Feast of St Anthony the Abbot.

"The Lord anointed you king of Israel and sent you on a mission
........ Why then have you disobeyed the Lord? You have pounced on the spoil, thus displeasing the Lord.”

Note the response and insolent excuses of King Saul:
“I did indeed obey the Lord and fulfill the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought back Agag, and I have destroyed Amalek under the ban... "

Samuel would have nothing of this boyish nonsense:
"But Samuel said: “Does the Lord so delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obedience to the command of the Lord? Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission than the fat of rams. For a sin like divination is rebellion, and presumption is the crime of idolatry. Because you have rejected the command of the Lord, he, too, has rejected you as ruler.” (Samuel 15:16 - 23).

As St Paul teaches us, every piece of Scripture is written for our instruction and encouragement.

Monday 17 January 2022, 2nd Week in Ordinary Time is the feast of St Anthony, Abbot (251 - 356). Also called St Anthony the Great and St Anthony of the Desert. It is said that Anthony heard one day in the Gospel Reading at Mass: "If you want to be perfect, go and sell everything you have. Distribute the money to the poor. Then come and follow Me." St Anthony literally sold all he had, distributed the money to the poor and marched off to the desert where he lived a life of fasting and prayer for the rest of his life. He was 18 years old when he made this radical decision. He lived to be 105. 

Our lead Scripture today is: "Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission than the fat of rams."
This is a word that the Church and Christians need to hear today and every day. Why? Because disobedience is rebellion against God. It is idolatry to prefer your will to the will of God. Here is the attitude and character of our Savior Jesus Christ:
“Sacrifice and offering you [Abba Father] did not desire, but a body you prepared for me [Jesus]; holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight in. Then I said, ‘As is written of me in the scroll, Behold, I come to do your will, O God." (Hebrews 10: 6 - 7).
The will of God became the food of Jesus.

Anything short of obedience is displeasing to Abba Father. The "will of God" seems to have disappeared from the language of the Church. In former times, it is the bench mark for all decisions and discernment. If we want God to guide and bless our decisions and projects, the will of God must return to our thinking and decisions. If not, we must be prepared to be treated like King Saul in our first Reading today:
"Because you have rejected the command of the Lord, he, too, has rejected you as ruler.”

O Christians, “Why do you recite my statutes, profess my covenant with your mouth, though you hate discipline and cast my words behind you?” (Psalm 50: 16 - 17.)

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