GOD’S WORD FOR THE DAY (based on Catholic Liturgical Readings)
DATE: 30TH JUNE 2017
FRIDAY OF THE TWELFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
FIRST READING: Genesis 17:1, 9-10, 15-22
PSALM: Psalm 128:1-5
GOSPEL: Matthew 8:1-4
THEME: THE LORD BLESSES THOSE WHO FEAR HIM
As kids in what was then referred to as “Sunday School”, many of us were required to memorise a number of texts in the Bible. We had to learn Scripture texts by rote without paying much heed to the implications of what we were saying. The teacher would mention a text in the Bible and then like parrots, we would spew out the sacred words. It was a way of introducing us to the Book of life. One of such texts which easily ingrained itself in my memory is Proverbs 9:10: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom…”
The responsorial psalm for today corroborates the above assertion: “Blessed is every one who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways! You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be happy, and it shall be well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Lo, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the LORD” (Ps. 128:1-4).
The First Reading gives an example of a man who feared the Lord and an insight into what the fear of the Lord really entails. We are told that the Lord appeared to Abram, who was then ninety-nine years old, and said to him: “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly…” (Gen. 17:1ff).
The preamble – ‘walk before me and be blameless’– captures the spirit of what the fear of the Lord is. It is not a cringing and paralysing fear of the divine but rather a filial reverence that expresses itself in total submission to the Lord. Abram had this attitude in relation to God. Consequently, he was blessed beyond measure. His name and that of his wife were changed – from Abram to Abraham, and Sarai to Sarah – to signify the brand new thing the Lord was doing in their lives. At age ninety, Sarah received the promise of the Lord to conceive and give birth, and it came to pass.
The Lord still looks out for people who fear him to bless them. In a world where pursing righteous living is regarded as archaic, the readings for today invites us to ‘seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is still near’. When all is said and done, the whisper of a person who fears the Lord is more powerful than the shouts of one who has no reverence for God in his heart. In effect, it is not shouting in prayer that brings about divine intervention; it is the fear of the Lord.
PRAYER: Eternal Father, give me a true sense of awe in your presence and a heart willing to do whatever you tell me. In you I put my trust and I shall never be disappointed. For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, 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).