GOD’S WORD FOR THE DAY (based on Catholic Liturgical Readings)
DATE: 23RD JULY 2016
SATURDAY OF THE 16TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
1ST READING: Jeremiah 7:1-11
PSALM: Psalm 84:3-6, 8, 11
GOSPEL: Matthew 13:24-30
THEME: SALVATION
A hospital does not heal patients. It diagnoses and prescribes medication for patients. As patients yield to this process, healing takes place, God-willing. This means a patient who refuses to take the professional advice and medication prescribed by the hospital should not expect his/her condition to get better.
Similarly, the “house of God” serves as a sacred space where one is offered the needed assistance to be saved. However, the house itself does not save a person. Running into the “house of God” but refusing to do what God tells you would not bring you salvation.
In our First Reading, the Lord tells the people of Judah, “Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD’…Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are safe!’– only to go on doing all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight? You know, I too am watching, says the LORD” (Jer 7:4, 9-11).
The above message was delivered to a people who took pride in the Jerusalem temple and offered lavish sacrifices to the Lord there. However, their lifestyles outside the temple was a contradiction of what they professed in the temple.
The Church has often been described as a “hospital for sinners”. This is true. God offers healing to the sinner through the Church, the Body of Christ. However, the sinner who refuses to accept the spiritual medication offered to him or her, rejects the Word of God and chooses to live a wayward life should not deceive him/herself by saying “I have hope of salvation because I go to Church every Sunday”.
It is not every seed that takes space in the field and sprouts that on harvest day would be gathered into the barn. No! The barn is for wheats and not weeds.
Lord Jesus, your word says that it is not everyone who says ‘Lord, Lord’, who will be saved but only those who do the will of your Father. Grant me the grace to surrender unreservedly to your word and to do whatever you tell me. Amen.
Fr. Andrews Obeng, SVD
DIVINE WORD MISSIONARIES
BIBLICAL PASTORAL MINISTRY
(Ghana Province)