Reading I: Hosea 14:2-10,
Psalm 80(81):6,8-11,14,17,
Gospel: Mark 12:28-34. Full Readings
A call to conversion and to love.
Brethren today's readings invite us to metanoia, to change from our sinful nature, and then love God and our neighbours for by doing that we are not far from the kingdom of God.
The first Reading assured us that when we turn back from our sinful nature, there is a promise of safety in the Lord. Most times we might feel cursed, rejected and even the unfortunate of all the people because of our severe downfall, unsuccessfulness and all them the misfortunes which have happened to us.
Most times we even blame God for not answering our prayers, for letting us suffer that way, but Prophet Hosea tells us that it's our sinfulness and our iniquities which have caused those things to us. We have to remember that God gave us freedom to choose, and according to the Old Testament, he judged us justly according to what we have done, and so when we choose evil it will be ourselves who have caused our downfall not God. If we want happiness and success in life, we have to take away all our iniquities, come back to God, love Him, and then praise him forever.
The situation of Corona virus which has trembled the world has led people to read the Bible more, and certain verses have been pointed out, for instance: 2 Chronicles 7: 13-14, which says when God sends locusts and epidemic, he is angry, and do people have to pray, return away from sinfulness and then peace will reign again. The situation of self quarantine has also been interpreted in Isaiah 26:20, which says, go back home, lock your doors, hide yourself a little, until the anger of God passes. There are many other Bible passages we can relate to this situation.
We cannot be sure if God is really angry with us or this virus is a human creation, but according to the first Reading, it our iniquities which cause our suffering, so who knows God has got angry with us because of what we have turned the world into, embracing secularism and forgetting him completely with all sorts of immorality. The world is no longer good as it was created, we have tried to make ourselves like God by trying to create our own world changing his design, who knows if he is very angry and decided to give us this pandemic.
Let's therefore raise our hands together and pray to God, fast, repent for all what we have done that might have caused the present situation and ask for forgiveness and God's mercy so that we can regain peace, and safety as he promises us in the first Reading.
Returning to God means to love him with all our heart, mind and wisdom, which Jesus calls the first among all the commandments. When we love God, we will follow his commandments and ordinances hence doing his will and then peace will reign among us.
To love God presupposes to Know him, for you cannot love anyone you don't know, therefore to love God is to know him first as St Anselm in his proslogion prays: I pray O God that I may know You and love You, so that I may rejoice in You.
However, we cannot fully apprehend God and know him, we can't see him. We only know God by listening to his word, listening to his servants and above all through our neighbors.
This is why Jesus says the second commandment is to live your neighbor as yourself, for through loving our neighbors we love God in return. In fact St John in his first letter, *1 John 4:20,* challenges us that how can we claim we love God, whom we can't see and hate our neighbors who we are with, we are just liars if we do that. Therefore we have to love one another as Jesus loved, to love our neighbours means being there for them in any situations, and that's why we are encouraged that during this Lent we deny something for the sake of those who are suffering. Alms giving is one way of showing love to our fellows, especially the poor and most abandoned, and in doing this we are doing the will of God, the kingdom of God, is love shown through justice , peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. So how many people in this Lent have you helped as a sign of love?
Let's all join hands together to see that there is a harmonious community by showing love to one another. Let's cry to our Father in heaven so that he will take away this spell cast on us by the Corona virus and give us peace and prosperity again. Amen
Blessed Lenten season
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