30th Sunday of the Year A, 25th October, 2020

May God in today's Eucharistic celebration, grant us the grace to live out the two commandments of love; loving God and loving our neighbour as Christ did, by giving his life as sacrifice of redemption on our behalf.

Happy Sunday!

 

 

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Exodus 22,20-26; 1 Thessalonians 1,5c-10; Matt. 22,34-40: 30th Sunday of the Year A, 25th October, 2020)

 

This Sunday, the liturgy presents us with a short but very important question of which is the greatest commandment. The Gospel reading addresses this question. The first reading, which is a passage from the Law of Moses anticipates this theme. The second reading does not have a direct relationship with the Gospel; however, it can be seen how Paul practices the two commandments of love.

Matthew relates that, after Jesus has answered the Sadducees who came to him with objections against faith in the resurrection, the Pharisees try to be better than the Sadducees in the attempt to put Jesus to the test. One of them, a doctor of the law, asks him this question: Teacher, what is the greatest commandment of the law? It is a difficult question, because in the Law of Moses there are 613 precepts and prohibitions. How can one discern the greatest commandment of all these? This is a topic that could be argued endlessly. But Jesus has no hesitation, and immediately replies: You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first of the commandments. Then he adds something that was not requested by the doctor of the law: And the second is similar to the first: You will love your neighbour as yourself. And he concludes with great authority: The whole Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments. This response from Jesus is not to be taken for granted, because, among so many precepts and prohibitions, the most important are, in everyone's opinion, the Ten Commandments. In Deuteronomy, Moses explains that the Decalogue is made up of ten Commandments promulgated by God himself and welcomed by the people. Only these commandments were pronounced by God himself; the other commandments or prohibitions were given to the people by Moses, and not directly by God. Therefore, it would be logical that Jesus, in answering the Doctor of Law, chose one of the ten Commandments. In particular, he could choose the first, which is undoubtedly of very great importance: the prohibition on worshiping other gods, but Jesus does not choose one of the ten Commandments, but looks elsewhere. He takes one text from Deuteronomy, which enunciates the commandment of love, and a second one from Leviticus, which expresses a second commandment of love, and says that the second is similar to the first: You will love the Lord your God ... You will love your neighbour. How can this choice by Jesus be explained? Let's try to understand how. The Ten Commandments, which have an exceptional importance, are mostly prohibitions, negative commandments. They are exceptionally, important because they set the conditions under which it is no longer possible to have a positive relationship with God. Whoever wants to live in accord with God must, absolutely, respect them. If he does not, he finds himself in disagreement with God, offends him and follows the path of perdition. But the Ten Commandments all present negative conditions, both in relations with God (first series) and in relations with other people (second series), except one in each of the two series. As for the first series, the positive commandment is: Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day (Exodus 20,8). But, if we look at the context, we realise that this commandment too is explained with negative precepts. What does it mean to sanctify the Sabbath, according to the text of the Law of Moses? It means not doing any work on that day: You will not do any work, neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your slave, nor your slave girl, your cattle, nor the stranger who dwells with you (Exodus adds 20,10). So, again, we have a negative commandment. In the other series, there is a truly positive commandment: Honour your father and your mother, so that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you (Exodus 20,12). It is a very important commandment, because the family is the fundamental cell of society and, if there is no family solidarity, society cannot survive. But it is a very limited commandment: it concerns relationships with only two people, and it says nothing about the attitude one must have towards all other people. Jesus, on the other hand, does not want either a negative commandment or a limited commandment, but wants to offer a dynamic, positive, universal ideal. The Decalogue does not present this ideal properly, because it consists of negative commandments. Obviously respecting the Decalogue is already a great thing, but it does not give an impulse to life. Instead, what gives an impetus to life is love. For this Jesus chooses two commandments of love: You will love the Lord your God ... You will love your neighbour. These are positive commandments, commandments that give extraordinary impetus, because they present a very high ideal. The first is: You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. Who can really say that they have achieved this ideal? We always remain below this requirement; therefore, we must always strive to progress to be at least a little closer to this magnificent ideal of complete, perfect, unlimited love. And the second is: You will love your neighbour as yourself. Who can say that he is able to love his neighbour as himself? We have an innate love for ourselves, rooted in our psyche, and in reality, what we do for others is always very little compared to what we do for ourselves. Furthermore, with regard to this second commandment, we must also say that in another more dramatic circumstance, Jesus widened the perspective, when he said: This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you (John 15,12). This means that we must love others more than our life, because Jesus loved us more than his life, offering his life for us. Therefore, the ideal that Jesus presents to us is a wonderful one, which corresponds with the deep desire of our hearts. In fact, we were precisely created for this. God, who is love, created us to make us share in his love, to be loved by him and to love him and love all other people with him. This is the highest human ideal. But, to achieve it, we have an absolute need for God's grace, we need to receive the capacity to love that comes from God within us. The heart of Jesus is offered to us to truly love the Father as he loved him, and to love our neighbour as he loved him. Jesus offers himself to us for this very reason. In the Eucharist we receive his Body and Blood in us, that is, we receive Jesus at the moment of his greatest love, at the moment when he offered himself to the Father for our salvation, the moment when he offered his Body and Blood to be our spiritual food and drink and in this way feed the life of love in us. This revelation was already anticipated in the Old Testament, which contains, precisely, these two perspectives. Therefore, this commandment of Jesus is not new; what is new is the way he explains it. The first reading shows how much the Old Testament insists on love of neighbour. The Old Testament manifests a great concern for harmonious social relationships, in fact very generous ones. The book of Exodus says: You will not harass the stranger or oppress him, because you have been strangers in the land of Egypt. So, the neighbour to love is the stranger too. You will not maltreat the widow and the orphan. God is the guarantor of their lives. If you maltreat him, when he invokes my help, I will hear his cry, my anger will be kindled and I will make you die by the sword. The Old Testament goes into very particular details, such as the case of the pledged object. When you give a loan to another, you must not behave like usurers: If you lend money to someone of my people, the indigent who is with you, you will not behave with him as a usurer: you must not impose any interest on him. Often the cloak was given as a pledge, which was not necessary during the day, but which served as a blanket for the night; the people were poor, and did not have many things to pledge, and, therefore, gave their cloak. The Law of Moses is concerned with this case and says that the cloaks must be returned at sunset, because the poor need them to cover themselves during the night; not to give them back would be a cruelty, And God also guarantees the situation of the poor: When he invokes my help, I hear his cry, because I am merciful. Thus, already in the Old Testament this orientation of attention to all the needs of the neighbour and generous dedication to his service appears well specified. But Jesus traced the way of an even more generous love for us.

