4th Sunday

Today we are entering into the fourth Sunday of the ordinary time. On this day the Church requests us to listen to the Lord. A very attentive listening of the Word of God will affirm what Mary has said, 'God remembers his promise to our father Abraham,’ The salvation history does confirms this, for God raised Abraham from a man to a nation. Let us not reduce this to an earthly nation, rather God’s kingdom already and not yet.  It is always towards this holy nation, the heavenly Jerusalem, that we walk together.

God in Moses revealed not only his power but also His faithfulness. Before this goodness of God and His holiness, the people were frightened to face God. Thus they chose and  wished that it to be a man who can worthily stand up before this God, in the name of this unfaithful community. Though God desired to speak to them directly, He will accept however, this proposal of delegation and mediation.

Thus God began to speak with this people through prophets, kings, and today, says St. Paul, God comes Himself, by His incarnation, as a worthy man in Jesus Christ, be able to address God with dignity to the man of the humanity and with a divine authority. Henceforth God is no more than a very far from humanity, He is already in us, Emmanuel, God with us. In the second reading St Paul recommends that we remain attached to this God and learn to please Him, whatever may be our status of life. 'Do whatever He tells you,' says the Mother of God.

This is the basic reason of our desire to be configured our being in to the divine being, in this Person, Christ and trying to live his humanity, which is hence forth ours. The evangelist Mark presents us with an ordinary day of the Lord. As usual, he enters a Sabbath day at the Synagogue. A man who considers the custom of society, remains faithful to all that is cultural and cultic. He is not a revolutionary, rather a pacificator of the essentials of life, the sacrament of life.  

Like Him who was faithful to the will of the Father, we are asked to remain faithful to the Eucharist, to prayer, and to listen to the Word of God, established by the Lord and also by tradition. Like Him who is united to the Father, we are expected, as Christian to participate in to his project of fulfilling the will of his Father. From Him, we learn to love one another: 'Love one another, as I have loved you', The Church asks us to express this love through our life of witness, especially through human charity , through reconciliation and forgiveness.

It is not easy to love our enemies and enter into a genuine dialogue with the wicked people around us. Let's thus look at his approach to his enemy, the satan. A dialogue with firmness without any violence. He identifies in this person tormented by an impure spirit, the son of Abraham, a beloved of God. As long as we have not been able to identify with men the son of Abraham and God, we can not serve humanity. All saints have seen Christ in the hearts of men, especially those who are in pain and difficulty. The poor Lazarus are within our reach, if we have eyes to look at them. Let's not close our hearts, but listen to the voice of the Lord. He invites us to listen to him and put into practice all that we have heard. May this week be graced by our listening to the Word of God and in our sincere application of this Word in our daily lives. God bless you all.