In today’s readings, God shows that He is faithful, and that He will reward all those who believe in Him. We can rest assured that God will protect us, as long as we too remain faithful in Him, and remain in His favour. After all, the Lord has proven His faith to us and His love by sending us His only Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Saviour, by being the High Priest of all mankind, giving up Himself as a worthy sacrifice in place of our innumerable sins. Such indeed, is the extent of God’s love and reliability, as He is reliable as He is loving, the only one we can truly trust, since He stopped at nothing but gave Himself entirely for our sake. Thus, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us anchor ourselves in Christ, and let God be the firm foundation of our faith, and our life. So that, even when troubles come, and even when uncertainties and temptations come, we can be assured that as long as we keep our anchor in Christ, we are in God’s good hands.

God did create rules and set of laws in the past to the Israelites, which He announced to Moses on Mount Horeb, the Holy mountain of God, and the purpose of these rules is none other than to serve as the same anchor to keep all the Israelites anchored in God and His teachings, and not to be led astray by the temptations of the other gods followed by tribes that the Israelites met on their way to the Promised Land, and in the Promised Land itself, to always remain faithful in God. Nevertheless, as was evident in the many parts of the Old Testament, the people of Israel disobeyed the Lord many times and did things in opposition to His commandments and His rules, which include the rule of the Sabbath.

However, the coming of Christ has brought an entire new dimension to the interpretation of these laws and their relations to God’s people, as Christ, being God Himself, has walked amongst His people, and He, the Son of Man, is the Master of the Sabbath, and thus, consequently also the new ‘Anchor’ of the people’s faith, replacing all the old laws and commandments with His new commandment of love, for the Son of God did not come to destroy but to perfect the old commandments and serve as the fulfillment of all the promises and prophecies made by the prophets.

Laws, customs, and regulations should not be seen as so binding and authoritative to the point of enslaving those whom these regulations are supposed to protect into their slaves instead. This is what Jesus meant when He said that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. These rules, laws, and customs are there, because they are there to guide us to the correct path and prevent us from going astray, but not to limit us unnecessarily, especially when nothing that we do are wrong in the eyes of God. We have even seen that in the Book of the Maccabees, the Israelites under the leadership of the Maccabees allowed themselves to fight to defend themselves on the Sabbath against the pagan Greeks, rather than leaving themselves to be killed without defense. And so was David and his followers when they were truly hungry, for food is a basic and essential commodity to humans like us, and also to all creations. God certainly do not wish to deny us this essential commodity and leaving us to die of hunger just by inflexibly obeying the law of the Sabbath.

This is also why, we as Catholics, do not follow the Jewish Laws anymore, including the laws regarding food prohibitions, as what matters to Jesus Christ, the new ‘anchor’ of our faith, which renews the Law into its perfect form, is the purity and sincerity of our hearts and our souls, and not matters that concern our physique, such as food and rituals. Indeed, the Lord Himself said that (Matthew 15 : 11) “What enters into the mouth does not make a person unclean. What defiles a person is what comes out of his mouth.”

Therefore, what matters is the laws that regulate our spirituality, which will ensure our internal spirituality and soul remain pure and unblemished to the Lord, which can be achieved through prayers, and doing good work for the sake of God, and for the sake of all around us. “Ora et Labora” indeed, to pray and to do good works, so that our hearts will be pure and be worthy of God.

We do have rules and regulations in our Church, just as the Jews did, and we too have to obey these rules, as these rules, although are human in nature, can help us greatly in ensuring that all of us can have the optimum condition necessary to sustain our spiritual wellbeing and purity, despite all the temptations and the challenges presented by the world around us.

Therefore, let us all pray that Jesus, as the anchor of our faith and our life, will strengthen us, and will support us in our daily lives and daily encounters with temptations and challenges of the world, that we will be able, with the help of the rules and laws of the Church, maintain our spiritual health and maintain our purity in the eyes of God, focusing on the internal rather than the external dimension of our being.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_of_Saragossa

Today we also celebrate the Feast of St. Vincent, who was a Deacon and Martyr in the early Church. Also known as St. Vincent of Saragossa, St. Vincent was imprisoned for his faith in late Roman Empire under Emperor Diocletian, and met his martyrdom at the Emperor’s orders. St. Vincent is another shining example of loyalty to the faith in God, just as shown by St. Agnes, whose feast we celebrated just the day before. These martyrs show us that God rewards those who believed in Him and remain faithful in Him, as stated in the first reading today. As long as we keep our anchor in Christ, and remain strong in our faith in Him, even with all the challenges and persecutions laid by the world against us, like these saints and martyrs, we will eventually prevail and be rewarded with nothing less than life eternal with Christ, forever and ever. Amen.

St. Vincent of Saragossa, Deacon and Martyr, pray for us.