30th Sunday of Year A; 29th October, 2023

 
“If in our love for neighbor we eliminate love for God, our passion becomes fire, a violent and devastating passion, a selfish and possessive pretension that ends up devouring the other and consuming every neighborhood…”

Therefore, in this holy Mass, we humbly implore God who is love to give us grace for true love of him and of our neighbor. Happy Sunday!

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Exodus 22,20-26; Psalm l7 (18); 1 Thessalonians 1.5c-10; Matthew 22,34-40, 30th Sunday of Year A; 29th October, 2023)

When asked by the doctor of the Law about the great commandment, Jesus replies by quoting a text from Deuteronomy to which he adds a verse from Leviticus. However, Matthew drops an important verb, with which the passage from Deuteronomy opens: “Listen!” (see Deut. 6,4). And in Deuteronomy, “listen” is associated with another fundamental verb: “remember”. We listen to be able to remember, and remember not simply a story, but all that God has done for his people. What we have to listen to is not primarily a commandment – “You must love!” -, but in addition, the fact that God loved us first, and that this love of his has been translated for us into the history of salvation, into the promise of life, into an overabundant blessing. We must listen to the reality that we have been loved and that in his love, God has given us everything. It is this totality of the gift that establishes our possibility of responding to him, loving him with all that we are.

However, this total love for God has love for one’s neighbor as a condition: you will love your neighbor as yourself. In fact, John will explain in his first letter, that we cannot love God whom we do not see except by loving the brother we see (cf. 1 John 4,20). However, there is something else here other than to listen to and understand. It is that we can understand what Leviticus intends to convey by the injunction: “You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself”. You must recognize the love with which God has loved and saved you and in the same measure of love with which he loves and saves you, you must love your brother or sister who lives next to you. The bond that binds you to them is what God has done for you, just as he did for them. Paul will clearly state that the brother is someone for whom Jesus died, just as he died for you (cf. 1 Cor 8,11). Then, it goes to say that the work of salvation that you recognize in your life you must contemplate it in the life of the neighbor who lives next to you; whoever he is, whatever he has done in his life. He is loved and saved by the Lord in the same way the Lord loves and saves you. Here is all the beauty of the Church, of every Christian community, of every family. If I cannot love God that I do not see without loving the brother I see, neither can I recognize the love God has for me without recognizing the love he has for my brother or sister. Therefore, at the heart of every commandment there is love, just as at the heart of love there is a commandment, there is the word of God. Love is not only a spontaneous movement of the heart; it is also founded on a Word, it is an outcome of listening. This dynamic is as true in one’s personal life as it is in the life of a community. Paul reminds the Christians of Thessalonica that at the origin of their community there is a word of God preached with the example of life and welcomed, albeit in the midst of many trials and tribulations, in the joy of the Holy Spirit. What is true for the community of Thessalonica remains true for every Christian community: at the beginning of our common life there is the word of God, preached in faith and welcomed in joy. Listening means recognizing that the word of God works among us and slowly fulfills his promises. Before being a commandment, the word of God is in fact a promise: a promise of life, a promise of a fruitfulness that overcomes our impossibilities. Indeed, the great commandment says: “You shall love”. If you listen to the word of God and let it operate in your life, then what the word commands becomes a promise: “you will love” becomes: “you will be able to love”; and the word that you have heard, and in which you have believed, will mature unto the fulfillment of love, in your personal existence and in that of your community or your family. In this listening we discover that our relationships always know a three-way dynamism, a sort of triangulation, in this case virtuous: God - the other - myself. As previously mentioned, when I relate to others, there is God in the midst, the God of the Covenant. When I seek God, between me and him, I always meet the other. When I eliminate one of these poles I inevitably fall into the inability to love.

The first proximity in the Bible is that between Adam and Eve, between man and woman, between ish and issha, according to two very similar Hebrew terms. Jewish tradition, which enjoys playing skillfully with the letters of the alphabet, affirms that in ish (man) there is the letter yod, which is the first letter of the holy and unpronounceable name of God, the Tetragrammaton revealed to Moses at the bush (see Exodus 3,14). In issha (woman) the letters in the Hebrew name of God are two, because besides the letter yod there is also the letter he. There is the name of God, therefore, both in the name “man” and in the name “woman”. If you remove the letter yod from ish, and also the he from issha, the two remaining letters become esh, which designates fire, but a fire that destroys everything, annihilating any possible relationship. If in our love for neighbor we eliminate love for God, our passion becomes fire, a violent and devastating passion, a selfish and possessive pretension that ends up devouring the other and consuming every neighborhood, not even the smallest sign must fall from the Law, Jesus affirms (cf. Matt 5,18), not even one iota or one yod; but the real yod that must never fall is that of the holy name of God. +John I. Okoye.

(graphic  by Charles)

LONG JOHN SILVER NWARU & I

 LONG JOHN SILVER  NWARU  & I

It was 1966/67 the pogrom was on, and like many places in the southeast, Nenwe had her own share of returnees. The schools especially St Peters  were filled with new faces like the Mbahs, Mbanwarus,Nwaruezes,Chukwukadibes ,Kanus, Onwes etc. Most of them spoke igbo sparingly. 

