By
Noel A. Ihebuzor
Read the scriptures today from the catholic liturgy – they are instructive – they talk to us about true wisdom, God’s call and wonderful purpose and the beauty of the kingdom. And as you read, may God bless you according to his riches in glory.
Permit me a few quick comments on the readings. The first reading is very significant. God asks a man King Solomon to choose from the immensity of His (God’s) gifts. The dialogue is a lecture on how to engage God – Humility, self abasement, acknowledgement of God’s supremacy and a plea for a gift not for self aggrandizement but to successfully undertake a God assigned task, advance the Kingdom, to advance humanity and the request is beautiful but amazing in its stark simplicity but totality! – understanding heart and wisdom to rule and judge
Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart
to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong.
How so badly we need wisdom in our world of today – wisdom to decide and to choose, wisdom to know the worthwhile and the futile, wisdom to know the good, the bad and the ugly, wisdom to know what truly matters! And it is so easy to think we are wise as we are surrounded by the latest gadgets and gizmos of the ICT laced 21st century. But there is wisdom and there is wisdom. And true wisdom only comes from God. So let us all, like Solomon, ask God today for that true wisdom. Once we have this wisdom that comes from on high, every other thing will fall in place. I dedicate the first reading to all my friends, to all of Nigeria, to GEJ, to the catholic Church (clergy and laity) in Nigeria as they seek to resolve the “Ahiara Crisis” and to all nations who think that might is right in their engagements with weaker neighbours. Let Wisdom prevail.
And next to the psalm.
The psalm (psalm 119), I dedicate to us all. May God’s kindness comfort us all!
May we delight in God’s commands and hate all false precepts
May we keep God’s word and love them more than every other treasure in this world
May God call you according to His wonderful purpose for your life
May the scripture, Roman 8, that everything works together for good for those God calls find expression in your life.
May you realize and appreciate the special meaning of “everything” in that scripture– as this means the lows, the highs, the disappointments, the failures, the slips, the falling down, the rising up, the challenges, the successes yes, everything, all working together in a synergy enhancement mode
May God call you, May He justify you & may He Glorify you IJMN!
Remember that line from that familiar song – “and whilst on others thou art calling, do not pass me by”! Well the problem is that He calls us always, like the good shepherd that He is, but the things of this world, our materialism, the company we keep, our obsessions etc block our ears so that we no longer hear; they cover our eyes with translucent gauze so that we fail to see when He beckons to us. May we therefore be sensitive to His call, to His signs and to His beckoning! When He calls and you answer, you qualify for the justification. And the justification is not because of your great deeds but by and because of His grace, by His strength which are made perfect when we garb ourselves with humility, install the latest version of Obedience 7 as our operating software and display love, justice and kindness to all of His creatures and creation.
May we be found worthy at the end of time for heaven, a place of abode for those who allowed God’s word and wisdom to install and reign in the hearts and hearth.
May heaven be our portion, our “oke”. May we sing with Obaraeze Chima Eke, “Chim awokwalam oke le! Chi gi awokwalagi oke! (Translation – My God, please do not deny me of my portion/inheritance. May your God not deny you of your portion/inheritance)! Amen.
Happy Sunday –
Noel
