Thursday, June 8, 2023

Right to be children of God

WORD 2day: Friday, 9th week in Ordinary time

June 9, 2023: Tobit 11:5-17; Mark 12:35-37

Anna was excited to see her son and felt she could even die in peace, since she had seen her son. Tobit was delighted in his son, as his son comes back from the journey. Tobias becomes the happiness of his parents. Both Anna and Tobit were almost reborn because of Tobias. Is this what the poet meant when he said, 'the child is the father of the man'! Tobias almost gave new birth to Tobit who actually wanted to die. That is the son giving a new life to his parents!

We have another Son who does the same, but to all. We see in the Gospel, Jesus wants to give that same new life to the people but they are still trying to make out for themselves who Jesus was, whose son he was and to whom they could link him to. They did not recognise the sonship that Jesus was claiming. We would do the same mistake, not only if we do not recognise the sonship of Jesus, but also when we do not realise the right to be children of God that we have received through Jesus. 

Jesus invites us to become aware of our sonship and daughterhood in God. He says the earthly fathers and mothers, the earthly generations we treasure, are but passing, and we need to have that eternal abode that sustains our journey. You are the children of God, when we hear Jesus telling us this, we would inherit the blessedness that he himself had, the salvation that he brought us - everything summarised in the right we have to be known as children of God.