Bible
Study: Jeremiah 14, 17 to 22 and Matthew 13, 36 to 43.
Pay a visit
to any of our churches this season and you are sure to see a banner with bold
headlines: harvest, harvest, harvest. The harvest season has begun. Pay your
harvest levy. The main topic on the minds of our pastors today is: “who will be
my harvest chairman this year?” or “who is capable of donating the highest
figure towards the development of the church?” We all know what harvest is.
However Jesus
draws our attention today to a different kind of harvest; a harvest that does
not involve donating money or having our names and pictures printed in gold in
the parish harvest brochure. The harvest that Jesus wants us to prepare for is
the one that will take place at the end of time when the Angels themselves will
do the work of the harvest committee. They would go round the field of the
world and gather those who have lived in virtue as wheat while those who have
lived in sin will be put together as weeds and burnt with fire.
Without mincing
words, harvest season is always a time of distinction. Most churches today are
divided along the lines of the haves and the have-nots. Usually, it is the same
people who give every year while those who do not have money are treated as
inferior, second class citizens or bench warmers in the church. They are never
invited to the high table during bazaar and even if they come first, the
ceremony does not begin until the “big men and women” show up. While those
serving kneel before the big donors to ask what they like to eat, they reign
insults backstage on those who did not contribute for daring to ask for food. Honestly
speaking, harvest is a painful time when you don’t have money.
In the same
way, at the harvest of life, there will be distinction but this time around,
the yardstick will be not be a matter of how much money can you bring but how
much does your life reflect Christ. As the harvest season draws closer, do not
feel agitated or left out because you don’t have money. Instead, look forward to
the bigger harvest that is coming soon when all the money in the world will no
longer matter. The harvest where you too would take the high table not because of
what you have but because you lived a sinless life.
Those who are
donating big sums of money now and are being treated as celebrities should
remember that even though men of God are running around them ready to clean
their shoes, at the end of time, God is not going to ask for their harvest
receipts but the receipts of a virtuous life. There is no need becoming involved
in sin just because you want to donate like others and be respected in the
church. By so doing, you lose both your money and your soul.
You may
wonder why I am saying all these. Jeremiah was not afraid of saying the truth
and when we consider his words, we ought to be inspired. The virgin daughter is
smitten with a grievous blow; people are slain by the sword; ravaged by the
diseases of famine; both prophet and priest ply their trade through the land,
and have no knowledge. Our country is what it is today because truth has
vanished from our lips. Truth is what we need to free us from this bondage. As the
Psalmist sings, we need to go back to God, beg forgiveness of our transgression
and seek true freedom.
Today we
celebrate the memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, parents of the Blessed
Virgin Mary and models of true Christian Parenthood today. Raising children is
not an easy task, it is like playing God to a fellow human being like yourself.
At times, you tell children to go right and all they want to do is to go left. You
don’t know whether to beat them or just talk to them but one thing children
learn fast is your exemplary conduct. You cannot give what you don’t have. So for
Joachim and Anne to have raised a woman of virtue as sinless as Mary who was
chosen by God to be his mother, they deserve to be praised. Show me your
children and I will tell you the kind of parents you are!
Let us Pray:
Lord God, help me to prepare
very well for harvest time. Amen
Good
morning. Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless
you.
Fr. Abu.
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