MONDAY, TWENTY NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Rom 4: 20-25; Lk 1: 69-75; Lk 12: 13-21
GIVING GOD THE RIGHTFUL PLACE IN OUR LIFE
In today’s Gospel, Luke tackles the problem of rich people in the Christian community. Jesus makes it clear that He has not come to settle the legal disputes that used to be brought before the religious teachers of His time. Jesus does not mean that people should be resigned to deprivation or destitution in their living conditions. He does not criticize efforts to achieve a more just society – The whole Bible requires it. The person who gives a rightful place to God in his life and becomes rich, knows how to find happiness in the present moment.
In the first reading, the patriarch Abraham is old and his wife Sarah is barren. On the other hand, God promises him an immense posterity. To abandon himself to the apparent madness of God, to a word that everything seems to make ludicrous: that was the Patriarch’s choice. In recalling it St Paul shows how one should submit to the divine word, accepting a total dependence on it, not falling under outside control but signifying that one chooses life because it authenticates the act of the believer. It is also the sign of a true God who gives life because God loves life.
The act of believing in God, reveals trust in the graciousness and justice of a God who as a God of all humanity, calls everyone to the same dignity as daughters and sons – therefore heirs. The faith of Abraham and other believers after him, is not faith in Christ but in God who desires and gives life. The act of believing in a reciprocal relationship between God and humankind, requires on the human side a complete trust in the divine Word. This has not changed by the coming of Christ but rather affirms continuity. The promises of God will be fulfilled, He desires life and guides it. Therefore all genuine religious acts must be based on a total faith and trust in the saving power of God. We cannot lay claim to any reward from God based on our mere ritual observances.
Response: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited his people.
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