The Fruit of continuity in God’s Word! (HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF THE 5TH WEEK OF LENT

Homily for Wednesday of the 5th week of Lent 

Daniel 3:14-20, 24-25, 28; Ps.3; John 8:31-42

The Fruit of continuity in God’s Word!

Freedom is priceless! Sometimes it takes some moment of losing it for one to understand what a jewel freedom is. Students breathe some form of fresh air when they graduate from secondary school because it gives a sense of freedom. They are equally happy when they gain admission into tertiary institutions because they become quite free from home and the limitations that comes with home. Generally, everyone struggles to gain and maintain freedom. In the gospel reading of today, Jesus tells us that we also need spiritual freedom. For us to be spiritually free, we must be consistent in living by the Word of God. If we make God’s Word our rule every day, we will come to know the truth and the truth will set us free. Thus, it is the deceit of the devil that can thwart our spiritual freedom.

With spiritual freedom, we are able to grow in intimacy with God; we come to experience that sense of cordiality that existed between God and our first parents at the beginning of creation. This can only come about when we give-up every entanglement with sin. No sin can be habitual or permissive for one who is truly spiritually free. Spiritual freedom gives us the courage to live for God and by God alone. For one who is spiritually free, he/she may be imprisoned by the callousness of the unrighteous, but then that which is divine will always prevail.

This is what we find in the first reading. Shedrach, Meshach and Abednego signified those who lived by the truth and thus were spiritually free. The world (personified in king Nebuchadnezzar) wanted to rip them of this spiritual freedom by promising them an earthly freedom that is slavery in disguise. But these three wise men, chose to be consistent in the truth. Interestingly, their reason was not so much because God will save them from the threat of the king but that even if they die, they will be free enough to enter heaven. Only the spiritually free can enter heaven!

For their consistency, God acted beyond their expectation. For their consistency, the king decreed that only the God of Shedrach, Meshach and Abednego will be worshipped in the land. For their consistency, many more were brought into spiritual freedom. This consistency comes about when we continue in the Word of God. As we gradually approach the end of the Lenten season, we dare not anticipate an end to the efforts we have been making in being better Christians. If we do not continue in God’s Word after the Lenten season, we would have thwarted our growth in spiritual freedom. Make no mistake about this: there is power in consistency. Never return to any life that is not consistent with God’s Word.