BARRIERS TO THE WORD OF GOD

We cannot listen to God since our minds are too noisy.

This verse in the Bible baffles our minds and arrests the attention of our hearts. Why did the Hebrews in Egypt not listen to Moses their leader? What had prevented them to do so? What would be its significance for us today? Can our sufferings, sicknesses and pains prevent us from paying due attention to the Word of God. It is possible that a life of misery can switch off one’s ears to the inner voice of God?

Bible unfolds to us a two-fold factor for the inability of the Israelites to pay attention to the words of Moses. One factor seems to be spiritual (internal) and the other, physical (external) one.

“They did not listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and their cruel bondage” (Ex 6:9). It is quite obvious that a soul cannot listen to the word of God due to its “broken spirit” and “cruel bondage.” In other words, a “broken spirit” and “cruel bondage” incapacitate a man/woman to heed to God’s word.

Broken Spirit

How does a man/woman’s spirit become broken? Who crushes/breaks one’s spirit? And how can we mend a broken spirit? It happens to the inner being of a person and so it is invisible. But we can observe the signs and symptoms of a “drooping spirit” in the way he/she performs his/her daily duties in life.

Once Jesus had met a group of people who were “crushed in their spirit,” “distressed” (ripto), broken hearted and “wearied” (Mt 9:36), and “he began to teach them at length” (Mk 6:34). Lengthy teaching might perhaps heal many of the broken spirited people of our time. It is the Lord alone “who heals the broken hearted and he binds up their wounds” (Ps 147:3). To do this, Jesus is empowered through the mighty anointing from above. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…he has sent me to bind up the broken hearted” (Is 61:1; Lk 4:18). Elsewhere, Dr. Luke mentions that, “the power of the Lord was with him to heal” (Lk 5:17). And he lifts up those who are bowed down” (Ps 146:8).

“A dejected mind, a gloomy face and a wounded heart” would be the true manifestation of a “broken spirit” (Sir 25:23). It is quite natural for a soul to wander about in the world, once its goal in life is lost. And so, he/she desires to end up his/her life “in death” (Ps 109:16). It was the longing of Job (17:1), to choose death rather than life. “A man’s spirit will endure sickness, but a broken spirit who can bear” (Pro 18:14). “A downcast spirit dries up the bones” (Pro 17:22).

Cruel bondage

We know from our experiences, that by the “sorrow of heart” or “a cruel bondage,” a human “spirit is broken” easily and quickly (Pro 15:13) and is unable to heed to the voice of the Lord. Even now, some sections of our human society, due to their abject poverty and age-old oppression, cannot rise above their bondages in order to plan for an egalitarian society. Even the every suggestion of it sounds to them like an utopian idea or a wishful dream for the far future.

Do you remember how the Lord had liberated a daughter of Abraham from the cruel bondage of Satan for eighteen long, years? “Ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” (Lk 13:16). In fact, He came to “liberate” people from their bondages (Lk 4:18; Jn 8:32).

Before preaching the Good News, should we not liberate our people from various types of bondages? Or should we not liberate them in and through the Gospel message that we preach? This spiritual activity can only be performed by the Spirit of the Lord (Lk 4:18). Let us pray that God will make us humble instruments in His hands for liberating many souls from the bondages of sin and Satan.

ABOVE ALL, TRUST IN THE SLOW WORK OF GOD

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way
to something unknown,
something new.
Yet it is the law of all progress that is made
by passing through some stages of instability
and that may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you.
Your ideas mature gradually. Let them grow.
Let them shape themselves without undue haste.
Do not try to force them on
as though you could be today what time
– that is to say, grace –
and circumstances
acting on your own good will
will make you tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new Spirit
gradually forming in you will be.

Give our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.
Above all, trust in the slow work of God,
our loving vine-dresser.
Amen.

WHAT IS AN ANGEL?

The angels were to witness the birth of God’s only Son and flew closer to earth and sang sweetly. They caught sight of the new-born child from the stable’s roof and instantly understood their mission. They were so filled with joy that they burst into a glorious thanksgiving song. It was so melodious that it could be heard all over the Earth. They are known as Christmas angels. We see Christmas angels singing and playing music in Nativity scenes who look so cute and benevolent that they catch young one’s attention and fascination instantly.

