Wednesday of 14th Week, Year II: reflection

Theme: How do you repay God for His blessings to you?

Reading: Hosea 10:1–3,7–8,12

Psalm 116:12 asked a perennial question. It said: “How can I repay the Lord for His goodness to me?” Dear friends in Christ, with what do you repay God for His goodness to you and what do you do with the special gifts and graces God bestowed upon you? Every extra blessing or endowment given to us by God comes with expectations; the same is true in human relationships.

In today’s first reading, God sounded an alarm through the prophet Hosea about the attitude of those He has lavished with excessive blessings. He said that the more He blessed them, the more they rejected Him and gave sacrifices to idols. What a way to express ungratefulness to a loving and generous God.

Negative use of God’s extra blessings did not stop during the time of the prophet Hosea. You may have noticed that most ladies God endowed with beauty in excess and the kind of stature that catches the eyes of everyone often end up in the prostitution industry. Most guys who are blessed with superhuman strength end up being bullies in the society and thugs to those in positions of authority. Many people who have been blessed with wealth use it to oppress the poor and to cause problems in their communities. Many of those He bestowed with superintelligence ended up doubting His existence and proposing many theories to disprove His existence. There is a whole lot of negative use of God’s extra blessings in our own days.

If you have been using God’s extra blessings to satisfy yourself rather than God, the prophet Hosea invites you to start showing God some gratitude today by utilizing His extra gifts to you for something that will bring praise to His name; tomorrow might be too late.

May your Wednesday be showered with graces and favours. Amen

Fr Isaac Chima