Wednesday of 23rd Week, Year II: reflection
Theme: “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.”
Reading: Lk 6:20–26
At a time when praise-buying has almost become a daily activity for our world’s political leaders and many influential entities in all sectors of our life, a time when rulers with horrible records among the people they rule are receiving encomiums on television, radio and pages of newspapers, the last of the woes Jesus declared in today’s gospel reading sends us a message we should never let pass. He said: “woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.”
Indeed, great accolades accompanied many false prophets and their works in Israel until the days the hand of the Lord fell on them. They were praised for being great messengers of God even though they knew they were not sent by God; they were praised for healing sicknesses with the power of God even though they knew the source of their power wasn’t God; they were praised for seeing and telling the future even though they knew they were deceiving the people, etc.
The praises of men made those false prophets to feel they were good, even though they actually knew that the praises of the people didn’t reflect the reality about their lives and their works.
In today’s gospel, Jesus challenges us not to assess our lives solely by the nice things people say about us. In fact, Jesus warns us to be wary when everyone around us is saying something good about us, because it may mean they are afraid to tell us the truth about ourselves or they do not want to hurt us with obvious truths about us. It may also mean that those who serve us do not want us to hear anything other than praises.
What this implies is that we must always strive to take an introspective look at ourselves, our actions and activities, we must do self-criticisms and also be attentive to those who criticize us; they may be the people saying the truth about us.
May your Wednesday be richly blessed, Amen.
Fr Isaac Chima