, 27th September 2020)

May God, in today’s Eucharistic celebration, grant us the grace to understand His will at any given moment and be docile to do it.

Happy Sunday!

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Ezekiel 18,25-28; Philippians 2,1-11; Matthew 21,28-32: 26th Sunday of the Year, 27th September 2020)

On this Sunday, the liturgy offers us a Gospel passage that shows the inconsistency that sometimes exists in our attitudes. This comes out in Jesus’ address to the priests and elders of the people. This Gospel theme is anticipated by the first reading, taken from the prophet Ezekiel. The second reading is a magnificent teaching on Christ and the Christian spirit.

A person, by changing his attitude can become inconsistent/incoherent. This can happen in two directions: from good to bad one or vice-versa. Ezekiel speaks of a just person who turns away from justice, and then about an unjust one who desists from injustice. A person’s last attitude, determines what he deserves: Either reward or punishment. If the just strays from justice to commit iniquity, he dies for the iniquity he has committed. On the other hand, if the unjust abandons his way of injustice and acts with justice and righteousness, he makes himself live.

In the Gospel, Jesus holds the same opinion, but in a slightly different way.  He narrates a story of a man who has two children. Addressing the first, he says: Son, go today to work in the vineyard. And the son replies immediately declaring his availability: Yes, sir. But these are only words, which are not followed by corresponding action: the child does not actually go to work. The other son behaves directly opposite. When his father tells him: Son, go today to work in the vineyard, he replies: I don't want to. But then he repents and goes to work. At this point, Jesus asks a question to the princes, priests and elders of the people: Which of the two did the will of the father? They answer: The last. The answer is correct: The son who at first refused, but then repented and really did what the father wanted fulfilled the will of the father. Jesus then severely rebuked his listeners: Truly I say to you, the tax collectors and prostitutes are making their way into the kingdom of God before you. Tax collectors and prostitutes are people whose professions are sinful and, a consequently, do not act according to God's will; they correspond to the second son, who says to his father: I don't want to go to work. Though, their profession was a habitual occasion of sin, the tax collectors and prostitutes repented, moved by John the Baptist’s preaching. Jesus says: John came to you, a pattern of true righteousness but you did not believe in him, and yet the tax collectors and prostitutes did. Tax collectors and prostitutes did penance, they changed their lives but the princes of the priests and the elders of the people, who profess generous adherence to the will of God, who are respectable people, want to be honoured, and respected, in reality, were not at all docile to the will of God. The high priests and the elders of the people did not change anything in their behaviour, they continued to live in their hypocrisy. Their external behaviour, in fact, seems impeccable, but in reality it is vitiated by thoughts of vainglory and selfishness. These words of Jesus constitute a teaching for us and challenge us to make an examination of conscience. We Christians make a profession of following Jesus, we take pride that we are practicing Christians/Catholics and externally show all signs of docility to God. But is this docility actually real, profound, or is it only superficial, contradicted by so many actions that are not carried out according to God's will? We must recognize (and the Church invites us to do so at the beginning of every Eucharistic celebration) that we are sinners and, therefore ask, the Lord for forgiveness for our sins. We also need to beg for the graces that will enable us be more docile in living the Christian life in coherence with the Christian faith we profess.

