Reflection on the Gospel of the Wednesday In The Third Week In Lent |
Matthew 5:17-19 |
God had given his Law (Ten Commandments) for the benefit of His People. The People looked at it literally and missed the Holiness God desired to convey to His people. The Law became all the legal points that the people needed to complete to be in a good standing with God. They never saw the Law as road markers drawing the traveller into a relationship with his Lord God.
The Prophets were individuals who had taken this journey of travelling with the Law into a relationship with God. They realised the life God was inviting his people into, they were living it and God was revealing his heart to them. So the words they spoke to God’s people were born from their relationship with God. Many a time their words were harsh, because they could see the pain in God, because His people acted naïve and selfish. They preferred to stay far from him, just maintaining the legal requirements. Many a times the prophets spoke words of hope and encouragement, wooing the People to stand firm in God, not giving up on Him, because he wanted to be part of their live, but the people’s doubt, unbelief and selfishness was blinding them.
Jesus then is the visual representation of God and also the relationship God desires to have with humanity. If we brush God aside, or disregard His Law, then we have missed a vital truth. Our journey then will be in blindness…
In the Old Testament there was already a way laid out to pursue God (Deut 6:4-9 The Great Shema).
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord;
and you shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart,
and with all your soul,
and with all your might.
And these words which I command you this day
shall be upon your heart;
and you shall teach them diligently to your children,
and shall talk of them when you sit in your house,
and when you walk by the way,
and when you lie down,
and when you rise.
And you shall bind them as a sign
upon your hand,
and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
And you shall write them on the doorposts
of your house and on your gates.
meaning simple make God the One Desire of your life.
Ask the Holy Spirit then to set the house of your heart straight. Put a great Desire to see Jesus, speak to Jesus, and love with Jesus…
Believe!
