Sunday Sermon: Man owes God a positive response to His invitation into His Kingdom

The liturgy for the seventeenth Sunday in ordinary time is based on the following readings: 1 Kings 3:5, 7-12; Psalm 119; Romans 8:28-30; Matthew 13:44-52. The main theme of our liturgy is the personal response that man owes God to his call and invitation to his Kingdom. In the Gospel Jesus speaks of God’s Kingdom using parables where by it is compared to a hidden treasure and a pearl of great price. If one finds such a treasure, one would do all to get it; including selling everything he or she owns. The Gospel also mentions another parable, explaining the Christian sense of time and the separation process at the end of time. All this is presented in St. Matthew’s style with a link between the Old and New Testaments. The above theme is stressed in Psalm 119, where the psalmist invites us to rejoice over our invitation into God’s Kingdom, to delight in God’s Law and to reject false ways. And the psalmist invites us to meditate on God’s ways as he says that God’s way is worth more than “thousands of gold and silver pieces” (Ps. 119,72). In the first reading when King Solomon is given the opportunity to ask for what he wishes, he prays for practical wisdom and prudence to discern for his people right from wrong. And the aim of his petition reveals his strong love for what is right and just, which reveals to us again his love for the law of the Lord. In the second reading, St. Paul teaches us that the person, who loves God, acquires a new and divine perspective which turns everything to good. He uses this view to give us an example to follow: and that is how God works within each person in order to conform him or her to the image of his Son. This is God’s purpose, and it has been always a challenge in every man’s life to have the same purpose of making human life on earth respond positively to God’s invitation into the kingdom. The doctrinal message in our liturgy insists on ‘The Law of God’: In our society, we often think of law in terms of a restriction or limitation. With this mentality, it may sound strange to hear someone say he loves the law. That is the understanding of the Old Testament. The Jews took God’s law not as a set of prohibitions but as a way or path to an end, which is salvation. This is clear in the Book of Deuteronomy, when Moses sets before his people two ways: “Look, today I am offering you life and prosperity, death and disaster…if you love Yahweh your God and follow his ways, if you keep his commandments, his laws and his customs, you will live and grow numerous…” (Deut. 30:15). Their understanding of law in this case was different from our secular, minimalist understanding of positive law. That is why a Christian morality should not be a morality of mere obligation, but rather a morality of freedom enabling the human spirit to flourish. From a pastoral point of view, the wrong understanding of God’s Law may cause dangerous scruples which may hinder the growth of our faith. Hence, perceiving God and his law as a limitation, opposition or even as a threat to what we want in our life. At the heart of this thinking at least implicitly if not explicitly, we hold in opposition; what we want (lex naturae) and what God wants (lex divina). In the last century, there has been a lot of hair splitting on this issue by a good number of philosophers. And unfortunately, this has given birth to a kind of theoretical and practical atheism. This kind of mentality which is called a philosophy by some people is often inspired by fear of answering positively God’s invitation to man into his kingdom. That is why we all need to rediscover our lives without fear, to face our true and complete experiences of reality, what we have passed through, the dynamics of our will, and then after this thorough examination of our conscience, have the courage to harmonise our ways with God’s will. Ends