GOD’S WORD FOR THE DAY (based on Catholic Liturgical Readings)
DATE: 21ST JULY 2016
THURSDAY OF THE 16TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
1ST READING: Jeremiah 2:1-3, 7-8, 12-13
PSALM: Psalm 36:6-11
GOSPEL: Matthew 13:10-17
THEME: WHEN LOVE TURNS SOUR
She was really in love with him and threw everything she had into the relationship. Even for their marriage, she went against the conventional norm and bought many of the needed items herself because the man’s job was not fetching him much at that time. It was love at first sight. Their wedding was beautiful – at least the photos and video attest to that. Everything appeared to be on track; it seemed like a dream come true for her until some few months into the marriage, the dark clouds suddenly enveloped the sun and the moon in the honeymoon failed to yield its light.
She gave him everything a woman would give a man and yet he was never satisfied. She soon discovered that the one she had put all her faith in was an unfaithful man, who took delight in changing women as one would change his clothes. Her faithfulness had been paid back with unfaithfulness and the result was a broken heart.
The relationship between Adonai and Israel is couched in a marriage metaphor in our First Reading. The Lord recounts his love story with Israel in words that sound like a person going through the unpleasant experience of a broken heart – “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown…I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruits and its good things. But when you entered you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination…for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water” (Jer 2:2,7,13).
The grace-filled opportunity to enter the “promised land” – the land of “milk and honey” – should have deepened the faith of the Israelites in Adonai, their God but unfortunately some abused this opportunity and offered worship to Baal and other gods.
The love-story between God and Israel is the story of each one of us. God has, indisputably, revealed his love and faithfulness towards us. His greatest proof of love is shown in the giving of his only begotten son to us (cf. John 3:16). Unfortunately, many of us respond to this love of God with acts of unfaithfulness, doing things that only break the “heart of God”.
God, however, remains faithful even if we are unfaithful. In and through the person of his Son Jesus Christ, he calls us back unto himself and offers us a Kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Yes, God is able to make a love turned sour sweet again.
Eternal Father, I admit my unfaithfulness to you in many ways. I acknowledge my waywardness and beg for pardon. For the sake of your son Jesus Christ, forgive me and accept me back for I am yours. Amen
Fr. Andrews Obeng, SVD
DIVINE WORD MISSIONARIES
BIBLICAL PASTORAL MINISTRY
(Ghana Province)