21st Sunday of Year A, 27th August, 2023

“Jesus promises Peter exactly this: the ties of evil and hell cannot prevail over the ties of ecclesial fraternity (Matt 16,18-19)”. And so, we pray in this Eucharistic celebration that we who belong to the Church be continually protected from the snares of evil. Happy Sunday!

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Isaiah 22,19-23; Psalm 137 (138); Romans 11,33-36; Matt 16,13-20; 21st Sunday of Year A, 27th August, 2023)

 

“How rich are the depths of God—how deep his wisdom and knowledge! How unfathomable are his judgments and unapproachable his ways! In fact, who has ever known the thought of the Lord? Or who has ever been a counselor to him?” (Rom 11, 33-34). This exclamation of Paul puts us in the right way before the Lord and his word. We can only acknowledge our poverty: admit our non-knowledge; confess the impossibility of welcoming and understanding (in the original sense of the verb: grasping and containing) all the richness of God’s wisdom. Giving up all pretense, we prepare ourselves to stand before him in the silence that adores, in the word of praise that acclaims and glorifies; just as the Apostle invites us to do: “To him be glory for ever. Amen” (Rom 11, 36). If this is to be our way of standing before God, we must at the same time contemplate, with surprise, how God himself disposes himself towards us. The Word that we hear today also tells us about this, revealing to us not only his unfathomable transcendence but also his very confident condescension.

 The mystery of God, in fact, opens up and reveals itself, as Jesus reminds Peter, announcing to him the beatitude of the believer: “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for it is not flesh and blood that revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven” (Matt 16,17). His ways, though inaccessible, open to welcome our following him as we walk along in them, as the disciples do, who following the path of Jesus, arrive in Caesarea Philippi for the encounter with him that ignites in them a deeper knowledge of the secret that is hidden in his person. If no man can assume upon himself the role of “adviser of God”, God, nevertheless entrusts to our frail humanity (of flesh and blood) his Kingdom, with the same trust with which, in the first reading, he places the key of the house of David on Eliakim’s shoulder. Now, even the key to the Kingdom is entrusted to Peter by Jesus: “To you I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 16,19). God reveals himself, not because we have the ability to penetrate his secret, but because, despite our poverty (indeed, precisely because of it) he confidently gives us the mystery of the Kingdom. What Jesus exclaims at the end of chapter 11 of Matthew is also true for Peter: “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to babes” (Matt 11,25). The littleness of faith, to which God is pleased to manifest himself and from which he wishes to allow himself to be encountered, has some typical features necessary for an encounter to take place. Among the many, there is one, which weaves together personal experience and community experience. Faith is personal, but not solitary: one does not believe alone. It is personal, because he asks to let himself be questioned in the truth and in the depth of his own life: “Who do people say that the Son of man is? But who do you say I am?” (Matt 16,13.15). How delicate and at the same time decisive is this passage from “people” to “you”, until it reaches “you”! You, you who are listening to the Gospel now, who do you say I am? God reveals himself, not by packaging answers, but by arousing questions, opening paths of research, which must be personal, since one cannot be satisfied with what others have said or are saying. The Lord's questions demand answers that establish a true relationship with him. It is in the truth of the face-to-face encounter that he shows his face, while he designs ours in a new way. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” replies Peter. And in turn Jesus says to him: “You are Peter and, on this rock...” (Matt 16,16.18). “You are... You are...”.

 The meeting is not only face to face, but opens the space for a mutual new knowledge of the other and of oneself. While he gets to know Jesus' secret with new eyes, Peter discovers his own personal secret, regenerated by his encounter with Jesus. This personal “you”, in the authentic experience of faith, always opens up to an ecclesial “we”. In Matthew, Peter’s profession of faith is anticipated, in the episode of the calmed storm, by the unanimous faith of the disciples: “Those who were on the boat prostrated themselves before him, saying: “Truly you are the Son of God!” (Matt 14,33). The service that Jesus entrusts to Peter in Caesarea, in chapter 18 will be given to the community as a whole: “Truly I say to you: whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matt 18,18). Peter needs the faith of his brothers, and his brothers need Peter's faith. God reveals himself to the little ones but to the little ones gathered in the community of brothers, who together, in the bond of communion, live, fight, pray, so that every man and every woman can be freed from the bonds of evil and bound to the Lord of life. Jesus promises Peter exactly this: the ties of evil and hell cannot prevail over the ties of ecclesial fraternity (cf. Matt 16,18-19). + John I. Okoye.

