We Have Moved From Life Itself
31ST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A)
on 30 October 11:10
(Malachi 1:14b-2. 2b.8-10; I Thess
2:7b-9.13; Matt 23:1-12)
God by his very nature cannot move away
from us. Every time we feel we are far from Him, it is us who have moved, never
Him. And yet our generation seems to be cruising even farther from the ‘…way,
the truth and the life’ (John 14:6). It is not a secret that most of our
marriages are dysfunctional; our relationships are wanting; our youth, funny;
our government, shaky; our national security, threatened; our shilling, sickly
– name it! As a country, we are at war with the physical Al-Shabaab, but there
is a worse version of this terror group that has surreptitiously taken over our
spiritual lives and subtly taken control of nearly everything that defines our
life, from the way we run our families to the attitudes we tag along as we
attempt to respond to the many questions life asks.
It is a truism to observe that the hurricane of secularism has hit so hard that many servants of the Lord have lost ground in its wake. It could also be possible that we, the faithful have allowed ourselves to be smothered by the monster of utter relativism and unyielding sensualism; or perhaps, the ostensible sexual freedom has supped all our spiritual energy, leaving us barely limping in the service of a rather ‘distant God’ as we grope for credibility. Where – it suffices to ask – did the rains of faithlessness start beating us? Is it the Temple that got rotten first or our community?
If you ask Prophet Malachi the possible explanation to our predicament, his response (without batting an eyelid would be); because our Temples are defiled and our Worship far from genuine. We are starved of prophetic spiritual leaders who can represent God in our midst. We no longer pray. Consequently, we have lost the language of God (read Love); and so our communication with God is labored and often ineffective.
Prophet Malachi has fire under his belly on behalf of God; ‘And now, O Priests, this commandment is for you: if you do not listen, And if you do not lay it to heart… I will send a curse upon you… YES; I HAVE ALREADY CURSED IT, BECAUSE YOU DO NOT LAY IT TO HEART’ (Malachi 2:1-2). Yahweh loudly expresses his love for Levi his priest who had true doctrine in his mouth (V. 6). ‘He walked with me in integrity and uprightness, and turned many away from evil’ (Malachi 2:6).
The surest way of reforming a society is to purge its priestly ranks. The pedigree of the pastors determines the quality of lived-faith in any given setting. Only then can our worship reach God like incense. Malachi would be wondering how Priests can live in mansions and preach in mabati and tarpaulin tents. He would wonder why priests and pastors drive Mussos when some of their faithful, who fund their comfort, die of hunger… I mean the Malachis our generation desperately needs.
Jesus, in a daring and (as always) prophetic move warns his followers against the scribes and the Pharisees; ‘Therefore’, he tells them, ‘… do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice’. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on people’s shoulders…’ (Matt 23:3-4). This is sad! But before we stretch out our hands to point at others, we should not forget that we were all anointed with chrism on our baptism, an anointing that at once made out of each one of us, a Priest, a Prophet and a King. We thus have an equal responsibility to purge our own temples so that true worship can be restored in the universal temple that is the Church.
This is in diametrical opposition to how St Paul evangelized Thessalonica, working night and day in order not to burden God’s people (1 Thess 2:9). And yet again, Paul is glad that he was able to serve with devotion and blamelessness (V.10).
WE PRAY TODAY FOR OUR SPIRITUAL LEADERS, MANY OF WHO HAVE MADE US WANDER FAR FROM GOD. HAVING DRIFTED AWAY FROM THE SOURCE OF LIFE, WE HAVE FAILED TO SAVOR THE FULL FLAVOR OF LIFE OFFERED TO US BY GOD. WE PRAY TOO THAT OUR LIVES MAY REFLECT THE FAITH WE PROFESS!
It is a truism to observe that the hurricane of secularism has hit so hard that many servants of the Lord have lost ground in its wake. It could also be possible that we, the faithful have allowed ourselves to be smothered by the monster of utter relativism and unyielding sensualism; or perhaps, the ostensible sexual freedom has supped all our spiritual energy, leaving us barely limping in the service of a rather ‘distant God’ as we grope for credibility. Where – it suffices to ask – did the rains of faithlessness start beating us? Is it the Temple that got rotten first or our community?
If you ask Prophet Malachi the possible explanation to our predicament, his response (without batting an eyelid would be); because our Temples are defiled and our Worship far from genuine. We are starved of prophetic spiritual leaders who can represent God in our midst. We no longer pray. Consequently, we have lost the language of God (read Love); and so our communication with God is labored and often ineffective.
Prophet Malachi has fire under his belly on behalf of God; ‘And now, O Priests, this commandment is for you: if you do not listen, And if you do not lay it to heart… I will send a curse upon you… YES; I HAVE ALREADY CURSED IT, BECAUSE YOU DO NOT LAY IT TO HEART’ (Malachi 2:1-2). Yahweh loudly expresses his love for Levi his priest who had true doctrine in his mouth (V. 6). ‘He walked with me in integrity and uprightness, and turned many away from evil’ (Malachi 2:6).
The surest way of reforming a society is to purge its priestly ranks. The pedigree of the pastors determines the quality of lived-faith in any given setting. Only then can our worship reach God like incense. Malachi would be wondering how Priests can live in mansions and preach in mabati and tarpaulin tents. He would wonder why priests and pastors drive Mussos when some of their faithful, who fund their comfort, die of hunger… I mean the Malachis our generation desperately needs.
Jesus, in a daring and (as always) prophetic move warns his followers against the scribes and the Pharisees; ‘Therefore’, he tells them, ‘… do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice’. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on people’s shoulders…’ (Matt 23:3-4). This is sad! But before we stretch out our hands to point at others, we should not forget that we were all anointed with chrism on our baptism, an anointing that at once made out of each one of us, a Priest, a Prophet and a King. We thus have an equal responsibility to purge our own temples so that true worship can be restored in the universal temple that is the Church.
This is in diametrical opposition to how St Paul evangelized Thessalonica, working night and day in order not to burden God’s people (1 Thess 2:9). And yet again, Paul is glad that he was able to serve with devotion and blamelessness (V.10).
WE PRAY TODAY FOR OUR SPIRITUAL LEADERS, MANY OF WHO HAVE MADE US WANDER FAR FROM GOD. HAVING DRIFTED AWAY FROM THE SOURCE OF LIFE, WE HAVE FAILED TO SAVOR THE FULL FLAVOR OF LIFE OFFERED TO US BY GOD. WE PRAY TOO THAT OUR LIVES MAY REFLECT THE FAITH WE PROFESS!
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