Living Under the Influence of the Spirit

 Reflection on Today's Readings, Saturday of 2nd Week in Ordinary Time, Year 11, January 22nd, 2022
Texts: 2 Samuel 1: 1-4.11-12.19.23-27; Psalm 80:2-,3,5-7;
Today's gospel reading reports the discovery of something odd in Jesus that made His relations though He was beside Himself. They thought He was mad because they could not account, within the law of nature, for such a way of life He displayed. When a man laughs without a cause, we say he is mad because laughing without a cause cannot be accounted for in the law of nature. Such a man must have lost control of himself through malfunctioning of the brain or external influence. Jesus Christ was under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Whoever is under the influence of the Holy Spirit displays a striking quality. Such quality manifests in virginity, martyrdom, asceticism, altruism, etc. The striking quality displayed by Jesus Christ, in the gospel reading, was altruism. He let go Himself in service of others. It is said of Him thus: "Jesus went home with his disciples; and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. And when his friends heard it, they went out to seize him, for they said, 'He is beside himself.'”
In today's first reading, David is shown to possess a striking quality: he wept and fasted over the death of Saul, his enemy. Such display of love for enemy is uncommon among men and the law of nature cannot account for it. David wept and fasted over the death of Saul because he was inspired by the love of God; it was because Saul was the Lord's anointed. David acted under the influence of love of God, not operating according to the law of nature. The normalcy under the law of nature is that man rejoices over the death of his enemy, but it was the case for David in the first reading.
We are not yet Christian until we start to live according to the Spirit.We start to live according to the Spirit when we crucify the passions of the body which follow the law of nature. We need to learn to renounce the desires of the body for the promptings of the Spirit. David was good at renouncing the natural desires for God's love. Just like David we should allow the love of God to rule in us; God's love should dominate our lives, guiding and directing the affair of our lives.

God our Father, grant that Your love rules in our lives and that we may be able to renounce natural desires for Your love. Amen.

Fr. Andrew Olowomuke