MONDAY NOVEMBER 20, 2023
MONDAY OF THE THIRTY THIRD WEEK OF THE ORDINARY TIME A
Maccabees 1:10-15.41-43.54-57. 62-64
Luke 18:35-43
COMPROMISING OUR FAITH AND BELIEF
The tragedy of Christianity in our era is the urge and the practice to be one leg in the world and one leg in the faith of Christ. There is a thin line between being human and being divine at the same time just as our Lord was. He knew the intricacies and understands the thin line. But for us human beings, we may not understand this thin line and may find ourselves wallowing in worldly affairs as Christians. By so doing we begin to compromise the Christisn values and belief
Our first reading from the book of Maccabees narrates how the people of Israel wanted to be at one mind with the pagan world. They found themselves abandoning their religious inclinations, they tilted to the point of loosing their Jewish religious beliefs and began adopting the lifestyle of the pagans. All these were done in the bid to be like others, to be one with others.
They ended up practicing the pagan worship, worshipping idols, and paying allegiance to demons. They abandoned their core doctrines of circumcision, and desecrated their temple and places of worship and never attended any more to these sacred places. They even observed the ordinances of the Gentile world view and built a gymnasium in Jerusalem and obliterated the holy covenant of the Lord. This was the highest of their misgiving and the cause was because they started compromising their uniqueness and the practice of their salvific doctrines. The obvious consequence is that they abandoned their God and followed the gods of the Hellenists.
Compromise led them to all these atrocities. Compromising our Christisn faith can as well lead us to all forms of evil inclinations. Sunday observances these days are becoming compromised, our moral ethics as Christians are becoming compromised with the level of permissiveness and weaknesses with attendant compassion and modernity we are experiencing in our world today. We are beginning to witness severe moral laxity, huge marital decadence, infidelity, and very much relaxed attitude to the laws of love of God and neighbours.
Our religiosity is beginning to dwindle and decline. Attendance to masses and religious activities are becoming low and the tendencies to attract more people by tilting to more social than religious practices are glaringly seen now. Our liturgical celebrations are more and more adulterated and compromised as if it is our actions in which God participates and no more God’s saving mystery in which we participate. That is why we turn the liturgy into money spinning venture, to the detriment of the word of God.
Our activities in the church are more social than religious. We have pursued wealth, money, prestige and power more in the Church than seeking of our God, wanting to know the mind of our God and seeking grace to live out our mandate and be light to the world.
Families are crumbling, societal norms are now more worldly with fashions that takes away from Christian modesty and ethics. Half naked generations are bred on the pretext of modernity and fashion and promiscuity is promoted even in our own universities and places of learning just because we are compromising our values and imitating the freedom of the world.
The blind man in the gospel recognizes his problem and difficulties. He was blind as many of us are today blind and ignorant. Yet the difference is that the man recognized his blindness and recognized the voice of the redeemer and kept calling on Jesus. Even with the opposition of the crowd whose voices could have swallowed his call, he kept calling knowing that his saving grace and well-being will come from Jesus. We must never allow the world to swallow our voices, our Christian ethics and our life saving graces.
Like the blind man, we must recognize our misgivings and places of possible compromise and get on shouting, Lord have mercy on us!!! Be sure that the Lord will hear, answer and redeem us because our faith is still alife.
So, where are you faltering? What sin are you immersed in? What area of your life have you given to the evil one? We need to rise and never live in denial of our iniquity. We must begin to shout now, Lord have mercy on me!!! And be assured that salvation will come in no distant time. The Lord listens, hears, and will heal and restore us to wholeness.
Father of mercies, we have faltered, we are straying from the path of salvation. Redeem us as you redeemed this blind man and restored his sight. Restore our sight and increase our knowledge. May we recognize in you our salvation and helper and never cease to call on you to have mercy and redeem us through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Fr Norbert Uchuno
