One Needs Steadfastness to Keep Laws of God!

 

33rd week Wednesday in Ordinary Time

Year One

2 Macc 7:1,20-31

Meditation

One Needs Steadfastness to Keep Laws of God!

Commitment to laws, rules and ways of God is gift. God gives strength to keep his commandment, such people are witness to God and benefit of keeping commandment of God. The seven brothers were forced eat swine flesh and thus disobey their law of God and God himself. The law and rule they believed was followed even at the death of these seven brothers. Their mother encouraged them to love God and follow the command of God at cost of her own sons death. She is really a courageous mother and model to all mothers to let her sons choose God and his laws before the temporal life. The younger brother is promised money, honour, position and status by the king but even though he was young at the encouragement of his mother choose death for the sake of keeping the law of God. It is really heroic and great lesion to keep in mind as we are inclined to trespass the laws of God.

Are we aware we need strong will and determination to keep the laws of God?

Year Two

Rev 4:1-11

Let the Name of God be Blessed!

The twenty-four elders signify the heads of 12 tribes of Israel and 12 Apostles. Twenty-four is a holy and lucky biblical number. They form twenty-four elders of the Churches. Their being seated on the thorn with crowns signifies their authority. They are in heaven to praise God twenty-four hours a day. God is praised unceasingly on twenty-four hours of the day, i.e., at every moment. We are invited to praise God unceasingly on earth and in heaven.

The four beasts with six wings refer to Man representing the Gospel of Mathew; the lion the gospel of Mark; the calf the Gospel of Luke and the eagle the Gospel of John. The word of God is praised worshipped and lived. The word of God is living and powerful. The Prayer is “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” “Worthy are you our Lord and God, to receive glory, honour, and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Are we aware that our life is to give praise to God?

Lk 19:11-28

Look Towards Eternity!

Then the other came, saying, ‘Lord, here is your pound. I wrapped it up in a piece of cloth, for I was afraid of you, because you are a harsh man; you take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.’  He said to him, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked slave! You knew, did you, that I was a harsh man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow?  Why, then, did you not put my money into the bank? Then when I returned, I could have collected it with interest.’  He said to the bystanders, ‘Take the pound from him and give it to the one who has ten pounds.’ (Lk 19:20-24).

We deal with others the way we think and the way we deal with ourselves. The man who did not do anything with pound was like a man who was hard with himself and so thought the master too would be hard with him. He did not invest the money to make it multiply. The pound is our state of being and state of our life. We need to learn to alternate the ways of thinking and being from ourselves. As long as we are into our own thought pattern we get stuck and we do not be fruitful in the Kingdom of God. Let us open to others' thought pattern and the new ways so that we may think differently and invest for the Good.

Do I take chance to see the alternative ways of looking at life and reality?

Fr Putti Anthaiah, sdb