GOD IS EVER FAITHFUL
⏰Friday of the Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time 1 (04 August 2017 – Memorial of St. John Mary Vianney)
????Lev 23:1, 4-11, 15-16, 27, 34b-37; Ps 81:3-4, 5-6ab, 10-11ab (R.v.2a); Matt 13:54-58I
I don’t know what you make of the different celebrations we have in our Christian calendar in terms of memorials, feasts, solemnities, Holy Days of Obligation, etc. Many people consider them as inventions of the Catholic Church into worship. In that way, they are distractions that must be abhorred.
However, reading through the Book of Leviticus, we see that not only did God sanction such celebrations, they serve to remind us of something very important – God’s faithfulness. Consider the different feasts in Lev 23:1ff as pointers to this. All of them point to God’s faithful and mighty deeds in the life of his people, Israel.
And so, as we celebrate the memorial of St. John Mary Vianney, we celebrate the faithfulness in creating a mountain out of a valley.
St. John Mary Vianne was born a peasant and to add to that, he was academically very poor. Yet, he went on to become a priest because he was exceptionally good. He was sent to a very local village to work as a Parish Priest, his sanctity and devotion drew people to search for him there. Today, he is regarded as the patron saint of all Parish Priests. You see, God’s ways are different from that of man.
Has men written you off already? Don’t worry! God shall lift you up through that your present condition and position. Amen.
All you need to do is to believe. Sometimes, we miss the blessings of God because we fail to see the hand of God at work in the ordinary events of our lives. Do you not see what happened when Jesus visited his home town (cf. Matt 13:54-58)? His people failed to have faith in him because they know him pretty well – the ordinary carpenter. Hence, they missed out from gaining what others gained from him.
May over-familiarity and unfaithfulness not deny us the blessings of God. May his grace lead us to change from our former ways into newness of life, and so win the crown of salvation in the end. Amen.
I wish you a favoured day ahead. Peace be with you.
