Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about how God sent His help and deliverance to His people through His messenger, an Angel, to bring the good news of liberation through the man, Gideon, whom He had appointed to be the one to save His people from the oppression and tyranny of the Midianites. Through Gideon, God would bring His people to remember what He had done to their ancestors when they were oppressed in Egypt.

The people of God had lived for quite some time by then in the land which He had promised them and their ancestors. The land of Canaan was a land that was superbly fertile and flourishing, flowing with milk and honey, and with bountiful harvests too. No other land on earth was comparable, and God gave His people the very best of land, because of the faith of their ancestors, and they inherit the good promise of God.

But in the process, the people of Israel forgot about the Lord and all the good things He has done for them. This is because, as is with human nature, all of us are easily tempted and corrupted by the many temptations and allures of this world. The bounty of goods and wealth that the land had brought them, had made the people of God overjoyed and even proud of what they had and what they had achieved, and in the end, they became like their neighbours, revelling in sin and merrymaking, and forgetting about God.

As a result, God allowed their neighbours to overpower them, to remind them that sin and worldliness lead to nothing but destruction and punishment suitable for that wickedness. And which in the Gospel today, our Lord Jesus Christ had also highlighted this fact, that it is difficult for someone with riches and wealth to enter into the kingdom of God, for their wealth and riches became their undoing.

It is just the same as what we heard in the Gospel yesterday on the young man who eventually did not follow the Lord even though He had faithfully obeyed all the Law and the commandments, because he was unable to part with his riches and wealth, when Jesus told him that the way to go was for him to let go of all that he had, and follow Him.

We have to take note that here, what Jesus is trying to tell us is not that wealth or riches are vile and wicked, and neither it is that rich people are wicked or evil, or that they are condemned. In fact, all people are equal before God, be it rich or poor, strong or weak, smart or foolish, great or small. What differentiates them is the love and devotion which they have for the Lord.

We are challenged today, to look beyond our earthly possessions and wealth that bound us to this world. Look at the disciples of the Lord, the holy Apostles, all of whom, like the many saints and martyrs who had abandoned everything to follow the Lord. They have no need to fear anything, and they were satisfied, for God provided all that they needed, and He cared for them in everything, and most importantly, they received the fullness of the promise of eternal life because of their faith.

Let us all also be able to resist the temptations of the flesh, and keep ourselves free from the allures of the devil and worldly goods. Let us all realise that whatever we have with us, we can use for the betterment of others around us, that all of us are well taken care of, and in love, all of us may be found worthy by our Lord, and be welcomed into His everlasting inheritance. God bless us all. Amen.