The word angel is derived from the Hebrew word which takes the meaning ‘one going’ or ‘one sent’. The Hebrew word is used to denote either a divine or human messenger. The Latin version however distinguishes the divine or spirit messenger from the human, rendering the original in the one case by angelus and the other by legatus or more generally by nuntius.

The angels are represented throughout the Bible as a body of spiritual beings intermediate between God and men; “you have made him (man) a little less than the angels” (Ps. 8:6). They, equally with man, are created beings; “Praise Him all His angels: praise Him all His hosts… for He spoke and they were made. He commanded and they were created” (Ps. 148:2). That the angels were created was laid down in the fourth Lateran Council.

Angels As Personal Guardians

Throughout the Bible we find it repeatedly implied that each individual soul has its tutelary angel. Thus Abraham, when sending his steward to seek a wife for Isaac, says; “He will send His angel before you” (Gen. 24:7). The words of the ninetieth Psalm which the devil quoted to our Lord (Mt. 4:6) are well known, and Judith accounts for her heroic deed by saying; “As the Lord lives, His angel has been my keeper” (Gen. 13:20).

Angles can make communications with the saints in heaven. They constantly intercede for us. When we begin to travel securely along the spiritual path Angels pray to heaven for giving us most valuable graces. Angels can help us even from falling into dangers. A spiritual enlightenment of the human soul is the sole aim of the creation of angels. We will be led by the angles invoking the grace of God, forever.

MYSTICAL WISDOM

You want me to share
And I desire to respond
But false layers within
Are a barrier to intimacy
Like Paul I experience
Doing the opposite
Of what I know is true
Incapable at times of
Overcoming the pulls
Of my lower nature

With John of The Cross
You have given a guide
To help ascend the mount
For it is a mountain –
The way of perfection,
The way of humanization

In ‘The Ascent’ he tells
Of how arduous the journey
And of what we can do
To become new persons
That is to love You
For in loving You we receive
The grace of ‘The dark night’
And although resisting You
In my weakness You purify me
In the darkness

‘The Night’ shows
That our problems arises
Not from society but within
In order to build up ourselves
We must realise the purification
Of senses and imperfections.
John’s image of burning wood
Implies that You change our very
Being not just our behavior

The wisdom of both books show
That our very hearts require changing
And only You Our God can do this

WALK ON IMPOSSIBILITIES

“He said, Come! So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water…” (Matthew 14:29)

This is one of my favourite verses in the Scriptures. I like it because it contains an essential truth, which when applied, can help you overcome impossibilities.

Peter was a veteran fisherman. He knew how to stay in the boat during turbulent weather. It may be an impossible task for you but not for Peter. However to walk on water was an impossible task for Peter. He has never heard about such a thing!

But all that changed when Peter found Jesus walking on water. He extended Jesus a rather amusing request: “…Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water” (Matthew 14:28)

Why did Peter ask Jesus to ‘command’ him to walk on the water? The root word used here for ‘command’ is ‘keleuson’ (Greek term). It means to ‘give an order’ or ‘incite by word’.

Peter had a revelation of the power vested in the command given by Jesus. He knew if he ever wanted to walk on water, he needed an ‘order’, a ‘command’, a ‘word’ from Jesus. And once he got it, He began to walk on it!

You see, to the natural eye, Peter was walking on the water. But the truth is, he was walking on the ‘command’ or the ‘word’ of Jesus. It’s his trust and dependence on that word that made him walk on the water.

That’s the key to overcoming your impossibilities. What are you facing today? Debt, loneliness, joblessness, sickness, failure, addiction? Whatever that be, do what Peter did. Ask Jesus to give you a word. Spend time in the Scriptures. And when you sense His ‘command’, take it by faith.

Hold on to that word. Confess that word. Walk on that word.

Then watch and see how your impossibilities become marvellous sights of God’s power and grace!