Thursday, February 24, 2011

Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6:33

There are some people who entertain high notions of reforming others and of leading them to the Promised Land which they themselves imagine they possess. The irony here is that people like this never do anything worthwhile because they fail to grasp a simple truth: all good comes from God and before you can reform others you must first reform yourself.

In today’s scripture passage from the gospel of Matthew, we are reminded that we must put God’s kingdom first. Really good people realize that all good comes from God who is capable of achieving His aims independently of them; and that if they do well, it is because God is enabling them to do so.

In his book, the city of God, St. Augustine says that happiness consists in two things: desiring what we should, and having the power to attain our desires. Of these two jems of advice, the first is the all important one. Our first desire should be to seek first the kingdom of God and His approval. His kingdom is a spiritual kingdom of truth, justice and love; and it must be established within us first if it is to be established at all.

All too often, people ignore God’s kingdom and seek only to achieve their own desires. But, the power to attain our desires is useless if these desires are themselves disordered. Such power would then be used to our own detriment and the detriment of others. Look at what happened in Germany during the first half of the twentieth century when Adolf Hitler came to power. He forced his own countrymen to accept his ruthless desires and tried to impose them by force on the rest of the world with devastating consequences.

God is our Father, and we are His sons and daughters. He has sent His only son to lead us into His kingdom the way a shepherd leads His flock into green pastures.

The just and the good; those who seek God’s kingdom first, will always triumph in the long run for God will see to it that they do. That is why it is so important to make it our first priority to:
“Seek first the kingdom of God and His approval.” If we do this, everything else will fall into place.

Fr. Hugh Duffy

* * * Do not miss tomorrow’s blog on Following Christ * * *