In the second reading we see how Paul practices the two commandments of love. He writes to the Thessalonians who have recently converted, and among whom he says his great love for the Lord is manifested. In fact, he immediately speaks of them, saying: You have become imitators of us and of the Lord [...]. The word of the Lord echoes through you [...], you have converted to God, moving away from idols, to serve the living and true God. Here we see Paul's great love for the Lord. On the other hand, the Apostle also expresses his love for the Thessalonians. He has known them for a short time, but they are already present in his heart in a very deep way. He delicately manifests his love, praising them: You have become a model to all believers who are in Macedonia and Achaia. The Thessalonians were generous, they welcomed the word with the joy of the Holy Spirit even in the midst of great tribulation. This praise that Paul gives is a manifestation of love, and also of apostolic zeal, because when a person is praised, he is greatly encouraged to act in a virtuous way. We must be careful to emphasise the good in others and the good they do. This is a delicate, also very positive, and fruitful demonstration of love. It is a question of recognising the good done by others, to encourage this good, and thus grow all together in love for God and for our brothers. You will love the Lord your God, you will love your neighbour, love one another as I have loved you: this is the most important thing of all, the ideal that we must always pursue. In all our purposes, in all our initiatives we must always go in this direction. In all, we will always be more united with Christ in his relationship with the Father and the brothers. +John I. Okoye

Graphics  by Chukwubike 

Sunday of year A, October 11, 2020

 May God bestow on us in today's Eucharistic celebration, the graces that will enable us accept his gestures of generosity and be disposed always to participate worthily in the Eucharistic banquet.