The second reading shows us what our Christian behaviour should be. Paul tells the Philippians: Have the same sentiments within yourselves as they were in Christ Jesus! What feelings are we talking about? Are the sentiments of total generosity, of acceptance or even humiliations in obedience to God's will: [Christ Jesus], despite being of divine nature, does not consider his equality with God a jealous treasure… Jesus could have claimed a life of honour, and glory, with all the privileges that come to him from his divine sonship, instead he stripped himself, he renounced all his privileges, out of solidarity with us sinners. What is more, he assumed the condition of a slave, that is, the condition of sinful humanity, and became similar to us sinful men. And being as all men are, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross. This is the orientation of Jesus’ life, which must also be ours. It is a very demanding orientation, but one which constitute the authentic way of love. Our Christian vocation, in fact, is a vocation to generous love, a docile love to the will of God, to love in solidarity with people who suffer. We must make ourselves obedient to God until death, in the sense of accepting all the sacrifices that are necessary to live, authentically, and grow in love. Then we will deserve the glory of God, which is the glory of loving. God is love, and his glory consists, precisely, in loving. Jesus obtained this glory par excellence: God exalted him and gave him the name that is above any other name that every tongue should acclaim Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  Thus Jesus acquired by this kenosis (divesting of his divine privilege and becoming even lower than the normal human being) the title Kyrios (Lord), a title usually predicated of God. At the beginning of this passage, Paul revealed to us the direction in which we must go: That of charity, communion of spirit, sentiments of love and compassion. We must renounce our selfishness and pride, to live fully in charity, and in mutual union. Do nothing out of spirit of rivalry or vainglory, but each of you, with all humility, consider the others superior to himself. As Christians, we must follow these guidelines given by Paul. We must then examine ourselves, to see if we do anything, out of the spirit of rivalry or out of vainglory, in pursuit of honour and praise. We must examine ourselves, to see if we consider others to be superior to us, and better than us. Each should not seek his own interest, but rather that of the other. Christian behaviour must be marked by a generous, disinterested charity. This seems to us an ideal too high, which we cannot reach with our human forces. But Jesus, with his cross and resurrection, has merited all the graces we need that will enable us live according to this ideal. The Christian ideal is very high, but it is not an impossible ideal, because everything is possible for God. The Eucharist communicates to us, precisely, the strength to go in this direction. In it we receive Jesus at the moment of his greatest love, at the moment in which he gives himself, his body and blood, for us. Through it, Jesus infuses us with the dynamism of his love. Therefore, after having received it, we have within us the necessary strength to walk courageously and generously on the path traced by Jesus for us. It is the way of true happiness, because it is the way of total love. +John I. Okoye

(graphic by Charles)

25th Sunday of the Year 20/09 /2020

  

May we, in this Sunday's Eucharistic celebration, obtain the graces to eschew narrow-mindedness and selfishness, and insights to be sensitive to the needs of our neighbours.

Happy Sunday!

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Isaiah 55,6-9; Philippians 1, 20c-24a.27a; Matt 20,1-16: 25th Sunday of the Year, September 20, 2020)

 

In today's Gospel, we find a rather disconcerting teaching of Jesus, which can make the Lord seem unjust to us. In reality, he wants to open our hearts: He does not want us to remain in the perspective of a narrow distributive justice, but that we open ourselves to divine generosity, which changes our perspectives. It is the parable of a master who calls several workers to work in his vineyard and pays them at the end of the day.

 

To prepare for this teaching of the Gospel, the liturgy presents to us in the first reading, a short text of the prophet Isaiah, in which God says: My thoughts are not your thoughts, yours ways are not my ways. We have human thoughts, but God's thoughts are very different. We are therefore invited to welcome divine thoughts, to participate in God's goodness and joy. We must not remain on an earthly, narrow-minded level, but we must open our hearts. The Lord is rich in mercy, forgives copiously and full of generosity, and wishes to communicate this generosity to us.

The parable of the Gospel shows us a master who repeatedly hires workers for his vineyard. He goes out early in the morning and hires some workers, agreeing with them on the wage of one denarius for the work of the whole day.

Then he goes out around nine in the morning, sees others who are unemployed and hires them. He still goes out around noon and around three in the afternoon, and does the same. Finally he goes out around five and yet sees other unemployed people and says to them: Why are you here all day idle? They answered him: Because nobody took us by day. The master also sends these people to his vineyard, making them work for only one hour. At the end, he says to his manager: Call the workers, give them their wages, starting with the last ones up to the first. This detail shows Jesus’ intention: He wants to prepare a surprise, which manifests itself in the disconcerting way of payment. The workers hired at five in the afternoon each receive a denarius, that is to say, the salary that had been agreed with the workers of the first hour. Of course, the latter thought they will receive much more, but they too received a denarius. Then they murmured against the master: The latter worked only an hour and you treated them like us, who have endured the weight of the day and the heat. To us, too, the owner's behaviour seems very unfair. But the master explains to one of them: Friend, I am not doing you wrong. Didn't you agree with me for a denarius? The master gives to the workers of the first hour what has been agreed; this is an act of justice. But then he presents another perspective, that of generosity: I want to give the latter too as much like I gave to you. That is, the boss wants to be generous with the workers of the last hour. They have not earned the wages they have received, but they need it to live on. The owner knows of this need and generously gives something more; he says: Can't I do what I want with my things? We must distinguish the two things: on the one hand justice and, on the other, generosity towards those in need. Last hour workers are unemployed people who cannot earn anything; they need a salary, and the master generously gives what they need. We can note with satisfaction how this teaching of the gospel is being realised in the world today, in some societies/countries. In such societies laws are enacted that allow even those who do not work to receive money: for the unemployed there is an allowance, not earned with a job, but necessary for their lives. Family allowances are also given: between two workers doing the same job, the one who has no children receives the normal salary, while the one who has children receives more. Society has understood that it cannot rely solely on distributive justice. Certainly, it was not easy to arrive at these solutions, because most men think according to the criteria of distributive justice (for the same work done you must receive the same salary) and do not think about the needs of people, which are different.

