GOSPEL MESSAGE & RECORDING
Love and obedience are two Christian virtues which we are called to obtain. When it comes to doing the Will of God, we do so through our love for Him and obedience to His Commandments. When Christ said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven…” it is because children have, utilizing their innocence, these two virtues. A good child loves and obeys their parents and acts accordingly. When it comes to our relationship with God, we have become His children. For it states in 1 John “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!... Beloved, now we are children of God…” You know if a child has been raised with love and has a love for his or her parents if he or she acts according to the will of the parent without being asked. In other words, the child does not need to be asked to do his or her chores around the house; he or she does so out of love. This same love is what we are all called to have for our Father who is in Heaven.
In today’s Gospel portion we see how Zachariah, who was a faithful priest of God, loved God and obeyed His commandment. When he was told to dedicate his only child, the one whom Elizabeth bore in her old age, unto the Lord, he did so through his love and obedience. In a sense, St. John the Baptist did not receive the blessing that was given to him without reason. It was due to his father’s obedience to the Commandment of God that St. John received his blessing. And so great is that fruit which Zachariah planted through the obedience that Christ Himself states, “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist”
It is important to state that we must hold both of these two virtues together; we cannot fulfill His Commandments if we only act per just one of these virtues. For love without obedience is likened to the parable of the man with two sons. When the father asks the son to work the field, the son says, “I will go” but does not go, this is what it is like to have love alone. For it was out of love for his father that his heart moved him to immediately say “I will go,” but without the virtue of obedience, he did not act upon his love. When it comes to obedience without love, this topic is spoken about in-depth by St. Paul, for if we do all the Good that is asked of us without love, we have gained nothing. He writes “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not to love, it profits me nothing.”
My dear brothers and sisters, we have entered into the season of the Yeldo Fast and are called to observe this fast by what our spiritual fathers have taught us. We should not be compelled to observe this fast because we were merely told to do so. It should be observed through our obedience towards God and completed through our love for Him. In the same manner, in which a good child does his or her chores around the house without being asked to do so, we too must be good children of God and complete His Commandments with the same love. For this fast is not pleasing to God if it is just about going through the motions. In the daily prayers during the Great Fast we sing, “Blessed is he who keeps the fast with all purity and shares his bread with the needy from a gentle heart. He will receive a reward from the Lord and will inherit the Kingdom of God.” And in the prayers, we sing, “Fasting from bread and water is a minor fast, but if there is almsgiving in it, it is great. And great will be the reward for those who fast and give alms to the needy. Those with nothing to give should mix love with fasting, and they will be mingled with spiritual beings.”
In this fasting season, come and learn what true fasting is, and observe this fast through a genuine love of God and the utmost obedience to the Commandments of God. Pray for and strive to obtain these virtues so that this fast may be well pleasing to God. It may be hard during this pandemic to give and some of us may not be able to afford to give much, but this is what a true fast is all about. We are called to observe this Commandment through love, and what better time to share the abundance which God has provided than this season of Christmas.