Bible
Study: Daniel 1, 1 to 20. And Luke 21, 1
to 4.
The modern
day sickness of our society today is conformity. It is like people have lost
confidence in themselves and in what that they believe. The moment any popular
artist or musician makes a certain hair style or dresses in a particular way,
it becomes the new trend and you see millions trying to dress or act like that.
The desire
for conformity has eaten so deep into our society that people no longer
question why they act in a particular way, all they simply say is “everybody does
it.” And even in these days of the super-social media apps and devices, these
days of viral videos and so on, it takes only a few minutes to get thousands of
people conform to a particular way of thinking or behaviour.
We have
left the ways of our fathers, we have forgotten our traditional customs. Even as
Christians, we are no longer convinced of our faith and God’s commandments, all
we want is just to be like everybody else, we want to have what everybody else
has, dress like everybody else, eat like everybody else.
The reason
why we easily get caught up with the disease of conformity is the lack of a
solid individual Spirituality. We are yet to build a personal one-on-one
relationship with God. We are so lazy with growing our inner space and giving
God a chance in our lives. We feel that as long as we can just do the basics,
just say a little prayer in the morning an evening, then that is all. So we
reduce our Christianity to just a little prayer and the world around us becomes
our spirituality. That is why we easily get carried away by popular trends,
popular patterns of thought and popular ways of behaviour even if such popular
ways are direct contradiction of what God demands from us.
The Story
of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah which we read about in today’s first
reading shows us the need to build our individual spirituality rather than
conform to the world. Having been brought into the king’s service, they refused
to eat the so called “rich” food provided from the king’s table and instead
requested only for vegetables and water.
Building a
personal spirituality is like having a sixth sense. You are not easily carried
away by things that thrill people. You see beyond mere mortals! In the end,
they looked even fatter and more nourished that those who claimed to be eating
rich food. Theirs which did not look rich in appearance became richer in
reality because they fed not only their bodies but their spirits as well. We shall
see more of them in the coming days after their names had been changed to
Shredrach, Meshach and Abegnego
Let us
Pray:
Lord
Jesus, you were different in the course of your life on earth. Help me to mark
out my own path and not be carried away by the sickness of conformity to the
world. Amen.
St.
Clement, pray for us.
Good morning.
Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you.
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