graphics  by chukwubike

20th Sunday of the Year, August 20, 2023

 
“Woman, your faith is great! May it be done for you as you wish”

Let us, therefore, ask the good Lord in this Holy Mass to help our unbelief and strengthen our faith in Him who alone can help us when others fail us. Happy Sunday!

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Isaiah 56,1.6-7; Psalm 66 (67); Romans 11,13-15.29-32; Matt 15,21-28; 20th Sunday of the Year, August 20, 2023)

“My house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (Isaiah 56,7). This affirmation must have sounded disconcerting, even scandalous, to the ears of a Jew, who experienced progressive separations in the temple. There was space to which everyone could enter, then only men, then the circumcised, up to the Holy of Holies, which only the high priest could enter, on Yom Kippur, once a year.

Now, God announces a day when his house will be open to all. If Isaiah's text could baffle the Jews, Jesus' attitude surprises Christians, not used to seeing such harsh attitudes in the Lord as those he assumes towards this foreign woman of the Gospel reading, who asks nothing for herself, but intercedes on behalf of her sick daughter. Not only is this woman a stranger to Jesus, but Jesus is also a stranger to her. Relations between their people were tense, hostile and of great enmity. Yet, this woman addresses Jesus with the typical language of faith. On her lips there are two titles proper to a messianic faith: "Lord, son of David" (Matt 15,22).

Furthermore, her first plea is marked by liturgical language: "Pity me": it is the kyrie eleison of the liturgy. But, to these invocations for help so imbued with faith, Jesus responds harshly. However, the woman was not discouraged and "began to shout". In Greek language, in which the gospel was written, the imperfect tense connotes an action that started in the past, extends over time and even perdures in the present. This woman shouted and continued to shout, with great insistence, until she said: "It is true, Lord, and yet the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table" (Matt 15,27). “It's true”: the woman recognizes her own difference, she does not protest, she does not rebel, she does not expect to be treated on a par with the children of Israel, she does not claim an equality that she knows she does not possess. She is very humble. She submits in obedience to God's will, without questioning it or making demands. She adds however (and here is the turning point of her great faith) that "the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." It is as if she said: it is true, I am not one of her children, and I accept it; yet God's will, his mercy, is not only for children, it also reaches those who are not children. This attitude resembles Paul’s idea about God (as is seen from what he writes to the Romans) who wishes "to be merciful to all" (Romans 11,32). Here is the great intuition of this woman's faith: while recognizing her own difference, she knows herself; she is welcomed by the blessing of the Father which reaches out to her: the crumbs "fall from the table of their masters". This verb (falling from) describes the superabundance of God's bread, which is for everyone. The woman, therefore, recognizes her own difference, but she knows that she is, in any case, already included in the Father's mercy. She stays in, not out.

The symbol of bread, we must not forget, evokes the manna which, in the traditions of the Exodus was given by God not in an equal way, but according to the need of each one: “He who had taken the most had not too much; he who had taken the least was not lacking” (Exodus 16,18).  God satisfies everyone, though he uses different measures. God does not make us all the same and indistinct; of course, he does not discriminate, but he loves each one in a personal way. His mercy does not level us and does not make us uniform; he discerns, and knows the difference between persons, between believer and unbeliever, between the righteous and the sinner. However, with respect for each one's differences, we are all included in the Father's mercy, and his bread reaches each one in its overabundance, even if in different ways. This is what the woman intuits, and Jesus can only admire her faith: “Woman, your faith is great! May it be done for you as you wish” (Matt 15,28). Behind this impersonal verb ("let it happen”) we must recognize God's action. The Greek text is stronger, because the verb "will" resounds in it: the Father do to you as you wish! According to your will! We are used to praying in the Our Father: "Your will be done", Jesus here turns the perspective upside down: may the Father do your will! And Jesus can say it, because he recognizes in this woman's will the very manifestation of the Father's will. He unites with it. This foreigner, precisely in the humility of her faith, has an extraordinary intuition: she knows what God's will is and conforms to it to the point of making it become her own will! And Jesus (whom Matthew presents as the one who answers; the verb "to answer" resounds four times in the Greek text in verses 23.24.26.28) now can only answer and obey the word of this woman, because in it he recognizes the manifestation of the very will of the Father.