Happy Sunday!

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Isaiah 25,6-10a; Philippians 4,12-14.19-20;

Matthew 22,1-14; 28th Sunday of year A, October 11, 2020)

Today’s gospel reading presents to us the parable of those invited to a wedding feast. The first reading, taken from the book of Isaiah, prepares this theme, because it speaks of the banquet which God prepares for his people. In the Letter to the Philippians, Paul recalls God's intention to satisfy all our needs, according to his richness in Christ Jesus.

God's plan for man is a very generous plan of love and communion, which is expressed through the image of banquet. The banquet is an image often used in the Scriptures, precisely, to indicate abundance of God's gifts. Isaiah, thus, describes God's plan: the Lord will prepare on this mountain [Mount Zion] a banquet of fatty food for all peoples. The Lord's invitation is addressed to all peoples; there are neither limitations, nor discrimination. It is going to be a banquet of excellent and refined wines and succulent foods. It is not possible to imagine a more wonderful thing! Then, the Prophet expresses this generous plan of the Lord in another way. God's intention is to put an end to sadness and shame: On this mountain, he will remove the mourning veil covering all peoples and the shroud enwrapping all nations. God sees that the world is going badly; he wants all men to live happily in love with him and in communion with one another; his project then is to eliminate death forever, wipe the tears from every face and make the dishonourable condition of his people to disappear. All these arouse in us a hymn of gratitude to God: Here is our God, in whom we hoped for salvation; the Lord is the one in whom we hoped. We exalt and rejoice that he has saved us. This is the conclusion of God's plan.

Jesus’ parable speaks of the answer given to God's invitation to participate in his banquet. Jesus says: «The kingdom of heaven is like a king who made a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to call the wedding guests. The guests represent the Jewish people who are first priority in God’s plan. He chose them and wants to bestow them with abundant benefits and make them happy. But the invited guests refuse to attend the banquet. The king then insists, he sends other servants to say: Here I have prepared my lunch: my oxen and my fattened animals are already slaughtered and everything is ready; come to the wedding. God’s insistence manifests his generosity. The guests again despise the invitation. It is incredible, but true! God offers us so many gifts, so much joy, but we often despise his offers, showing more interest in other things. Everyone goes to his own field, and business, instead of taking an interest in God's plan, which is the most beautiful thing of all. Everyone seeks his own satisfaction in secondary things that are unworthy of the human heart. The king's invitation even met hostile and aggressive reactions among the guests: Others took his servants, insulted them and killed them. This is also incredible! A generous invitation provokes aggression. The guests consider this invitation as a form of intrusion into their own life. At this point the king must intervene: he sends his troops to punish the killers. In the parable, it is said that he set their city on fire. Here we have a prophetic hint of the ruin of Jerusalem. Having rejected God's invitation, these people receive a disastrous fate. In the Gospel, Jesus says in Jerusalem: How many times have I wanted to gather your children like a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you did not want to! Here, your house is about to be left deserted (Luke 13,34-35; cf. Matt 23,37). 

