THURSDAY MARCH 14, 2024
THURSDAY OF THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT B
Exodus 32:7-14
John 5:31-47
WHOSE PRAISE OR HONOUR DO YOU SEEK? GOD’S OR MAN?
The many healings carried out by Jesus were never acknowledged by the scribes and the religious leaders of his time. Rather they resorted to calumny, character assassination, backbiting and jealousy. It is to these that Jesus addressed in the gospel of today. In his words, Jesus puts back to them his intentions and his stands. That he does not seek their approval. In fact that he does not need human approval to authenticate his divine mandate.
So his actions, miracles and teachings were never done to please the people or to lure them into believing in him. For indeed, God has set His seal on him and he only works, lives and acts to do God’s will and please God who called, commission and sent him into the world.
Man is so deceptive a-times that intentions are never pure and simple. In the time of Moses, no one would have thought that considering all the miracles and supernatural powers displayed by God to save the people of Israel from the slavery of the Egyptians, that they would have quickly turned against God by making for themselves a molten image of a calf to be their object of worship when Moses was away from them for just forty days.
Aaron, fell into the trap and the temptation of wanting to please the people and succumbed to their intentions. And in the bid to please the yearnings of the people, Aaron, bowed to their request to make a god for the people and this brought so much punishment to the people.
We must learn to always please God alone in this life. Our struggles in life, our toil and all we do must never be to impress people who are mortal like us. This amounts to self deceit. Mortal man can never reward, or help our situation in life. Rather, our actions and intentions must always be focused on pleasing our God and acting to follow the divine way, the sacred ordinances and the path of life in God.
Notwithstanding that our world seeks human approval and have created structures to foster human praises, human approval and all forms of collective recognitions that brings nothing at the end but sorrows, hurts and at last the wrath of God, we must learn therefore to shun and disregard all forms of structures that enslave us and cajole us into seeking and wanting human approval for our actions. Such actions as belonging to organizations without proper definitions, societies and clubs of questionable characters and objectives, and actions that tend to give credence and reliance on human capacity that is false, deceptive and unprofitable, like cultism, sychophancy, unnecessary associations or clubs that project tendencies that undermine divine authority and subject the human as if God does not exist or matter at all.
We must recognize the divine authorities in our lives and work to please God. Because in the end, it is to God that we must give an account of ourselves.
Heavenly Father, may we look up to you in all circumstances, and live with the intentions of pleasing you, our God. Help us to shun and jettison the culture of seeking human approval for our actions. May all our actions steam from divine inspiration and geared towards giving you our God, honour, glory, praise and adoration through Christ our Lord.
Fr Norbert Uchuno
