“SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD” (Matt 6:33)

⏰Sixth Day Within the Octave of the Nativity of the Lord (30 December 2019)

📖1 John 2:12-17; Ps 96:7-8a, 8b-9, 10 (R.v.11a); Luke 2:36-40

🎤”SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD” (Matt 6:33)

There is one Igbo song that we normally take at funerals:
“Nwa nke mmadụ che uche ndụ gị;
“Gịnị g’abụ ụgwọ ọlụ gị;
“Oge ife nke ụwa ga-esoro ụwa laa?
“Nwa nke mmadụ che uche ndụ gị.”

That song translates thus:
“Man think about your life;
“What shall be your gain,
“When the things of the world would vanish with the world?
“Man think about your life.”

Sometime ago, I invited you to join me in thanking God for saving me from accident a few years ago. As expected, many people who saw the car I had the accident with were so quick to notice that the car was a wreck. But instead of thinking about the car, something more comes to my mind – my body could have also been like that wrecked car. That makes me to think that God wants me to reflect more about my life than think about the car, which is a perishing thing of the world.

Surely, this is a period of evaluation on how we lived in the passing year and how we can improve in the coming year; a period of stock-taking.

Unfortunately, for many of us, this stock-taking has to do with our gains and losses materially. We think less of how closer or farer we are to God.

St John encourages us today (1 John 2:12-17) not to allow the love of the things of this passing world to deny us of the joy of being with the Lord. Imagine the fulfilment the prophetess Anna had at witnessing the time of the Messiah (Luke 2:36-40). That fulfilment comes from patiently waiting on God.

As this draws to its final end tomorrow, may the joy of the Lord strengthen you and enable you not to be deceived by the things of this passing world, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Have a joyful and richly-meditative day ahead. Peace be with you.