Learning the ways of God

 

Tue June 9^th 2020. MP Reflection  (Eccl 8 and Matt 15: 29-39)

The definition of VANITY: “excessive pride in one's appearance, qualities, abilities, achievements, etc.; character or quality of being vain, conceit: an excessively favorable opinion of one's own ability, importance, wit; etc. The Bible’s use of this word vanity brings out an idea of pointlessness of human activity. We pump ourselves up in glorifying our activities, decisions but in real life it does not contribute anything of value. That’s the vanity Ecclesiastes puts into our faces. For e.g. on the radios, we are told that our steps have gone drastically down because of Stay home order, No exercises in Gyms. Maybe we gained a kilo or two. Don’t be alarmed it’s not the end of the world. Are we having an eye to recognize vanity in our human endeavors?

Ecclesiastes tells us that the righteous are treated as wicked, and the wicked treated as if they were righteous. This is no news, it is the way of the world, some of us have benefited from this system. It is no surprise that the wicked will prosper as a result. That’s why the righteous are encouraged to continue to fearing God, following God’s ways regardless of the outcome. The results might not lead to happiness, instead, the results might lead to sorrow. We would expect that being a righteous person; following the law, might keep trouble away! That’s the way it should be. Right? Surprise: Life experience show that those following the righteous way might actually face backlash. What happens to whistle blowers? Do we thank them or do we curse them if they are telling on us?

This is teaching us wisdom to recognize the ways of the Lord: The challenging “narrow” path versus the easy “wide” road that most people subscribe to.  The road that seems to us like a faster short cut, tantalizing and leading to satisfaction and pleasure. The Gospel message of the day encourages us to come to Jesus for healing. It is a story of Jesus healing and feeding the crowds. It begins with Crowds gathering to hear Jesus speak, and the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute were brought to Jesus for healing. We are all in need of Jesus healing. We are found in all these categories spiritually: the blind, the lame, the mute spiritually.

We have been handicapped, subjected to complex problems that we were never meant to carry, endure or deal with. The world has somehow expectations on how we should deal with these complex problems. I heard someone say: “We are expected to pull ourselves with our own bootstraps, but we have no bootstraps to begin with. Such situation may make anyone sick.

We were never meant to deal with such complex situations, but here we are: The human spirit is resilient, God helping, people are still functional. This is worrisome nevertheless! That’s why we are encouraged to come to Jesus for healing. People who were brought to Jesus were healed. Jesus has compassion for us. He knows our situation may be beyond what we can endure, that’s why his presence in our lives is so vital. WE need to pray for each other, for our country, for our neighbor so that we may heal… so that we may be fed by God, because some are already spiritually too hungry to eat, may be ready to faint.

Think of your neighbor to day and pray.

Be blessed! 

Amen.