God is the True Father!

 

22nd Week Saturday in Ordinary Time

Year One

Col 1:21-23

Meditation

 And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled[a] in his fleshly body[b] through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him—provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel.

Humans were lost, hostile in mind and doing evil deeds, but the Lord reconciled them through himself to God and one another. The passion, death and resurrection have brought salvation to humans. The message of Jesus' good news is proclaimed to the entire creation. It is our duty to receive the gospel and live by it faithfully to inherit the Kingdom of God.

God chooses people for his service; St Paul was chosen to do the ministry of the word to the Gentile community. He was the champion of pioneering the faith to many people and nations. He says, ‘owe to me if I do not preach the gospel’. The love of Christ impelled him to preach, teach and proclaim the message of Christ.

Do you know that the message of Christ can give peace to our body, mind and soul?

Year Two

1 Cor 4:6-15

God is the True Father!

For the sake of Christ God’s ministers are different in the sight of the world.  We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honoured, we are dishonoured! To this very hour, we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, and we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment (1 Cor 4:10-13).

The above consideration that St Paul presents to us is a warning that we are servants of the Word of God and masters of the world to bring back to Christ. It is a warning to be ready to face the world and overcome it for the sake of the Kingdom of God. We have no one as a true father on earth. The only true Father is in heaven; we love him and work for his honour. He takes care of us and is a faithful Father.

Do we trust that God is the faithful Father in heaven?

Lk 6:1-5

One Sabbath, while Jesus was going through some grain fields, his disciples plucked some heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them. But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” Jesus answered, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? How he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and gave some to his companions?” Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

Jesus does not encourage the mere external practices without internal conversion. Jesus sees the intention of our action. What matters to him is the heart. Jesus emphasizes that the rule is for man but not the man for the rule. In the process of living our Christian life, we are engaged mostly in observing the external ceremonies and leaving out the real spirit of Christian life in following Jesus as radical disciples. We keep the Lord’s Day Holy not merely as Pharisees did but by living our true Christian life as Jesus wants us to live. Jesus invites us to follow the Spirit of the Law, not the letter of the Law (2 Cor 3:6). Jesus has come to fulfil the law (Mt 5:17), and we are called to fulfil the ‘Law of Christ’ (Gal 6:2).

Do I fulfil the Law of Christ?

Fr. Putti Anthaiah, SDB