2 December, Thursday — God works with the heart that accommodates truth

Thursday of the 1st Week of Advent

Isa 26:1-6
Mt 7:21,24-27

Let the upright nation come in, she, the faithful one whose mind is steadfast, who keeps the peace, because she trusts in you.

An error is a form of aberration and could come through inadvertent or purposeful incorrectness. It requires a discerning mind to bring or point out an error. In human thoughts and placement of feelings and actions, there are inordinate desires that propel and encourage decisions that plumb the lines of errors. There is an error in every sin because it is incorrect placement of decisions and actions that result in disobedience to God’s guiding precepts; the commandments of God are meant to guide our relationship with Him and our neighbours.

The error in a sin promotes indiscipline and serves as a catalyst of decay in human reasoning; it is a poison to character and assimilation of virtuous conducts. When an individual drifts away from good conduct into the sinful act, there is evidence of error in judgment. The ability and capacity to predict and guide against errors that lead to sins is the practice of trust in God. And when we fall with these errors and rise to seek redress, it is the primary footstep towards repentance and forgiveness, with that the old error is passed away.

In 1986, in a town in Southwest of Nigeria, a civil servant called Omotayo, married with two children, was sponsored for a two-year course by his state government to study abroad. He could not travel with his family because the sponsorship did not include family responsibility. He came back in 1989 to meet his wife, pregnant for another man; his wife claimed she was raped by a man she could not identify. This was a very difficult situation — his wife, Iyabo, had betrayed their marital vow — he thought of the very last option, that is, divorce. In truth, Iyabo was raped but Omotayo found the story difficult to believe. For support, Iyabo ran to their parish priest for intervention and after weeks and months of talks and counseling, Omotayo accepted the story of Iyabo and forgave her. In December of that year, Iyabo gave birth to a baby boy, and Omotayo named him Jonah. Jonah grew with love and appreciation with his history locked up in the hearts of Iyabo and Omotayo. Jonah finally went to the seminary to train and was ordained a Catholic priest in September 2019. After his ordination, his mother told him the history of his birth, and upon listening to the narration, he thanked his parents and said: “God, our father in heaven, I thank you because you commanded the old error to pass away and kept the peace between my parents because they have kept the trust and hope in you.” He prayed for his parents and thanked them for their sacrifice and confession of the truth that translated into his priesthood.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Julius Otusorochukwu Dike, JP)

Prayer: Lord, please help us to continue to maintain truth in our life; keep us to manifest your confession as your children, no matter the difficulty. We believe you have the command of justice, please continue to repose your grace in us, Amen.

Thanksgiving:  Dear Lord, and Father in Heaven, we thank you for granting us a fulfilling heart of truth and forgiveness; we thank you for this opportunity. Thank you, Lord, Amen.