Thank thee Lord our God!

WORD 2day - Wednesday, 15th week in Ordinary time

July 19, 2023: Exodus 3: 1-6,9-12; Matthew 11: 25-27 

God reveals Godself to Moses, and thus to the people of Israel, and thus to the whole world - the very first revelation of the God who intervenes in history is a revelation of a God who stands by the suffering, the poor, the oppressed! While the dominant, the oppressive and the powerful lot float on their cloud of pride and arrogance, creating petty gods of themselves and idols of their power and penny, the Lord rests with the weak, the suffering, the little ones who put their trust in the Lord. 

The interim picture of the situation may look favourable to the powerful and the dominant, but at the denouement it wont certainly be so! The last shall be first, the least shall be the greatest, the humble shall be exalted, the persecuted shall be consoled - these repeated paradoxes taught by Jesus are not asking one to wish misfortune for oneself or to negate the fullness of life that Jesus himself brought. 

It is to remind us that the fullness of life is not in the power, possession and prosperity that we hold so dear - it is in right priorities! It is understanding one's origins, one's duties, one's giftedness, one's call, one's mission, one's relatedness to the other, one's responsibility for those around oneself and to the humanity as a whole. 

When I understand all this and live my everyday life in all earnestness, it would be a reason to thank and praise God, as Jesus does today - "I thank thee, Lord of heaven and earth!"