WEDNESDAY, TWENTY FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Memorial of Saint Augustine
2 Thes 3: 6-10, 16-18 Ps 128: 1-2, 4-5 Mt 23: 27-32
CAN GOD PEEK INTO YOUR HEART?
Today we celebrate the memorial of Saint Augustine. Before his conversion, Augustine lived an immoral life but having allowed God to touch his heart, he became a new person. Putting behind his former ways, he embraced a life of holiness and thus became an example to others. In the first reading today, Paul urges the Thessalonians to imitate him. Like Augustine, Paul had a conversion experience that changed his perspective dramatically. Their conversions were not only going to transform their lives but were to influence the destiny of the Church for all time. They are witnesses to the fact that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future. We need not despair over our past lives. No matter how bad you might have been, God’s mercy is like a boundless ocean that waits to envelop you. The Lord declares through Isaiah, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool” (Is 1:18). All you need to do is to come to Him with a humble and contrite heart (cf. Ps 51:17). And having received the love and mercy of God, become a channel of that same love and mercy that others too may approach Him without fear or shame.
Often what makes it so hard for people to embrace a new life is that the world is quick to judge, criticize and condemn. People judge by outward appearance, but the ways of God are different; God looks at the heart (cf. 1 Sm 16:7). For this reason, Jesus condemns the pharisees in the Gospel reading today, calling them ‘white washed tombs’. On the outside, they appeared goody-goody, but inside they were filled with ‘hypocrisy and evildoing’. While the world saw Augustine as a sinner and Paul as a persecutor, God looked into their hearts and saw a great theologian and a zealous missionary, instruments He could use to build His kingdom. If God peeps into your heart today, what will He find?
Response: Blessed are all who fear the Lord.
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