STAY ON THE RIGHT PATH
To know God and to receive our salvation, we must walk the path to which
the Lord leads us.
We hear St. Paul
say today, "Brothers and sisters, as your fellow workers, we appeal to you
not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says: In an acceptable time I
heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you."
When is this
acceptable time? "Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is
the day of salvation." Jesus is already leading us to go down the right
path through His dying and rising from the dead!
I thought of what
my father said almost weekly to us kids this morning, as I was reflecting on
the readings: Do not put off to tomorrow what can be done today... How many
times have you heard that? I think that is what Paul was saying to the
Corinthians. Jesus leads us to the right path and we as Christians also have
that same responsibility.
You know that most
of us do not like people who brag about their accomplishment. Their boasting
leaves us thinking that they are very conceited. Looking deeper into the
firstreading today St. Paul is quite frank. You can say he is boasting before
the Corinthians, but Paul's purpose is not to inflate his own ego but to put
the Corinthians back on the right path to God.
Paul faced issues
in his time. When he had preached the Good News in Corinth and founded the
Church, some false preachers came along to turn Paul's converts from the true
faith. Their ways were winning and their words were persuasive. Paul was so
disturbed that he felt compelled to present the Corinthians with his
credentials as a true apostle to whom they should return in docility. By all
that he had endured Paul demonstrated his love for Christ and for the
Corinthians, as the false apostles could not. Paul was showing the true path in
faith.
We can be thankful
for the help of the Church; we can be thankful that the Church in her liturgy
boasts, not about herself, but about God. In fact, one main purpose of the
liturgy is to make present before us during the liturgical year all the loving,
saving acts of God from the conception and birth of Christ, through his life of
ministry, and to the high point of his death and resurrection and the sending
of the Spirit. And every Mass centers around the high point since every Mass is
the living memorial of the death and resurrection of Jesus. For now is the
acceptable time for our salvation!!!
The Responsorial
Psalm brings the reading together: The Lord has made know his salvation. The
Gospel message says - for us to know God and to receive our salvation, we must
walk the path to which the Lord leads us. Jesus said that there is no room for
retaliation. We must not only avoid hurting others, but we must seek the good
of those who wish us ill, and not return insult with insult. It is God's grace
that helps us to treat others, not as we judge they deserve, but as God wishes
them to be treated--- with loving-kindness and mercy.
The liturgy,
constantly recalling all that God has done for us, guides us to appreciate that
all God's actions show his wisdom and love. We should not abandon God to follow
the false apostles and prophets of our time. Participating in the liturgy
should help us to turn all the more in love and devotion to God and stay
faithful on his path.