The Rule of God's Mercy

 Reflection on Today's Readings, Saturday of 22nd Week in Ordinary Time,  Year 1, September 4th, 2021
Texts: Col.1:21-23; Ps. 54:3-4.6.8;  Luke 6:1-5
What all of us are enjoying is the mercy of God. It is the mercy of God that has led us this far. We have to know that we are the product of God's mercy so that we may learn to be merciful. Our inability to recognise that we are the product of God's mercy could lead to pride and bad management of human resources. When we think that our success is by our efforts alone, it could make us drive hard the people in lower social ladder. It could also harden our hearts against them. In today's first reading, St. Paul reminds us of how we are saved by God's mercy when he says, "You, who once were estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in Christ’s body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him". We were sinners when He met us, we had no good to deserve what He offered us.
St. Paul goes further to tell us how to sustain the grace God has given us by His mercy. He says, "in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him, provided that you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel which you heard". This means we attain sanctification by our persistence in faith and steadfastness of hope.
Jesus, in today's gospel reading, affirms the message that we become irreproachable by our faith in Him. In Jesus Christ we are above the law. This is because to be in Christ is to fulfil the requirements of the law. The holiness we attain by our faith in Christ makes us to live above the law. When we are holy we are above the law.
Jesus says,  “The Son of man is lord of the sabbath.” He is the Lord of the sabbath because the sabbath is His making, it is subject to His will. Jesus makes sabbath what it is. He is the judge in the matters of sabbath; He determines who breaks sabbath law or not. By our faith and hope in Jesus Christ, we are set free by Him from the law. When Christ has set us free, no one can charge us with sin. Jesus makes His own truly irreproachable.

Thank You, Lord, for your mercy and love, grant that we may always show  forth Your mercy and love in our lives. Amen.

Fr. Andrew Olowomuke