Today, however, there is a whole social legislation that takes these needs into account. For example, if a person is sick and cannot work, he still receives the salary. This fact, from the point of view of distributive justice, is unfair, but from the point of view of good social organisation, it is just. Thus, we see that the teaching of the Gospel of this Sunday has penetrated the minds of the men of our time and has transformed social relationships, and this is a reason for great joy that it is happening somewhere in the world today. But the big and challenging question confronting us, the Christians and disciples of Jesus in our country is: When can we have such societal welfare and christian generosity in this our great country Nigeria, so richly blessed by God? It will be so and even better if we allow the teaching of this gospel to involve us personally: we must have an open mind, a generous heart. If we want to have God's thoughts, we don't have to be narrowly attached to distributive justice, but we must be sensitive to the needs of others. This means to give to our neighbour what is due him in the first place. Secondly, we have to eschew corruption which is the main cause of injustice in our nation. Those among us who are rich by dint of hard work and who have achieved their wealth by so much ingenuity, must now begin thinking of the poor, first with concrete offers, and secondly by helping them rise from their state of poverty and want. We were all impressed how a good number of rich citizens came to the aid of their poor neighbours during the hunger period occasioned by the Covid 19 lockdown. We encourage our people who have the means to imitate the generous land owner of the gospel reading of today not only to give the poor fish to eat today, but also teach them how to fish themselves for their future sustenance. It will not be easy but this is the main challenge God is putting before you and me today. If we succeed in living up to this challenge, it would mean that the Christian mentality has really gradually penetrated our society, our country Nigeria.

The second reading does not have a direct relationship with the Gospel. However, it shows us Paul's generosity. He is in prison, about to undergo a sentence. He reflects and affirms that for him dying would be a gain, because, thanks to death, he would reach a definitive and perfect union with Christ. On the other hand, he is faced with the concrete need of the Philippians and other men, he realises that his apostolic work is necessary. Living in the body means working fruitfully. Then he chooses to continue working for Philippians. He does not care about the reward or the salary, but wants to work generously in the service of the Lord. In this passage, the Apostle shows that he does not have a narrow mind, but that he has a very broad heart. And in line with the first reading and today's Gospel, he adopts divine thoughts, renouncing human thoughts, the human way of reasoning, and acts with great generosity. The Eucharist we celebrate makes us go in the same direction: it infuses our hearts with the generosity of Jesus, who gave his life for us sinners. To be united with him, we must, therefore, welcome this generosity of his and renounce too narrow-minded and selfish human mentality. +John I. Okoye

24th Sunday of the Year, 13th September 2020

 we, in this Sunday's Eucharistic celebration, receive God's forgiveness for our sins, and grace to show spontaneity and generosity in forgiving our neighbours their offences against us.

Happy Sunday! 

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Sir 27,33-28.9; Romans 14,7-9; Matt 18, 21-35: 24th Sunday of the Year, 13th September 2020)

On this Sunday, the liturgy offers us a teaching on forgiveness and mercy. Forgiveness has great importance in our lives, because we are all sinners and imperfect. We offend God and one another and, if there is no forgiveness, the situation would be truly tragic, with no way out: We would go from one revenge to the other, until complete destruction. This, unfortunately, occurs among men today. God in his goodness came to bring us his mercy and forgiveness, but he also asks us to forgive. The Old Testament already shows the relationship between the forgiveness we receive from God and that which we must grant to our brothers. The passage from the first reading (Sirach) that we read today shows that it is, completely, incoherent to ask to be forgiven by God and at the same time, refuse to grant forgiveness to our brothers: If anyone keeps anger against another man, how dare he ask the Lord for healing? Healing is dependent on forgiveness. The Old Testament establishes a close relationship between sickness and sin. Therefore, in order to be healed, one must first be forgiven. He has no mercy for his fellow man, and dares to pray for his sins? He, who is a mere human, holds grudges; who will forgive his sins? 