Then comes the second moment of the parable. The king does not want to give up his generous plan, and so he sends the servants to invite other people, who were not, originally, listed to be invited. The wedding banquet is ready, but the guests were not worthy; go now to the crossroads and all those you will find call them to the wedding. Here we see that the refusal of the first guests has the effect of extending the invitation to all men, even the poorest and the most dispossessed. This is a foreshadowing of the  gospel preaching, after the death and resurrection of Jesus, to the pagans. The servants gather everyone they find, and the room is filled with guests. At this point the Gospel shows us a condition for the invitation to be accepted worthily. The king enters to see the guests and sees one who is not wearing the wedding dress. To attend a wedding banquet, you must be dressed appropriately. And certainly, the king will have made wedding dresses available to the guests. But one guest refused to wear one. The king says to him, Friend, how could you enter here without a wedding garment? But he doesn't answer. The king then orders the servants to bind him and throw him out. With this story Jesus wants to warn us. God's invitation is very generous, we do not deserve it at all. It also brings with it the gift of grace, which makes us worthy to participate in the banquet. We must accept, not only the invitation, but also the grace that makes us worthy. It is in fact, a grace which purifies, sanctifies and truly puts us in the conditions necessary to participate in divine communion in joy and happiness. If we refuse it, the invitation cannot be fully realised. We will, definitely, be excluded from the banquet or, rather, we will exclude ourselves from the banquet with our resistance to the grace. Divine generosity, therefore, needs our collaboration. God cannot purify a person who refuses grace, delights in evil, remains unruly and rebellious. He needs our loyalty and docility, in order to fill our hearts. We ask the Lord to help us to truly wear the wedding garment of grace. We must have it in order to receive Communion. The Church reminds us that if we have committed some serious faults, before receiving Communion we must purify ourselves with the sacrament of Confession. In order to receive all the love of the Lord, we must be in the grace of God. In this Mass we can become aware of this need. But we must first admire God’s generosity, who not only invites us, despite our unworthiness, to the wedding banquet of his Son, but also furnishes us with the nuptial dress, that is, the sacrament of Confession. Indeed, we lack nothing. We, therefore, only have to accept with docility and readiness all the gifts that the Lord gives us. +John I. Okoye

GRPHICS  BY CHUKWUBIKE 

27th Sunday of the Year A, 4th October 2020)

Aggiungi didascalia

May God bestow on us, in today's Eucharistic celebration, the graces to make good with the opportunities given to us in life.

Happy Sunday!

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Isaiah 5,1-7; Philippians 4,6-9; Matt 21,33-43: 27th Sunday of the Year A, 4th October 2020)

This Sunday's liturgy offers us a parable that refers to the Lord’s passion. Jesus foresees his passion and tells this parable to warn the authorities of his people who are about to take a wrong path. The content of this parable has as its background the first reading, a hymn of the Prophet Isaiah on the Lord’s vineyard. Thus, both the Gospel and the First readings speak to us of a vineyard, but with a difference: in the parable, God admonished the authorities of the people; in the song of Isaiah, God admonished all the people of Israel.

The song of Isaiah expresses God’s sadness. He is presented as the owner of a vineyard: My beloved owned a vineyard on a fertile hill. The owner gives full attention to his vineyard: he dug it, cleared it of stones and planted selected vines; he built a tower in the middle of the vineyard for proper surveillance, and he also dug a vat. Everything has been done with care; therefore, the vineyard should produce excellent grapes. But in reality, it produces inedible grapes, unripe grapes. The prophet then addresses his word to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all the Jews, to ask, in the name of God: What else was I to do to my vineyard that I did not do? He really did everything possible, he didn't leave out anything. For this reason, the negative reaction of the people of Israel deserves punishment, which God threatens to inflict: Here I want to let you know what I am about to do in my vineyard: I will remove its hedge and it will be transformed into pasture; I will demolish its wall and it will be trampled. I will make it a desert, it will not be pruned, nor be duged and brambles and thorns will grow; I commanded the clouds not to send rain. Thus, the vineyard will remain, completely, desolate. These threats were made to bring about a conversion, and therefore to avoid the punishment itself. The conversion, however, did not happen, and, therefore, the threats took place, as the responsorial Psalm says. In it, the psalmist complains to the Lord not only because he has abandoned his vineyard, but he has also caused it to be devastated (cf. Psalm 79). This was the situation of the Chosen People in the Old Testament: a situation that resulted in the capture of Jerusalem and exiling of the people. When the people are not docile to God, and do not accept his law, which is a law of love, given, precisely, to lead to happiness, then disgrace, and devastation occur.

