God is the Lord of Hope

 

The Lord who initiates the hope will fulfil it.

Reflection on Today's Readings, 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B, June 16th, 2024
Texts: Ezekiel 17:22-24; Psalm 92: 1-2.12-15; 2 Corinthians 5:6-10; Mark 4:26-34 

God is the Lord of hope. He is the Lord of hope because He implants the hope in our hearts and is able to fulfil it. That is the message that prophet Ezekiel communicates in today's first reading. The hope of the people of God was returning to their homeland. St. Paul tells us in the second reading that it is to be at home with the Lord. Ezekiel speaks of liberation from exile while St. Paul speaks of liberation from the body. It is the Lord who initiates the hope and will fulfil it. 

Prophet Ezekiel prophesied when the people of God were in exile and had lost hope of returning home. There was a question mark on the power of God because another people had taken His people into exile. The defeat of a people is the defeat of their God or god. There was a belief that Babylonian god was more powerful than God and had subdued Him.  

I the  Lord bring low the high tree

Prophet Ezekiel told the people that their defeat was not without God Himself. He said this would be clear to them when He had redeemed them. Hence, we read, "And all the trees of the field shall know that I the  Lord bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I the  Lord have spoken, and I will do it."  

In those words, prophet Ezekiel exhorted the people not to lose hope in God and never think that God had been defeated. God Himself was behind their defeat, not god of Babylon. By their liberation God would show that He was the one that gave them up to the Babylonians. Any situation that God does not allow cannot happen. The fact that something happened it was because God had allowed it.

We walk by faith, not by sight

We serve the same God of Israel. No god can defeat our God. No matter what our situation might be, it is not without God. We should never lose hope in Him, for His redemption is near if we keep faith alive in Him. St. Paul exhorts us thus: "We are always of good courage; we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the  Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight." We should always be of good courage and walk by faith. 

Who are those walking by faith? They are those who live by the revelation of God, the truth God has revealed about Himself. These are those who have the word of God as light on their way and lamp for their feet. God reveals Himself in His words. When God's word is our light we walk by faith.  

He knows not how

Jesus Christ speaks to us in the gospel how we grow through God's word. Living by the word of God we grow mysteriously. He says, "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed upon the ground, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he knows not how." The kingdom of God is where God rules and people obey His words. When we live by God's word, God facilitate the fulfilment of our hope. How our hope is fulfilled is God's business, not our own. Our business is to walk by faith in Him. 

Today's Psalm says, "The just will flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a Lebanon cedar. Planted in the house of the  Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit when they are old, still full of sap, still green, to proclaim that the  Lord is upright. In him, my rock, there is no wrong." The just are those who walk by faith, who obey God's word. 

Prayer 

O God, strength of those who hope in you, graciously hear our pleas, and, since without you mortal frailty can do nothing, grant us always the help of your grace, that in following your commands we may please you by our resolve and our deeds. Amen  

Fr. Andrew Olowomuke