Bible
Study: 1 Maccabees 2, 15 to 29. And Luke 19, 41 to 44.
One of the
reasons why we often find it easy to condone evils in our society is the lack
of anger. As much as anger in itself is a painful emotion, I guess God placed
it in us for a purpose otherwise we would be incapable of getting angry. I think
when we properly employ our anger, it can be used as a cure for wrongdoing and
a medicine for repentance.
Yes, if
there was any time Jesus was profusely angry, it was when he entered the temple
and saw that people had turned it into a market place. Even though he was God,
he did not mind behaving like someone who had gone out of his mind, he
overturned tables, threw things around, whipped people and released animals.
This is
exactly what we see in the first reading today, Mattathias having watched how
the evil king Antiochus was going about turning the Jews from the religion of
their fathers was filled with so much fury that rather than bend, he decided to
fight for truth and righteousness.
The other
side of anger is fear! Fear is a feeling of paralysis that evil is too powerful
and that we cannot do anything. Many people were so afraid of the king that
they felt they had no choice but to bow to his forced apostasy. They gave up their
religion out of fear of the powers that be. At times, we even become afraid of
our very selves. We are afraid to face our dark sides and confront our evil
habits, we feel we have become too used to certain sins and we wonder what
would become of us if we dare to stop.
But we
need to be able to see evil for itself and muscle up enough anger in our spirit
in other to fight against sin. The reason why we are held bound is because we
do not have enough hatred for sin or to put it in another way, we are not able
to recognise sin for what it is, so we play with it, we joke with it, we fancy
it, we laugh over it yet we know it is destroying us.
You cannot
win a battle if you are not able to identify your enemy or if you mistakenly make
friends with the enemy. We have made friends with sin, we love it too much to
even be angry when we see it so it sticks to us and when we try to repent, (that
is, when we ask it to go), it soon gradually and gently returns back to us and so
easily, we welcome it again and again.
Anger is
good. But ensure that your anger is properly directed. Never get angry with
others, instead, direct your anger at sin itself. If only our society can be
angry enough at the many evils that prevail and stop trying to condone or
justify them, what a beautiful world we would have.
Even in
our Gospel passage this morning, we see Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. We should
weep over our sins and be angry enough to repent rather than rationalize them!
Let us
Pray:
Lord
Jesus, fill me with zeal for truth, righteousness and holiness. Help me to hate
any evil in me and fight against myself till I become what you want me to be.
Amen.
Good morning.
Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you.
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