MONDAY, TWELFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
2 Kgs 17: 5-8, 13-15, 18 Ps 60: 3-5, 12-13 Mt 7: 1-5
FORGETTING GOD IS EQUAL TO LOSING EVERYTHING
The first reading presents a painful truth: when the relationship with God is neglected, life itself begins to collapse. Israel had experienced God’s saving power, from the deliverance out of Egypt to the gift of the Promised Land. Yet, they slowly drifted. They adopted foreign practices, imitated surrounding cultures, and allowed idols to take the place that belonged to God alone. What began as a small compromise became total infidelity. The fall of Israel is not simply a story of political defeat, but a profound spiritual warning. The sacred text makes the reason unmistakably clear: “They forgot the Lord their God… and followed other gods.” Their downfall began not on the battlefield, but in the heart. Forgetting God led to losing everything.
This pattern is not limited to Israel. It repeats in every age. Israel represents each one of us, and even the Church as the New Israel. Just as Israel was chosen and consecrated, so we too have been called into a covenant relationship with God through Christ. But the danger remains the same: we can forget God, not by rejecting Him openly, but by gradually replacing Him. Today, idolatry is subtle. It appears in the form of ambition without ethics, comfort without sacrifice, and success without God. A person may not bow before a statue, yet may still “worship” career, money, or self-image. When prayer becomes secondary, when conscience is ignored, when God is remembered only in moments of need, then the same forgetting is already at work.
This is where today’s Gospel becomes deeply relevant. Jesus warns against blindness, the inability to see one’s own faults. Often, forgetting God begins when self-examination ends. We become quick to judge others but slow to recognize our own drift away from God. For us, the message is clear and urgent that we must guard our relationship with God. Forgetting Him does not happen suddenly, it is a gradual drift. And if left unchecked, it leads to a deeper loss: peace, purpose, and spiritual freedom.
Response: With your right hand, Lord, grant salvation, and give answer.
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