GOD’S WORD FOR THE DAY (based on Catholic Liturgical Readings)
DATE: 24TH MARCH 2017
FRIDAY OF THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT
FIRST READING: Hosea 14:2-10
PSALM: Psalm 81:6-11, 14,17
GOSPEL: Mark 12:28-34
THEME: SIN IS CURABLE
Sin is a sickness. It is a disease that afflicts the soul and therefore has a spiritual character. Understandably, our hospitals do not treat or offer a cure for sin. For this kind of ailment, we would need to turn to God in faith.
In today’s First Reading, the Lord speaks to Israel and by extension to each one of us, “I shall cure them of their disloyalty; I shall love them with my whole heart” (Hos 4:4). The Lord thus declares that he has the cure for sin and pledges to heal and give life to all those who turn to him.
When physical illness is not attended to and treated, it becomes worse and in the end the diseased becomes deceased. Similarly, when spiritual illness (sin) afflicts a person and the patient does not receive the needed treatment, it results in spiritual death. A major symptom of spiritual death is a life lived without love. On the other hand, when sin is treated, a person develops the capacity to love.
Jesus, in today’s Gospel text, places premium on love when he re-echoes the core value of the commandments: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength…You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mk 12:30-31).
God does not want us to die a spiritual death. Thanks be to God, sin is curable. All that we need to do is to turn to the Lord Jesus and be healed.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus Christ, I turn to you in my brokenness. Heal my wayward heart and wounded soul. Renew in me your love so that I may find strength to love my neighbour. For the sake of your name I pray. Amen.
Andrews Obeng, svd
DIVINE WORD MISSIONARIES
BIBLICAL PASTORAL MINISTRY
(Ghana Province)
“May the darkness of sin and the night of unbelief vanish before the light of the Word and the Spirit of grace. And may the heart of Jesus live in the hearts of all people” (St. Arnold Janssen).