Daily Reflections Feb 16, 2018

Isaiah 58: 1 - 9a; Matthew 9: 14 - 15.

“My heart is heavy and my head hangs in shame. I have faltered and now I am in dismay. My life is of prayer and I try my best to devote my works to Thee. But I grow as a plant choking in a thorn bush for the pressure of this world pushes me down. I beseech you my Lord, my penance is not so pure. I deny myself of pleasures but I weigh down my frustration on those who serve me. Teach me patience and teach me kindness so that I may learn to practice my devotion, not like a hypocrite”.

All faith with no work is dead. We may have the greatest faith, the loveliest devotion, and the most understanding mind. But if we do not introduce love, patience, compassion, mercy, and charity even in the smallest of our actions and reactions towards our neighbours, we continue to be hypocrites and our sin persists. We do love to practice our faith as per the ‘Good Book’ through repentance, fasting, abstinence, prayer, worship and all that the church teaches us. But these are all personal rituals that we need to practice to make our solemn rituals in Church meaningful. In the book of Isaiah 58: 1-9, God summarises His displeasure in the way that we practice our Faith. The Lord is pleased with our devotion so long as it improves our relationship with each other and the way we handle His creation; our universe. But above all these things, God searches and waits patiently for our inner transformation. He wants us to undergo an inner and absolute transformation that will make our Spirit rule over our bodies.And the Lord wants to empower our soul with the gifts of His Holy Spirit so that we become Holy as He Himself is Holy.

The doctrines, the sacraments and the liturgical rituals of the Church are all wonderful. They are practices that bring meaning to the Faith that the Church promulgates. But before we begin to practice all these rituals, God wants us to introspect our relationships with those around us beginning with our families, then the people living around our homes, our work colleagues, our superiors, our subordinates and the people who cross our paths at any moment. God wants us to treat each other with respect, showing kindness, displaying generosity and being compassionate to the extent of being kind and courteous when others display exactly the opposite qualities. To begin this, we must first have love. We must come to terms with the reality that God Loves us and it is for this reason that His Son was crucified. We can only offer what we have. So, if we fundamentally believe, feel and understand God’s love for us, we can spread that love with joy to those who we meet and interact.The sacrifices that we practice must be toned with compassion and mercy towards our fellow beings and not mere displays of penance that only feeds our self-approved righteousness. We must conduct ourselves to obtain favour from God. God must declare us righteous.

Now we must not be over zealous and expect God to act and react as and when we feel like making sacrifices and praying, but we must hold on to faith and hope. It’s true that some of us may practice fasting, prayer, worship and all the personal rituals that the Church teaches us to the last detail. However, all our efforts cannot hold the Lord accountable. Instead, it is the Lord who holds us accountable for He has created us and the environment we live in. God instituted the sacraments, the liturgy and the Church as a means to help us remain close to Him. Nevertheless, our prayers and penances should inspire us to understand what God desires of us and there is no final step to Heaven. Every time we complete one step in our journey to Heaven, we meet the beginning of the next step and we can only be as Holy and righteous as our faith allows us. If we desire to increase our faith, it is only natural that the obstacles, the difficulties and the attacks from the devil will increase. Nevertheless, the devil cannot test us beyond our spiritual capabilities because God is merciful. So, we must be zealous to pursue what God desires of us by introspecting into our consciousness, for God speaks to us within the silence of our hearts. Then, when we meet with God’s expectations and fulfill our role in the world, then our sacrifices will be meaningful, our prayers will be quickly answered and we will glow in the Lord’s blessing.

Ever since God revealed His plan of Salvation to His people and inspired the ancient prophets to prophesy the coming of the Messiah, the Lord’s holy people have been fasting and praying as they awaited His arrival. Even St. John the Baptist and his disciples prayed and fasted for the same cause. Finally, when Jesus was born many people including Simeon and the prophetess Anna thanked God for fulfilling His promise to Israel. But Jesus did not expect the same from His apostles because they were living and learning from the Messiah. They were celebrating the arrival of the Messiah and spreading the good news of God’s Salvation to the children of Israel with much excitement and fervour as they followed Him. The three years of Jesus’ Ministry was a time of great revival for Israel because the Kingdom of God was among them and the Messiah was fulfilling the promise of saving God’s people from their sins. Jesus was apt in the reply He gave toJohn’s disciples in the Gospel of Matthew 9: 14-15. Thereafter the Crucifixion and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Apostles had to practice and inculcate fasting and prayer into the Church that Jesus was founding through them. And we continue in this practice because we must prepare ourselves for the second coming of Jesus Christ when He will separate the goats from His faithful sheep, saving a remnant for God from among the world’s population before He puts an end to sinfulness, vanity and evil. Moreover, we must prepare all the more for the Final Judgement where all our deeds will be exposed before the Throne of God.We must prepare ourselves and not delay anymore because we do not know when the time of Judgement will come and we must do all that is needed to be saved and inherit Eternal Life.

- By Bro Maryo