However , there were also some people at Peters who weren't returnees but 'migrated' from St. Paul's, St David's and St Theresa's that hadn't elementary 5 classes, so we had to decipher the "Nenwe refugees" from the locals through their level of grip of olu Nenwe. 

Jon was a college fellow anyway but when the real  war began,schools closed the militias came to  quarter in County from  then we started to see such people around.

My first contact   with John was at the Altar under Rev Fr  Silvester Eze  who became the chaplain for the Biafran Militia in Nenwe etc.. He doubled with serving also Rev Fr Orji  of Nenwe who also returned home . He was ordained just about a year or less.

John was always elegant and thought us the junior ones mass serving diligently. It was the period that followed the transition of the old ways of mass( the Rev and alter backing the congregation) which we knew already. John was a patient and nice teacher. We travelled in Fadas'  small Fiat 600 all around Nenwe. We served him, the reverend and the mass but I think  serving him(Jon) was what we cared more for because as kids he would recommend any efforts to the Rev  and his approval of our abilities was paramount …..Nenwe fell into the handsome the Federal troops (a.k.a Vandals) and we parted………. Truncated 

To be continued.

Charlie.mbc@gmail.com 

28th Sunday of the Year A; October 15, 2023

 

We pray through the graces of this holy Mass that we be always ready to honour Christ’s invitation, whence we are received, renewed, and welcomed into the beatific vision. Happy Sunday!

⁵

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

Isaiah 25,6-10a; Psalm 22 (23); Philippians,4, 12-14.19-20; Matthew 22,1-14. 28th Sunday of the Year A; October 15, 2023)

 

The image of the banquet dominates this Sunday’s liturgy. The psalmist echoes the prophet Isaiah, who announces a banquet of rich foods and excellent wines, certain that the shepherd will prepare a table in front of him. And Jesus reveals how the Father fulfills his promise: “Behold, I have prepared my lunch; my oxen and the fattened animals are already killed and everything is ready; come to the wedding!” (Matt 22,4).

Let us first of all observe the context in which this new parable is inserted. Jesus has already told two other parables, which we heard the previous Sundays: the parable of the two sons sent into the vineyard and that of the murderous tenants. The parables have a double effect: understanding and conversion. In addition to making himself understood, Jesus wishes to solicit the conversion of his interlocutors, because the mystery of the Kingdom opens up only to those who decide for it. The two parables told achieve the first result, not the second. Jesus’ interlocutors understand well (cf. Matt 21,45), but instead of converting, they decide to capture Jesus: “They tried to capture him, but they were afraid of the crowd because they considered him a prophet” (Matt 21,46). Matthew chapter 21 concludes with this tragic annotation. Faced with this refusal, how does Jesus respond? “He resumed speaking to them in parables and said…” (Matt 22,1). Jesus does not give up but continues to offer, even to his adversaries, a word that once again becomes, even for them, an appeal to conversion, a free offer of salvation. Jesus thus reveals himself not only as the Son (for whom the king prepares a sumptuous wedding feast) but also as the servant sent to call everyone to the wedding, despite the refusal of the first guests. The invitation is free. Everything’s ready. Nothing is asked in return. All you need to do is accept a call, which appears more attractive than the one contained in the previous parables. Indeed, it is no longer a matter of going to work in a vineyard, facing “the weight of the day and the heat” (Matt 20,12); now it's about joining in the joy of a wedding party! How will someone not accept this invitation? We are surprised by the refusal of the first guests. We struggle to understand it. But aren’t so many of our refusals similar to the invitations of God, who desires nothing more than to share with us his joy and love for the Son and (in him) for us, his children? With his parable, Jesus above all wants to help us open our eyes to the senselessness of our denials, of our going elsewhere to take care of something else, without recognizing the hidden beauty in what we do not know how to welcome. However, this is not the central point of the parable.

More than on our behavior, Jesus’ gaze rests, on the behavior of the Father, who responds to our refusal with a new, patient, tenacious, persevering invitation, such as to fill the room with diners in any case. Our refusals do not prevent God from carrying out his feast; on the contrary, they mysteriously expand it: if before the guests were few and selected, now all are invited, even “bad and good” (Matt 22,10), without distinction. However, the mysterious character/person of the last scene remains: the guy who is kicked out because he showed up at the party without a wedding dress. Even more enigmatic are the words with which Jesus comments on his attitude: “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matt 22,14). We find it hard to understand. It would have been clearer if Jesus had said: many are called, few respond. Jesus, on the other hand, does not dwell on our answer, positive or negative, but on the fact that we are “chosen”. Called, elected: both verbs are in the passive; therefore they allude not so much to our attitude, but to the action of the one who calls and elects, who chooses. How is this to be understood, then?

