WHAT DOES GOD WANT OF ME? (Part I)

Although we are well into the season of Lent, I thought I’d share a few my thoughts on this season, and frankly, appropriate for "all times”.
During my times of research and prayer preparing for my Adult Faith Formation classes, I sometimes come across others’ thoughts which I “adopt” and adapt/develop to meet the needs of my classes. One of these is the reading in the old testament of Micah 6:8. 

This passage is part of a conversation that God begins with His people Israel. His people were not doing the right thing. They disobeyed God, and God calls them on it, so the people ask Micah the prophet, “What shall I bring to the lord when I come to worship Him?” Their questions are a series of three, beginning with offering something small and progressing to bigger things. 

1st they asked Micah, “Will God be satisfied with a burnt offering, as it was in Moses’ law? No.
2nd they asked “Well, should I bring thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of oil?” As if the more they offer the better God will forgive them? No.
3rd Israel asks, “Should I offer my first-born son as a sacrifice, would that be enough to appease God and cover my sin? Would God be pleased with them then?” No!

How does God answer them? The prophet Micah tells them, 

“You know what God wants, He has told you” He tells them God doesn’t want or need your religious rites, sacrifices…” He desires you, your justice, mercy and humility!” The solution is NOT in more sacrifices or more painful sacrifice—Israel needed a change of heart! Israel’s conformity to external law was nothing more than hypocrisy! They were told this over and over through other prophets… (Is 1:14; Hosea 6:6; Amos 5:21) God’s people were slow to learn His message (Mt. 12:7) This passage is full of implications for us today.

Israel’s question had a 3-part progression…God’s answer also has a 3-part progression. The response to a Godly heart is 1) outward (justice) 2) inward (mercy/love) and 3) upward (humility).
You might be asking yourself, “What does all this mean, Act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God?” 
To act justly is God’s primary expectation of us. 

JUSTICE IS TO SORT OUT WHAT BELONGS TO WHOM, 
AND RETURN IT TO THEM”

Let me try to explain with a story I found, a story of an elderly lady … it takes place a long while ago somewhere in Europe….

‘A very proper lady went to a tea shop. She sat down at a table for two, ordered a pot of tea, and prepared to eat some cookies she had in her purse. Because the shop was crowded a man took the other chair and also ordered tea and paid for it. The woman was prepared for a leisurely time, so she began to read the paper. As she did so, she took a cookie from the package. As she read, she noticed that the man across also took a cookie from the package. This upset her greatly, but she ignored it and kept reading. After a while, she took another cookie. And so did he. This unnerved her and she glared at the man. While she glared, he reached for the fifth and last cookie, smiled and offered her half of it. She was indignant! She gathered her things and left in a great hurry, enraged at such a presumptuous man. She hurried to her bus stop just outside. She opened her purse to get a coin for her bus fare, and to her distress, saw that in her purse was her package of cookies…unopened!

We are not too different from her. Sometimes we have things that are not ours for so long that we think they are ours. We’ve probably all experienced it. I’ve done it. I’ve had it done to me, things people borrow from us, our friends, our family, our neighbors. I’ve lost a lot of books that way
And, sometimes, through the mercy of God, we remember and have the opportunity to return it to the rightful owner. 

We have to give things back to whom they belong. Plato said it well when he defined justice as rendering each his due.  

To do justice requires that we see ourselves differently from the way the world defines us. As Christians, as Catholics, we stand at a place where transformation begins, for ourselves and for others!
To do justice means that we must work together to overcome the pressures and temptations from the world, greed and fear. We need to deal with and overcome the thirst for vengeance and immediate gratification which give power to injustice! To render each his due as Plato defined it means that  we look at things with an eternal perspective. Through our Fathers eyes.

To do justice is to give our neighbor his due that is the respect and dignity he deserves as a creature of God, a child of God. Jesus tells us in Mark 12:31, during His discussion on the greatest commandment “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” 
Can we continually sin against someone we truly love? If we do, then we don’t truly love them. True love desires to bless not injure, not hurt! 

In Italian we have a phrase for this… TI VOGLIO BENE…I WANT GOOD FOR YOU”
To do justice requires that we recognize that we belong to God! And so… we must return ourselves to God! 

It is Pride that has us believe that whatever we have, money, family, home, position, prestige… comes from ourselves… “I worked for it, I earned it, it belongs to me, I deserve it” we come to believe that it all belongs to us, and not God. But it’s ours only by God’s mercy and goodness! By believing and living as if it’s ours, we take the glory that should be God’s alone! This is contrary to God’s action… “I am the Lord, this is my name, I will not give my glory to another (Is. 4:28), and therefore puts a limit on God’s action.

To do justice is to give God His Due! God is deserving of our heart, body, soul, and spirit. Jesus tells us in Mark 12:28-32. That the 1st commandment is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength”. Because He created us in His image, God rightly and JUSTLY deserves all our worship, and all our adoration. This is the 1st commandment!

This message from Micah is still pertinent today. Religious rites (although very important) no matter how extravagant, can never compensate for the lack of love (1Cor. 13:3). External compliance to rules is not as valuable in God’s eyes as a humble heart that simply does what is right!

We need to get to the point where we recognize that all we have belongs to God and justice demands that we give him the recognition, the credit and the Glory! We need to realize that we do not belong to ourselves! That we belong to God, our Creator! And justice demands that we return ourselves to Him! Once we come to this realization, know that it is a continuous struggle. We can begin to transform our lives and begin to become who God intended us to be.

Truly free and truly happy!