Be Glad... but beware of obstinacy!

THE WORD IN LENT - Thursday, Fourth week

March 14, 2024 - Exodus 32: 7-14; John 5: 31-47

Through the desert God guides us to freedom. Beginning the past Sunday, we have been seen reasons why we need to rejoice in the Lord, specially in the Cross of our Lord, for God so loved the world that God deigned to offer God's own Son for our eternal joy! The central theme of Word in the past two days, continues today - the discourse of the covenant. God made the covenant - but even as the covenant was being made, what did the so called people of God do? They went away from the Lord. This is so dramatically pictured in the first reading today. 

That scenario continues even today - as persons find the easiest excuse to fall away from the image that Lord has given us or decline to be what the Lord continues to make of us, through the covenantal relationship. It is true that God never gives up on us, but that is not enough for us to grow towards experiencing that greatest of all gifts from God - a sense of salvation. 

That the Lord has made a covenant with us, is a huge reason to be glad and to rejoice! But let us beware, the same can become the reason for our eternal tragedy, if we do not live up to it. This is what is brought forth to our understanding by the imagery of Moses! The very same Moses who is presented in the first reading as the intercessor, is named by Jesus as the probable judge who would condemn the very people - Moses who stands out as the symbol of God's old covenant. 

The new and the eternal covenant personified in Christ our Saviour, has the same overture! It is true that God's mercy is boundless and limitless! There is nothing that can come between us and God's mercy, Jesus has made it absolutely clear. Nothing can come in between, except our own obstinacy! Every day is an added opportunity to grow closer to realising this merciful covenant of the Lord. But let us beware, every missed opportunity, every delayed moment, every day wasted in our stubbornness of heart, we have to answer for! Today, for the mercy of the Lord which sustains us, let us be glad, even as we promise the Lord to become aware and work on every bit of our tendency to obstinacy.