Reflection on Today's Readings, Thursday of 4th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, February 3rd, 2022
Texts: 1 Kings2:1 - 4.10-12; Psalm 1Chronicles 29:10b-12b; Mark 6:7- 13
Jesus Christ once said to His disciples, "blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Mtt. 5:3). Just as government makes policy to actualize its program so also Jesus gives injunctions to His disciples to bring about the ways of life pleasing to God. He gave them the injunctions that will help them to be poor in spirit, that they might inherit the kingdom of heaven. It is said, "He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics". It is often hard to encounter the love of God in the midst of affluence, there is tendency to be deluded that it is the affluence that provides the security, protection, peace and happiness we enjoy. Affluence has the tendency to obscure the love of God towards us. Jesus asked His disciples to be dispossessed of material things so that they may encounter the love of God and protection. It is the awareness of God’s love and protection that would inspire them to put their faith in Him and put the whole heart and the whole soul in His service. The awareness of God's love and protection would also sustain their hope in God. Reflecting on today's gospel reading makes me realise that when God is stripping me of material possession, He is in a way leading me to go deeper into the ocean of His love and to trust in Him the more. So also you. We might have been praying right from our childhood for affluence and yet nothing has happened; it is not a curse, He only wants you to focus on Him and to be aware of His love. He wants you to know that it is Him that sustains life, protects and secures you.
What should be our concern as Christians is what David told Solomon in today's first reading. He said to him thus: "Be strong, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn; that the Lord may establish his word which he spoke concerning me". We have to be strong, for challenges and trouble times will come. To be a man we have to be self-disciplined and sober. Being a man also means being like Christ. The more we grow in likeness of Christ, the more man we become. The injunction to keep charge of the Lord is to always be on the side of God. Keeping charge of the Lord is to walk in His ways, keep His statues, His commandments, His ordinances, and to acknowledge His deeds (to keep His testimonies).
David makes us realise that it is by being strong, being a man and keeping charge of the Lord that we are prospered in all that we do, wherever we turn and bring to past what God has said concerning us. Neither do we prosper nor fulfil the words of God concerning us by seeking the death of our enemies, cursing some perceived enemies, sleeping in the Church or moving from one church to another, from one pastor to another, from one prophet to another; it is by being strong in the Lord, being a man and keeping charge of the Lord.
Lord our God, we are sorry for those times we have misunderstood You when You are leading us to encounter Your love; grant that we may always be strong and be man enough to keep charge of You. Amen
Fr. Andrew Olowomuke
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