Reading: 1 Kings 18:41-46; Ps. 65; Matt.5:20-26
Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia
LIVING AN AUTHENTIC VIRTUOUS LIFE
Most of the time, we often find it difficult to understand the way God operates, especially as regards his relationship with humanity. This is because humanity has failed to understand how God’s mercy and justice are applicable in our relationship with him and with one another. Hence, Jesus in our Gospel passage today, calls us to a deeper virtue, when he said to his disciples, If your virtue goes no deeper than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of Heaven.
This is because the Scribes and the Pharisees always enforced a strict interpretation and obedience to the Law, its rules and regulations, and yet, failed to truly practice nor understand and appreciate that the Law of God is meant to lead God’s people to him and to teach them to practice love in their lives.
Thus, we ought to be faithful and follow the Lord more faithfully than the Scribes and Pharisees for their religious piety is mainly superficial because their practising of the laws does not truly come from their heart. Their actions and obedience to the Law are motivated by what they want to gain in order to sustain their pride and desire for worldly glory and praise.
So, we should not be like them, we should rather get rid of our pride and excess desires for honorific positions. We should strive to deepen our virtue towards righteous deeds. We must become agents of peace and reconciliation. We must be symbols of God’s mercy and justice in a world full of corruption and greed, Just like Elijah showed to Ahab in our first reading today when he said: Go and say to Ahab, “Harness the chariot and go down before the rain stops you. This is because Elijah had said to Ahab that there would be no rain for years until he said so.
Dear friends, we are called today to embrace the virtue of humility and readiness to reconcile with those who have offered us, knowing that the mercy and justice of God regulate all things. We have to be vigilant always and strive to be righteous before God and man. Today, we must be ready to make a fundamental choice to live a holy life and never to return to our sinful ways of life.
This is the attitude and disposition of St. Anthony of Padua whose memorial we celebrate today. For he made us know that we can prove we are God’s servants by our courage, patience, holiness and kindness; though looking most miserable and poor, yet we make others rich, and even when it appears we have nothing, yet we have everything in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore, we must struggle every day to grow in righteousness and never give up no matter the situation we are passing through now. We should strive every day to remain faithful to God’s commandment of love and peace.
LET US PRAY: Lord God, as we struggle every day towards holiness and perfection, may we through the intercession of St Anthony of Padua be guided by the Holy Spirit and strive to remain towards the path of righteousness and ever to go back to our sinful and ugly ways of life. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Have a blessed day.
