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TOTAL ADHERENCE TO THE WILL OF GOD

Fr. Carlo Di Sopra, SX

Jan 12, 2017
822

SECOND SUNDAY OF THE ORDINARY TIME

I do not belong to many groups of “WhatsApp”, neither am I frequent on Facebook or other Social media, yet, almost every day I receive messages, promising me that God will make one thousand good things happen to me, if only I do what is indicated in the message or if I simply pass on the same message to other people.

Churches (or better, sects) are multiplying even in the most remote villages with similar kind of preaching: “Do something for God and you will be immediately materially rewarded”.

This is not far from the attitude the Prophets and Psalmists observed (and condemned)  in people around them, people who thought that with animal sacrifices and offerings, with holocausts and oblations, they could “buy” God’s favour.

The prophets reacted sharply declaring, without ‘restraining their lips’, that God was not pleased by those things, and that He would rather prefer ‘ears open to obedience’ and lives lived according to His will. A radical change of mentality: not forcing God to do what we desire, but rather we adhering to His will!

It is people living with this attitude that God will call ‘my servants’. Even more, they are called to cooperate with God to ‘raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore the survivors of Israel’. No, not only this, but they will be “light of the nations”, so that ‘the salvation of God might reach the ends of the earth’!

What a more beautiful, though humbler, attitude is portrayed here, and what a better promise than of those honey-mouthed messages I often receive on my e-gadgets!!!

Jesus, too, offered his life to the extent of being called the ‘Lamb of God’, and, because of this total adherence to the will of God, He is the Son of God!

Recently I visited a village called Fumbakoro, not too far from Yifin, where I celebrated Christmas. I had gone there with Fr.Anthony to start a Catholic Community before the war. Because of the bad roads and some changes in the pastoral agents, this community had not been visited regularly by the Fathers. I thought it would have been dead by now.

To my surprise, I found a joyful prayer Leader, who immediately gathered the community in the Church. Yes, they had built a structure with mud-blocks and covered it with zinc. He recalled that first visit of ours  and then said that the war had come and gone. Ebola, too, came and went, but the Word of the Lord grew stronger and sustained the small and lively Community.

I looked at this man and listened to him. I felt full of gratitude: I saw in him a greater blessing than those promised by those honeyed messages on my phone: the light of the Lord to the ends of the earth!

SECOND SUNDAY OF THE ORDINARY TIME

I do not belong to many groups of “WhatsApp”, neither am I frequent on Facebook or other Social media, yet, almost every day I receive messages, promising me that God will make one thousand good things happen to me, if only I do what is indicated in the message or if I simply pass on the same message to other people.

Churches (or better, sects) are multiplying even in the most remote villages with similar kind of preaching: “Do something for God and you will be immediately materially rewarded”.

This is not far from the attitude the Prophets and Psalmists observed (and condemned)  in people around them, people who thought that with animal sacrifices and offerings, with holocausts and oblations, they could “buy” God’s favour.

The prophets reacted sharply declaring, without ‘restraining their lips’, that God was not pleased by those things, and that He would rather prefer ‘ears open to obedience’ and lives lived according to His will. A radical change of mentality: not forcing God to do what we desire, but rather we adhering to His will!

It is people living with this attitude that God will call ‘my servants’. Even more, they are called to cooperate with God to ‘raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore the survivors of Israel’. No, not only this, but they will be “light of the nations”, so that ‘the salvation of God might reach the ends of the earth’!

What a more beautiful, though humbler, attitude is portrayed here, and what a better promise than of those honey-mouthed messages I often receive on my e-gadgets!!!

Jesus, too, offered his life to the extent of being called the ‘Lamb of God’, and, because of this total adherence to the will of God, He is the Son of God!

Recently I visited a village called Fumbakoro, not too far from Yifin, where I celebrated Christmas. I had gone there with Fr.Anthony to start a Catholic Community before the war. Because of the bad roads and some changes in the pastoral agents, this community had not been visited regularly by the Fathers. I thought it would have been dead by now.

To my surprise, I found a joyful prayer Leader, who immediately gathered the community in the Church. Yes, they had built a structure with mud-blocks and covered it with zinc. He recalled that first visit of ours  and then said that the war had come and gone. Ebola, too, came and went, but the Word of the Lord grew stronger and sustained the small and lively Community.

I looked at this man and listened to him. I felt full of gratitude: I saw in him a greater blessing than those promised by those honeyed messages on my phone: the light of the Lord to the ends of the earth!

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