This account is a strong appeal for our faith. It asks us not only to welcome the stranger into the evangelical logic of love; it demands more! It demands that we recognize in him or her the manifestation of God's will which calls our lives to conversion. + John I Okoye

(graphics by Chukwubike)

6th Sunday of Easter Year A, May 14, 2023

 
We pray in this holy Mass that the Holy Spirit who is the fulfillment of all promises leads us into fullness, by making us walk in love, in an inexhaustible circle. Happy Sunday!

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Acts 8,5-8.14-17; Psalm 65 (66); 1 Peter 3,15-18; John 14,15-21, 6th Sunday of Easter Year A, May 14, 2023

In this Easter season, the liturgy accompanies our journey towards Pentecost making us linger over the so-called farewell discourses in John. Jesus, in the imminence of his death (which for him represents his return to the Father and for the disciples the outpouring of the Spirit), makes promises that found the future of the community. Often, the verbs in these Gospel passages are in the future. We listen to these texts after celebrating Easter and it is as if the liturgy were giving us a suggestion: meeting the Risen One in our daily life means perceiving the initial fulfillment of these promises of him, in us, and among us. It is the fulfillment of the promise, in fact, at least in a germinal way, that allows us to encounter the Risen One and to recognize him as present in our history. This was the experience lived by the disciples on Easter day, according to John's account in chapter 20.

When the Lord comes in the midst of his own, in the place where they were with the doors closed for fear of the Jews (John 2019), they will also be able to recognize him through the contemplation of the promises of the Supper, which are being fulfilled: the Lord's promise to return so as not to leave them orphans; that of being able to see him again and thus understand how he and the Father are one; the promise of peace, joy and, above all, of the Holy Spirit, which the Risen One now breathes upon them (cf. John 20,19-23).

This experience of the first disciples remains current: meeting the Risen One means savoring his promise which is fulfilled in us and among us. The promise in which all the others are unified is that of the Spirit, who (Jesus promises) will be given by the Father, who hears the prayer of the Son, so that the Spirit himself may remain with you forever (John 14,16). He is the other Paraclete, declares Jesus, suggesting that the first Paraclete is himself. John will later make this allusion explicit in his First Letter: If anyone has sinned, we have a Paraclete with the Father: Jesus Christ, the righteous (1 John 2,1). Paraclete, literally, is he who is called so close (ad-vocatus, in Latin): the lawyer, the defender, the witness in favor, the comforter, because he does not leave us alone but defends us, supports us, and encourages us in our daily spiritual warfare. The first Paraclete, Jesus, is the one who remained with the disciples for a part of their journey, because, like every human person, he was born and died within a short period and in a small portion of the earth. The Spirit, on the other hand, remains forever, updating and interiorizing this presence of the Risen One in the life of the community and of each of its members, in every era of history and every corner of the earth. In the Spirit, Christ lives in us, and we in him. Peter also recalls it, in his letter, inviting believers to adore Christ in their hearts. In the Spirit, the Risen One dwells there, And forever. In the Greek in which John writes, this expression - forever - however takes on a much different dimension. It should be more faithfully translated: He will remain with you until eternal fulfillment. It is much more, then, than a chronological indication; it expresses the fullness towards which the Spirit leads us. His is a dynamic forever; he remains in us and we remain in him, not firm, static, or immovable: we remain on a path that leads us towards that fullness which is the communion in love between the Father and the Sons, on that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you (John 14,20).  The Spirit is the fulfillment of all promises, but he fulfills them by making us walk, and walk in love, in an inexhaustible circle. By welcoming Jesus' word, we welcome the new commandment, which allows us to be able to love as he has loved us. By walking in this love - thanks to the energy that is released from the commandment - we will love the Lord more and more, and he will return to manifest himself to us in an ever-new way, renewing his word and his commandment in us. The new word and commandment will thus return to increase our ability to love. It is a virtuous spiral that does not end. In fact - Gregory of Nyssa affirms in his homilies on the Song of Songs -: He who ascends never ceases to pass from beginning to beginning, and the beginning of higher realities never ends. It is the Spirit who is to lead us into fullness, and fullness is inexhaustible! This is the foundation of our hope (says Peter), of which we must be able to give an account to anyone who asks us. It is a foundation that does not remain external to our life but is within us. Indeed, the foundation is the word of Jesus, that commandment of him that John defines as entole, literally that which is placed within us, like a spring that gushes unstoppable. It is the water of the Spirit in which we were baptized; and the energy of the Spirit in which we have been confirmed, as Acts reminds us today; it is an ever-new beginning that continues to fulfill Jesus' promises for us and the world. + John I. Okoye.

