COLLECT: “O GOD, WHO THROUGH YOUR ONLY BEGOTTEN SON HAVE MADE US A NEW CREATION, LOOK KINDLY, WE PRAY, ON THE HANDIWORK OF YOUR MERCY, AND AT YOUR SON’S COMING CLEANSE US FROM EVERY STAIN OF THE OLD WAY OF LIFE. THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, YOUR SON, WHO LIVES AND REIGNS WITH YOU IN THE UNITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, GOD, FOR EVER AND EVER. AMEN”.
Zeph 3:1-2,9-13; Ps 33:2-3,6-7,17-19,23; Mt 21:28-32.
The Dagaaba have a wise saying that: “Someone’s roasted yam always soils/blackens the person’s mouth or lips” (“Nie wa-sieraa mang suo O soba nuore”). Another saying is that: “There is never a second chance to make a first impression”. This means that, once you have the time or the chance to make an impression, if you fail to do that, you may not be able to impress people again. This is certainly what the world holds and teaches. For instance, in the world, if you commit a crime or do an evil act, it will follow you till you die and pass on. That is why in ‘Julius Caesar’ (a Book) there is another saying that: ‘The evil that men do often lives after them’. This is even telling us that, even after I pass on, my wrong deeds or evil actions will follow me and continue to live. These sayings are all true in this world and nothing may change the situation.
However, in the Kingdom of God, it may be different. One’s soiled or blackened lips could be clean in God’s Kingdom. We always get not only a second chance, but several chances to make an impression to help us gain entrance into God’s Kingdom one day.
When we can make an impression during the chances that God always gives us, then our evil deeds and wrong deeds will not live after us. Of course, if God gives us several chances to do something about our lives in order to make an impression and we ignore that or abuse these chances, then our soiled and blackened lips will continue to be so, and our evil and wicked deeds will continue to live after us.
Most of the chosen people of God got several chances to make amends and make an impression when God sent prophet after prophet to them to preach to them to convert. Eventually, God sent his only Begotten Son but those who thought they were righteous did not listen to or believe in him.
In fact, before Jesus, John the Baptist came but they did not believe him. Yet, tax collectors and prostitutes believed in both John and in Jesus. These tax collectors and prostitutes were like people whose ‘black yams soiled or blackened their lips’. They got a second chance to create an impression and their evil deeds would not live after them.
In our time, God gives us chances every day and every year to make an impression regarding our sinful deeds that have blackened and soiled the immaculate souls that God gave us. A lot of us, like the old people of God, continue to turn a deaf ear to all the calls and warnings that the Word of God has been giving us, and some of us always close our eyes to the wonders that God has been performing in our midst to help us come back to him.
God, through the Church, teaches us every day or every Sunday: teaching us the will of God and what we should do to be part and parcel of the Church, which is the physical presence of God’s Kingdom on earth. A lot of people turn a deaf ear to the teachings of the Church and to what God’s word teaches us. We have another chance this season of Advent. What must we do? Stay blessed.
WE MEDITATE TODAY, TUESDAY, ON THE SORROWFUL MYSTERIES: ‘THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN, THE SCOURGING AT THE PILLAR, THE CROWNING WITH THORNS, THE CARRYING OF THE CROSS AND THE CRUCIFIXION’ (WE PRAY FOR SORROW FOR SIN, PURITY, COURAGE, PATIENCE, AND PERSEVERANCE) “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, sinners, now and the hour of our death, Amen”.
PRAYER: “REPLENISHED BY THE FOOD OF SPIRITUAL NOURISHMENT, WE HUMBLY BESEECH YOU, O LORD, THAT, THROUGH OUR PARTAKING IN THIS MYSTERY, YOU MAY TEACH US TO JUDGE THE THINGS OF EARTH AND HOLD FAST TO THE THINGS OF HEAVEN. THROUGH CHRIST OUR LORD. AMEN”.
Rev. Fr. Aloysius Kpiebaya, Catholic Diocese of Wa, UW/R, Ghana. (00233) 0207867239/0545462863. Email: aloybaya20@yahoo.
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