COLLECT: “ATTEND TO THE PLEAS OF YOUR PEOPLE WITH HEAVENLY CARE, O LORD, WE PRAY, THAT THEY MAY SEE WHAT MUST BE DONE AND GAIN STRENGTH TO DO WHAT THEY HAVE SEEN. 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”.
1Sam 1:9-20; Ps 1Sam 2:1,4-8 and Mk 1:21-28
The Dagaaba have a proverb that: “Kanyiri soba, o nang mang pe naasara bire” or “Kanyiri soba, o nang mang dugi kuseba” (Lit. “Only a person who is patient will be able to extract milk from a young cow” or “Only a person who is patient will be able to cook stones”). The English equivalent of this is: “Patience moves mountains”. There is a scriptural version of it that goes: “Your patience endurance shall win you your life” (Cf. Mk 13:13).
God is indeed a mighty and powerful God. There is nothing that he cannot do. The impossible things are very possible for him, especially in the face of deep faith and trust in him. Overcoming barrenness is impossible for us. Hannah, the wife of Elkanah was in this situation. She was a barren woman. What compounded her problem was how her rival, Peninnah, to upset her, turned her barren situation into a constant reproach and Hannah was often looked at with scorn. In fact, Hannah was a public disgrace.
Hannah never gave up though in pain. She kept praying in sorrow and in tears. She had a deep faith and she trusted that God would answer her one day. In her patience and constancy in prayer, the LORD did answer her prayer and granted her her dire need and her heart’s desire.
“Barrenness” is not only the inability to give birth to children. We equally have other types or forms of barrenness in our lives. When nothing “comes to birth” in our lives, in our work, in our services, in our relationships and so on, it is a moment of barrenness we are experiencing. Also, when we are in a dire need of something, be it health, a cure or healing (like the man possessed by an unclean spirit in today’s Gospel: Cf. Mk 1:21-28), a success in life and so on, we are in a barren situation. In faith and trust in God, he can turn the “nothingness”, the “barrenness” and the “impossibilities” in our lives into something, into fruitfulness and into the possibility.
One other thing we can learn from today’s scriptures is that we should be careful what vows and promises we make in our prayers to give or do to God when our prayers are answered. A lot of us do not always weigh the ‘checks and balances’ before we make vows or promises. We easily make these vows but are not able to keep them: “Easy said than done”. People make or take baptismal vows and promises but are not able to keep them. There are a lot of married people who do not faithfully keep their marital vows and promises.
A lot of Priests and Religious are not faithful to our priestly and religious vows and promises. There are a lot of people in the ‘field of profession/job’, who are not able to faithfully go by their job/professional descriptions or terms of reference as their vows/promises they made when they accepted the profession. Let us learn from Hannah (1Sam 1:24ff) who made a promise and faithfully honoured it. May the Lord of impossibilities grant us the spirit of endurance. May he heal and cure us from whatever barrenness we are going through in life. May Saint Hilary intercede for us. Stay blessed and happy feast to all who bear the name Hilary.
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: “HUMBLY WE ASK YOU, ALMIGHTY GOD, BE GRACIOUSLY PLEASED TO GRANT THAT THOSE YOU RENEW WITH YOUR SACRAMENTS MAY ALSO SERVE WITH LIVES PLEASING TO YOU. THROUGH CHRIST OUR LORD. AMEN”.
Rev. Fr. Aloysius Kpiebaya, Catholic Diocese of Wa, UW/R, Ghana. (00233) 0207867239/0545462863. Email: aloybaya20@yahoo.com
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