Jesus' parable does not speak of all the people, but only the princes of the priests and elders of the people, that is, of the authorities. He is aware of their opposition, negative intentions and plans to eliminate him. He therefore, warns them, so as to realise their error and their wickedness and be converted. The parable Jesus narrates begins in a similar way the song of Isaiah begins: There was a master who planted a vineyard and surrounded it with a hedge, he dug an oil mill there, he built a tower. Then comes the decisive moment, in which the owner entrusts the vineyard to the winemakers and leaves. Here the loyalty of the winemakers is tested: the vineyard is entrusted to them; they must harvest and then hand over the harvest to the owner. At the time of the harvest, the master sends his servants to collect the harvest. But those winemakers have possessive attitude: they do not consider themselves, simple, administrators, but rather owners, and refuse to hand over the harvest. They maltreat the servants, indeed they even go as far as stone and even kill them. The master is patient: he sends back other servants more numerous than the first, but the result is the same. For Jesus, these servants represent the prophets sent by God. In the Book of Jeremiah the Lord says to the Israelites: I sent it to you all my servants, the prophets, with care and always; yet they did not listen to them and did not listen (Jeremiah 7,25-26; cf. 25,4; 26,5; 29,29; 35,15; 44,4).

In the end, the master thinks of sending his son to them, saying: They will respect my son! But those tenants, enchanted of their possessive attitude, as they see his son, they say: He is the heir; come, let's kill him, and we will have the inheritance. And, taking him, they drive him out of the vineyard and kill him. At the end of the story, Jesus asks this question to his interlocutors: So when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? They answered him: He will make those wicked ones die miserably and give the vineyard to other tenants who will deliver the fruits to him in due time. At this point Jesus makes his interlocutors understand what he is talking about: You have never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was made by the Lord and it is marvellous in our eyes?" Here Jesus quotes a verse from Ps. 118, which refers to the opposition of the builders, that is, of the authorities, to a stone that was to be received and placed in a place of honour; but they discarded it as an object of rejection. God, therefore, has turned the situation upside down, and this stone has become the cornerstone: This was done by the Lord. And Jesus concludes: The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will make it bear fruit. With these words he announces that the authorities of Israel will no longer be at the head of the people of God, who will have other authorities: the twelve apostles and their successors.

In the parable narrated by Jesus, there is, therefore, a prefiguration of his paschal mystery and its consequences. Jesus is aware of the destiny of his adversaries, but he tries to make them avoid, as far as possible, all the misfortunes and catastrophes that are threatened. This parable must also be a warning to us against possessive attitude. We all have responsibilities: some on a modest level, some on a higher level, some on a very high level. But for everyone, the attitude we take, with regard to these responsibilities, is decisive. The temptation is always that of assuming a possessive attitude, saying: God has given me gifts; I am the owner of it, I do what I want. I have received a post of authority, I take advantage of it for my own interest, to accumulate money, etc. So, we take possessive attitude instead of exercising authority for the good of all. The possessive attitude is at the root of many sins and many injustices. With it one would like to achieve happiness, but in reality, this does not happen. True happiness, in fact, is found only in a life of love and service. All the gifts that God has given to us are tools to be able to love and serve others. If we use them selfishly to seek our own interest, we are like the rebellious tenants in the parable. And the consequence will be disastrous for us, as well as for many other people. We must ask the Lord to give us the grace of assuming as he. He did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many (cf. Matt 20,28ff). He did not want to take advantage of the Father's gifts for his own advantage, as we clearly see in the episode of the temptations in the desert (cf. Matt 4,1-11ff). He has always followed the path of love and service. This is the way that Jesus proposes to us which he makes possible for us through the Eucharist, in which he offers himself to us in a total and complete way possible. In the Eucharist he assumes a completely un-possessive attitude-he takes the bread and gives it to the disciples, saying: This is my body given for you; he takes the cup of wine and gives it to the disciples, saying: This is my blood shed for you. We Christians are therefore, called to live generously with this spirit of love and service. In it we will find the perfect and divine joy, which the Lord wants to communicate to us. +John I. Okoye

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