Bible
Study: Romans 1, 1 to 7. And Luke 11, 29 to 32.
In our
Gospel passage this morning, we encounter an angry Jesus.
Why was
Jesus angry at the people? They were demanding for a sign as a test to prove
his authenticity. They wanted Jesus to show them some sort of C.V. in other for
them to believe in what he was saying about repentance.
Jesus then
compared himself to Jonah who also preached repentance to the people of Nineveh
and it dawned on him that Jonah did not perform any miracle. Jonah simply went
about the city of Nineveh announcing doom and the people from the king down to
the least went into mourning for their sins.
Jesus also
remembered how the Wisdom of Solomon attracted people from the ends of the
earth. Yet, Solomon did not perform any miracle. He simply spoke under the
inspiration of God and the people saw a lot of sense in what he was saying.
Now, here
he was, greater than Jonah in his message of repentance, wiser than Solomon in
his teaching about the kingdom of God and the people who should have considered
themselves lucky to be seeing God face to face (in the person of Jesus), were
instead demanding for proof of signs and wonders.
Wasn’t this
enough to make Jesus angry? It is amazing how we take Jesus for granted
ourselves thereby making him also angry with us as well.
How? Little
things. Yes, very little things. By refusing to begin our day with prayers for
instance assuming there are MORE IMPORTANT things to do. By refusing to take
out time during the day to listen to God’s word in the Bible saying it is BORING
to read, yet we have time to listen to the news every top of the hour. By
refusing to acknowledge God by offering thanks at the end of the day saying we
are TOO TIRED after the stress of work. By changing the channel or turning off
the TV whenever it is a Christian program on air saying that such programs are NOT
INTERESTING to watch, yet we can spend a whole day on purely worldly channels. Etc.
Like the
people Jesus spoke harshly to in today’s Gospel passage, many of us are still
waiting for a miracle to happen one day before we would CHANGE our ways. We hear
God’s word every Sunday or every day like this yet we still find our sinful
ways irresistible. We even find ways to justify our actions which we know are
clearly against God’s wish for us. It is like our ministers are not good
enough, we want to hear from God directly or we want Angel Michael to visit us
from heaven before we accept that, for instance, fornication, stealing, lying
etc. are sins. Some are looking forward to the day they would receive an
apparition from the Blessed Virgin Mary. Yet, for others, only a near-death
experience (or a visit to purgatory to see that heaven and hell are actually
real) will convince them of the need to repent of their old ways.
We don’t need
signs to repent. All we need is FAITH. Faith that even this very message is coming from God himself through human (and technological) instruments. Like St.
Paul would acknowledge in the first reading, the ability to preach is not of
human origin but by the special grace of God imparted on certain persons. Romans
1 verse 5 says: “Through whom we have received GRACE and APOSTLESHIP to bring
about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations.”
Let us
Pray:
Lord
Jesus, save me from my need for drama in my life in other to believe deeply and
be convinced of the errors in my sinful ways. Amen.
Good morning.
Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. Happy new week.
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