TUESDAY, TWENTY FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Memorial of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina
Ezr 6: 7-8, 12, 14-20 Ps 122: 1-5 Lk 8: 19-21
OBEDIENCE IS DOING GOD’S WILL
Jesus preached good news and transformed the lives of those who believed. He frequently emphasized that His disciples had to hear and obey His word. Take heed then how you “hear” (Luk 8-18). Jesus uses opportunity to teach once more about true discipleship: ‘my mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.’ Perhaps Jesus’ statement may seem odd, reducing his family relationship. But Jesus knew he could point to His mother Mary, as the supreme illustration of one who hears and accepts the word of God.
Our relationship with God, and with those who are associated with us in obeying God’s will is far superior to our relationship with our family members! Luke presents Mary as a model of obedience; a model of what Paul calls the obedience of faith. To obey is to listen to God’s word and to do what God inspires us to do. It comes from the Latin word meaning ‘hearing.’ This connection between obedience and listening is also expressed in Greek: to ‘obey’ is to listen from below, to listen from a position of reverence and humility.
In his Spiritual Canticles St. John of the Cross writes: “The union of love of God is habitual and loving attentiveness of the will to God.” St Teresa of Avila, in her book Foundations says, “When once a soul has resolved to love You and has resigned itself into Your hands, You will have nothing of it save that it shall obey You and find out for itself how it may please you and desire to do so. It has no need to look for paths or to choose them. For its will is Yours, You my Lord take upon yourself the task of guiding it in the way which is the greatest benefit to it.” The highest perfection consists not in interior favours or in great raptures or in visions or in the spirit of prophecy but in the bringing of our souls so closely into conformity with the will of God, that as soon as we realise that He wills anything we desire it ourselves with all out might.
Response: Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.
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