THE CITY OF GOD

Meditation for Thursday of the 4^th Week in Ordinary Time, Year B

(Heb 12:18-19, 21-24; Mk 6:7-13)

As we are gradually rounding up our meditations on the Letter to the Hebrews, it is important to reflect on the great mystery of Christ we are being called to. Looking that the trials and discipline we are expected to embrace in faith, one may begin to wonder if it is worth it at all! But whatever we endure here now cannot be compared with the glory to be revealed for us. “You have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire...But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem...” What a glorious presence! Imagine you being found worthy to be invited to enter such a beautiful and awesome presence? Your soul would rise to its highest contemplation and be suspended in the bright glorious presence of God.

What we are called to participate in faith is a festal gathering of innumerable angels; an assembly of those enrolled in heaven, where everyone is a first born. Yes, it is a coming together of the spirits of just men and women made perfect; a place where God Himself is the judge. We are being called to Jesus, “The mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel.” What then can delay our response? What obstacle, trial or discipline can we not overcome to dwell in this glorious presence of God, where the Blood of Jesus bleeds for us!

In the Gospel, Jesus sent out His disciples two by two to spread this good news. Think about how He ‘stripped’ them of every distraction; such that the meditations of their hearts should not be on bread, bag, money, clothing, accommodation, relationships, or people's praises or rejection. The ultimate contemplation of their hearts must be on the Word of God and its authority. This, too, is how we move forward in faith, despite all challenges, to enter Mount Zion, the city of God, and abide in His glorious presence. Amen.    

Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church,
Tedi-Muwo, Lagos.
Thursday February 4th, 2021.
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