Here is a possible answer: it is not enough to be aware of being called, we must perceive ourselves as “chosen”, chosen because loved because preferred. The elect par excellence is the Son, Jesus Christ: and he is the beloved, the favorite; and it is for him (for the love he has for him) that the Father prepares this wedding feast. But in him, in the Son, the Father also gives each of us a similar love of choice and predilection. We are not just guests at a banquet, a sign of the Father's love for the Son. We are more than invited, we are elected, that is, we too are loved children and it is also for us that the Father wishes to celebrate. Many hear this call, but few manage to perceive it for what it is: a sign of the chosen love that the Father has for each of us. Not savoring this love, we end up putting something else before it - our business, our chores - and we decline the invitation, or we welcome it, but without wearing the wedding dress, which is still a filial dress. It is the garment of his son; it is the dress of those who recognize themselves as loved; of those who know that they are not only a guest at a party, but that they are the protagonist because they are an accomplished and favorite son, in Jesus, like Jesus. + John I. Okoye.

27th Sunday of the Year A; October 8, 2023

 
We implore the good Lord in this holy Mass to bend our hearts in obedience to His will so that it may be said of us after our earthly sojourn: “Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.” Happy Sunday!

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Isaiah 5,1-7; Psalm 79 (80); Philippians 4,6-9; Matthew 21,33-43; 27th Sunday of the Year A; October 8, 2023)

 

Also on this Sunday, the liturgy of the Word leads us into the symbolic horizon of the vineyard, which returns both in the first reading and in the Gospel passage. If the protagonists of the parable of last Sunday were a father and his two sons, today the characters in today’s parable are a master and the peasants to whom he rents his vineyard.

"There was a man who owned land and he planted a vineyard on it” (Matt 21,33). The beginning of the parable is similar to the so-called Song of the vineyard which we read in Isaiah: "My beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill" (Isaiah 5,1b). The prophet reminds us that the Lord really did everything possible for his vineyard. The text also expresses it through a spatial symbolism: he has dug it up and cleared it of stones; and the text of the Septuagint adds: "I surround her with a hedge", an expression taken up in Matthew's parable which quotes the Greek text, not the Hebrew one. There is a horizontal dimension here: the Lord's care horizontally surrounds his vineyard with a hedge. He then built a tower there: here is the vertical dimension of height, with a tower that rises towards the sky. Again: he had dug a vat in it. It is the dimension of a depth that goes down into the ground. The Lord's action for his vineyard went in all possible directions. Such is God's love, according to the Apostle Paul’s prayer: “May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being, rooted and grounded in charity. I pray that you may be able to understand, with all the saints, what is the breadth, length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses all knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesian 3,17-19). Despite this loving care, which seems to have expanded in every direction, from breadth to length, from height to depth, the vine's response has been nothing other than to produce unripe grapes. Hence then God's warning: "What do I still have to do to my vineyard that I have not done?" (Isaiah 5,4). Is there still anything the Lord could do? The synoptic tradition answers yes; there is still something that the Lord can do which he subsequently does: he sends his Son. But (as Matthew's parable narrates) he too meets with rejection. John will offer a further answer in his Gospel: not only does he send the Son, but the Son himself becomes the fruitful vine that allows the branches to bear ripe fruit according to the expectation of the master (cf. John 15); or rather, those fruits that fully correspond to the love with which the farmer takes care of his property. In Matthew's parable the image changes. The fruits are there, the vineyard is capable of producing good and abundant grapes; on the contrary, it is the peasants who, instead of justice and righteousness, produce violence and oppression by gradually killing the servants, until even eliminating the son. As often happens in the parables, at this point, Jesus questions his interlocutors directly, so that they are the ones to judge. This is one of the typical effects of parabolic speech: forcing someone to come out, to express a judgment without realizing that they are judging themselves. And this is what do the chief priests and the elders of the people do who, when questioned, answer: "He will bring those wicked people to a miserable death and lease the vineyard to other farmers, who will deliver the fruits to him in due time" (Matt 21,41). Here is their judgment, which appears very severe and without mercy. But is God's judgment really like this? Fortunately for us, and by God's grace, the Father's judgment is different, since it remains a judgment of mercy and salvation, as Jesus recalls by quoting Psalm 118. God is able to choose what we discard and place it as a cornerstone of the building that he intends to build, which is precisely the building of his salvation offered to all. What men do in their stubborn refusal and stubborn sin; God transforms into an offer of salvation. And the vineyard will finally be able to bear the expected fruit: "The kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who produce its fruits" (Matt 21,43).

One last note. We speak in this story of "heir" and “inheritance". If the heir dies, to whom does the inheritance pass? If there are no close relatives (the son in the parable is the only child, let's remember this) to whom will the master allocate his property? We can imagine those he will name in his will. So who are these "others" to whom the vineyard will go? Who are these "people" to whom the kingdom of God will be given? In the Gospel of Matthew, there are at least two significant places where inheritance is spoken of: the page of the Beatitudes in which Jesus proclaims that the meek will inherit the earth and the kingdom of God will be given to the poor (cf. Matt 5,5.3); and the parable of the final judgment in which, to those who stand at the king's right hand and who have performed gestures of love, it will be said: "Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world" (Matt 25,34). Here is the nature of the fruits that the Lord wants to make shine in his vineyard: "I was hungry and you gave me to eat". 

+ John I. Okoye.

(graphics  by charles)