It is completely illogical to want to be forgiven and refuse to forgive others. The author addresses this invitation to the faithful: Forgive the offences of your neighbour, and then you will be forgiven as answer to your prayer. Jesus reinforces and makes this Sirach’s teaching more convincing with a parable, in which he shows the inconsistency of he who was forgiven but refuses to forgive his neighbour. In this parable Jesus speaks of debts; also in the prayer Our Father, he speaks of forgiveness with the image of debts: Forgive us our debts, as we forgive them to our debtors. Peter asks Jesus: Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother if he sins against me? Peter understood that the Lord is merciful and wants to propagate mercy; but he thinks that there should be a limit to forgiveness, that one cannot forgive indefinitely; therefore, he says: Up to seven times? For Peter forgiving his brother seven times already seems a lot and even for us forgiving a second time for the same type of fault committed against us sounds a lot. When we forgive once, we demand that that fault never be repeated. Peter, therefore, shows that he is generous when he says: seven times. Jesus goes much more radical in his answer: I don't mean up to seven only, but up to seventy times seven. It is like saying: Always. Seventy times seven, in fact, indicates an exaggerated number: it is unlikely that a brother would offend 490 times! In what manner would a person offend another so many times?

 With his answer, Jesus wants to tell us that we must always be willing to forgive a brother, even if he offends us all the time. Then he confirms this request with the parable of the merciful king and the merciless servant. The king in this parable is generous. A servant comes to him who owes him ten thousand talents, that is an enormous, incredible sum (millions of Naira!). As the servant begs him, and throws himself on the ground he says: Lord, have patience with me and I will give you everything back, the master, taking pity on him, lets him go, forgiving him the debt. The servant is therefore, the beneficiary of an extraordinary generosity from the master. But as soon as he leaves, he meets another servant like himself, who owes him a hundred denarii, that is, a ridiculous sum compared to ten thousand talents. One hundred denarii at that time meant the wages for one hundred days of work. So it is a sum of some importance, but definitely small in comparison with the other. The servant who has benefited from the generosity of the master does not remember it at all and, seizing his companion, suffocates him and says to him: Pay what you owe! The companion does exactly what the first servant did to his master: he throws himself on the ground and begs him, saying: Have patience with me and I will pay you back the debt. 

The situation is completely parallel, but the conclusion is completely different: The servant who has benefited from the generosity of his master does not want to listen to his companion and has him thrown in jail, until he pays all the debts. This attitude is truly absurd. The other servants are scandalised: such an inconsistency is inconceivable! This inconsistency is ours when we refuse to forgive our brothers. God forgave us an enormous debt. At our baptism, we have been forgiven by him, that is, we have been forgiven the original debt; and then, with untiring mercy, God forgives us all sins, as soon as we show the slightest sign of repentance. God uses our sins as occasion of more abundant graces and generous love. But if we close our hearts to the people who have offended us and apologise to us, we are truly in the situation of complete inconsistency. Here is what Jesus wants us to understand with this parable. Jesus also makes us understand that such a situation prevented God's mercy from manifesting itself. If we want to receive God's mercy, we must allow it to pass through us, forgiving those who have offended us. Jesus tells us that we must forgive from the heart. Our forgiveness must not be given reluctantly, with difficulty, but must be generous and full of delicacy. In fact, the person who offends us puts himself in an unhappy situation, really negative for him. The Bible makes us understand that whoever kills another person kills himself, that is, kills his own soul. And we must have compassion for this person rather than showing resentment or contempt. In the Our Father, Jesus wanted to express the same teaching: He directly related the forgiveness we implore from God with the forgiveness we are willing to give to our brothers: Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Jesus wanted this teaching to be firmly rooted in our hearts. We must know that we cannot receive God's mercy if we close our hearts to our brothers. The heavenly Father is full of love, he wants to offer his love, but he cannot do it if we close our hearts to love others. This is an essential requirement.

In the second reading, Paul affirms: None of us lives for himself [...], because if we live, we live for the Lord. Living for the Lord also means sharing in his mercy. Jesus was merciful to the extreme; he died for our sins and gave his life for us, while we were his enemies because of sin (cf. Rom 5,10). He has overcome sin. Now he asks us to live for him, that is, to live in his love and be united with him in mercy. Paul wants us to share the divine joy of forgiveness. God has great joy in forgiving, and He wants to share it with us. When in a family there is a serious disagreement between its members, the situation is really sad because happiness is not possible for those people. On the other hand, if the obstacle of disagreement is overcome, divine joy can return to their hearts. May we, therefore, ask in this Mass for the grace to be truly disposed and available to receive divine mercy, to receive it for ourselves and also share and make it beneficiary to all our brothers and sisters. +John I. Okoye

(graphics  by chukwubike oc)

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