Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish

FR MICHAEL BIBLICAL IMAGERY

(Fr Michael Boakye Yeboah: Vice Rector of St Gregory Seminary, Kumasi-Ghana)

 “IF ONLY…”

            Do we pay attention to the little things around us? In our search for the presence of God, some of us have wandered far away to mysterious places. Once in a parish that I served, one of the active parishioners was absent for months and when the person finally resurfaced; and I asked where she had been, she told me that she visited a place for “prayers”. Her response troubled me greatly because I thought we (priests) have failed to teach her to believe that God was present in our church, especially in his word, sacrament and the communion we share. Why was it that this lady had to travel to far away mysterious place to seek the presence and intervention of God? “If only” children of God can discern very well, they will know that God is very close to them.

            Come to think of it, Moses may have seen the Israelites of old in the above light. In many instances in the Old Testament, the Israelites are portrayed as wanderers. They did not wander in the desert from their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land but they wandered in search of divine and spiritual intervention. Many a times they may have thought that God was too far away from them and could not hear them when they prayed to him and so they resorted to the worship of foreign gods and idols. Their hearts and minds were so closed and blinded that they could not sense the presence of God in the book of law and the wisdom and prophetic writings.

            Moses in his efforts to correct their misconception spoke gently to them: “If only you would heed the voice of the Lord, your God, and keep his commandments and statutes that are written in this book of the law, when you return to the Lord, your God, with all your heart and all your soul…” The clause for one to experience and enjoy the presence of God lies in the phrase “If only…” When the phrase “if only” is employed, it carries the nuance of conditionality. And here Moses sought the conditionality of one giving his/her heart and soul to God. God by demanding one’s soul and heart, implies the demand of one’s full attention. Distraction is one of the greatest drifters in spirituality. If one’s mind and heart are not distracted, one may feel the presence of God in the place (s)he is right now reading this reflection of mine.

            God is not far away at all. That is why Moses told the Israelites, “For this command that I enjoined on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you. It is not up in the sky, that you should say, ‘Who will go up in the sky to get it for us and tell us of it that we may carry it out?’ Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?’ No, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out.” This may have inspired the Akan people to say: “no one shows a child the existence of God.” The presence of God is at the centre of human existence.

The first reading has a close connection with today’s gospel text. A scholar of the law in his effort to test Jesus, ended up being educated on the nearness of God. In the scholar’s own final answer, he realized that showing kindness to one’s neighbour can be equally or far more important than the observance of the law.

            We should try to move Christianity and Catholicism away from mere rituals to service of God and neighbour. Of what worth is it if we keep all the laws in the Bible and the church but we do not love our neighbour as God has loved us? In today’s story recounted to us by St Luke, praises and honors were denied the Levite and priest who in their obsession for the Jewish “law of purity” deprived kindness to their neighbour in need. Jesus rather praised the kindness of that Samaritan traveler because in showing kindness, he was more priestly than the Levite and the priest. Let us learn to be kind because in kindness we experience the presence of God. OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HELP PRAY FOR US.