Not just with your lips

The gospel today reminded me how we should honor God…

This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;

It is easy to sing praises to God. It is easy to say good things about God. Kaya nga sabi nila, things are easier said than done. However, God is reminding us to live our faith, not just with our lips, but with our lives as well.

Sometimes, we say we worship God, we honor him and we do his will, but in reality, we are honouring ourselves. Like the Pharisees and scribes in the gospel who “twist” God’s commands to conform to theirs, making themselves above God and using God for their own personal gain and advantage, sometimes we too act like that. When we seek our convenience, fame and gain from serving God, we too act like the Pharisees. When we serve God to be noticed and praised, we act like the Pharisees. When we worship to be regarded as a good person, and use this for personal gain, we are like the Pharisees.

The Lord invites us to allow him to dwell in us. Like Solomon in the first reading who prepared a dwelling place for God, we too are invited to prepare a dwelling place for God in our hearts. We are invited to let him into our hearts, and into our lives, for us to be transformed. As we allow him to dwell in us, slowly, our intentions and motives for serving him will be simply that – to serve Him.

May we start today to allow God to dwell in our hearts, however dirty or unprepared it may be, having faith that like Jesus who was born on a stable, God does not look at the appearance, as long as we are ready to welcome him and are open to be transformed by Him. May be our hearts be a lovely dwelling place for our Lord, mighty God!