God’s Favour Dependent on His Goodness

 Reflection on Today's Readings, Thursday of 3rd Week in Ordinary Time, Year 11, January 27th, 2022
Texts: 2 Samuel 7:18-19.24-29; Psalm 132:1-5.11-14; Mark 4:21 -25
Today David shows gratitude to God for what He has done for him. God has given more than he ever deserves. David's prayer is a prayer from a humble heart. He does not consider himself worthy of God's favour. He says, "Who am I, O Lord GOD, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord GOD; you have spoken also of your servant’s house for a great while to come, and have shown me future generations, O Lord GOD." David gets it right that no one deserves the grace of God. The grace of God is dependent on His goodness, not on man's deeds or goodness. Do we ever think we have done enough that God now owes us? For David it is no; he never thinks his goodness ,faithfulness or obedience to God deserves any favour or makes God owe him. That should also be our thought and attitude to God. Some of us are just obedient or faithful to God because we need favour or solution to one problem or the other. Man's deeds merit nothing  before God, it is His goodness that merits us His favour. If we can merit His favour by ourselves, the coming of Jesus Christ will be needless; incarnation will be useless. God has to assume human nature to win us favour so that God can save man through man. Faith in Jesus Christ merits all things for us. Just like David let us humble ourselves before God, confessing our unworthiness and relying on His goodness, His infinite goodness. Until then we labour in vain. This calls us to put our faith in Jesus Christ, not in our efforts, deeds or goodness. Humility gives power to prayer.
David is not only grateful to God for establishing his house forever but that God is kind enough to reveal it to him. He says, "For you, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to your servant, saying, ‘I will build you a house’; there were your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you." Now we may ask, "Are we grateful to God for the revelation we have in Jesus Christ?" Jesus Christ is the revelation of God to humanity. This revelation is found in the Scripture and Tradition. If we are grateful for the revelation, we will live according to it. Do I ever think my word is of any value to those who do not keep it? If I think so, I will only be deceiving myelf. Any word that is of great value to us we keep dear to our hearts and often repeat them in our heads. We do often share such word too. Do we ever keep God's word dear to our hearts? Do God's words dwell in our hearts? Do we often read it? Do we often meditate on it? Do we often share it? The often at which we look for excuse to push aside God's words is alarming and it shows they are of no or little value to us. The point here is that let us cherish the revelation of God in His words, both Scripture and Tradition, by keeping them. Let us also value the revelation of God in Jesus Christ by living out His gospel values. Let us value the creation and one another, for God do reveal Himself in creation and humanity.
Revelation is a gift of God to us; it is part of our inheritance in Jesus Christ. In today's gospel reading, Jesus says, "Is a lamp brought in to be put under a bushel, or under a bed, and not on a stand? For there is nothing hidden, except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. If any man has ears to hear, let him hear.” Let us be grateful to Jesus Christ for the gift of revelation of God; He loves us so much that He wishes not to hide anything from us but reveal it to us. In Jesus Christ, there is no secret, for all we need for our salvation is already made know to us in Him. No better way to show Him gratitude than to keep His words.
Jesus Christ also reminds us that God gives beyond measure to show that His giving is dependent on His goodness, not on man's deeds or goodness. He says, "Take heed what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you. For to him who has will more be given; and from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” Whatever we have is from God. If we give what God has given us, what good have we done? No good except the willingness to give it, which is a show of love. Whoever refuses to give has no love and for lack of love, what he/she has will be taken away.

Lord our God, grant us the grace to humble ourselves and to always value Your revelation in Your Son, Scripture and Tradition by faithfully keeping Your words. Amen.

Fr. Andrew Olowomuke