurrection. He did not just win for us righteousness, He also give us the grace to live the life.
Lord our God, we thank You for the righteousness You have bestowed upon us, grant that we may not waste the grace to live the life of righteousness. Amen.
Fr. Andrew Olowomuke
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