What makes one feel fulfilled and great?
Our ability to stand firm and resolute to our tenets, principles and values attracts a lot of respect for us.
Before entering the promised land, Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Now, O Israel, give heed to the statutes and the ordinances which I teach you, and do them; that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, gives you. (Deuteronomy 4:1-2.6-8)
According to Moses, keeping the commandments of God makes the people special because they are able to keep the statutes and the ordinances which were given to them. This is what has singled out the Jews as special people because they have been able to live as God requires.
In every culture, people are respected when they are able to keep the norms and rules that guide them. The same was for the Jews in the Old testament and the same for us Christians today. Many non- Christians have been converted to Christianity because they were privileged to meet good Christians who follow the example of Christ.
There is the example of a non-Christian who got converted to Christianity because, according to him, his wife showed him what it means to live like Christ. This is a great testimony.
How do we keep the precepts of the Lord? How do our lives as Christians affect those who come in contact with us?
Gospel…
When the Pharisees, along with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem, gathered around Jesus, they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. Mark 7:1–2
It is truly incomprehensible why the Pharisees and scribes were more concerned about the washing of hands! Their focus on trivialities and unnecessary external practices robbed them of the core demands of their religion, which is the love of God and neighbour.
You can imagine what their myopic and blinded spiritual sight could cause. How could it be that they were in the presence of the Son of God, the Savior of the World, a man of perfect virtue and pure goodness but still couldn’t recognise him?
This is because they had blocked their sights from recognising and understanding the ways of God, the reason they criticised Jesus who came into the world to liberate those in moral, spiritual and psychological bondage.
It is important to ask ourselves some important questions.
First, how do we look at the law? Is it for the liberation of the people or for slavery?
Secondly, how do we interpret the spirit of the law? Does the law focus on love? How do we judge others? Do we judge from external practices and external point of view?
I pray that Almighty God may help us to focus on the love of God and neighbour and not on external practices.
God bless you and have a wonderful Sunday.
Happy New month of September.
Rev. Fr. Ambrose Onyeka Anene SDB is the Parish Priest of Church of the Archangels, Gaduwa, Abuja.