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER, YEAR A. MAY 7, 2023

 We pray through the graces of this holy Mass, that we understand what the resurrection of Christ has done for us; making us living stones of a spiritual edifice, a holy people whom God has acquired to proclaim his wonderful deeds, and so help us to pass from darkness to his marvelous light. Happy Sunday!

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

Acts 6,1-7; Psalm 32 (33); 1 Peter 2,4-9; John 14,1-12; Year A, 5th Sunday of Easter, May 7, 2023)

We have been called by God to pass from darkness to his marvelous light. Peter reminds us of this in his First Letter, stating also that this call makes us living stones of a spiritual edifice, a holy people whom God has acquired to proclaim his wonderful deeds (1 Peter 2,9). The faith that Jesus asks us to have, to overcome every disturbance and fear, has this quality, and it does not concern only him, his identity, and the Father who reveals himself in him but also tells us whom we must become, in obedience to his word and docility to the Spirit.

The liturgy today makes us listen to the first part of chapter 14 of John. It is worth recalling some verses. Jesus' words open with a great promise: When I have gone and have prepared a place for you, I will come again and take you with me, so that where I am, you also may be (John 14,3). Towards the end of the chapter the perspective is reversed: Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him (John 14,23). The abode that he prepares with his Passover, is within us. And we truly become God's temple and his spiritual building, as Peter affirms. Jesus is the way also in this sense: for through him we go to the Father, but always through him the Father himself comes to make his abode in us. We discover then that the truth is no longer an idea to grasp, some knowledge to possess: it becomes rather an open space in which to live, a vital environment in which to build one's home to dwell, a road on which to walk. Pope Francis often recalls this: rather than preserving doctrines, it is necessary to start

processes of maturation in the truth. For John, the truth is a person: it is Jesus, as the full revelation of the mystery of God and unveiling, equally full, of our human face. Truth is that communion of love that exists between the Father and the Son, into which the Spirit introduces us: When he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you into all the truth (John 16, 13). It is as if Jesus said: the Spirit will lead you into the truth that I am, into that truth which is my communion of love with the Father: in that space, you too can live and thus find life. Paul understands well that this is the quality of authentic faith. How many times does the expression of Christ resound in his letters? Yes, because with his Easter, in the mystery of his resurrection, Jesus has become a space in which to stay, breathe, and mature to bear the fruit of life. It is the body of which we are members, the vine in which to remain grafted, the dress in which to let ourselves be covered. How can we fail to remember the cry that echoes at the heart of the Letter to the Philippians, which reveals the profound desire of his life:  to be given a place in him (Jesus Christ) with the righteousness that is not derived from Law, but that which comes from faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God, based on faith (Phil 3,9). Here the ancient question that starts from Genesis and runs through all the Scriptures is answered: Adam, where are you? Man, where are you? (cf. Gen 3,9). Now, we can answer, without shame, even in the nakedness of our sin: I am in Christ! This is our place, to which he, as a way, leads us, because here we find not only God's truth, but our truth, and we can truly live by it. Christ is the space of life, and Paul recalls it: dwelling in him we know the power of his resurrection (cf. Phil 3,10). Being in him, the Apostle always teaches us, sharing what he feels about him (cf. Phil 2,5). By saying to Philip “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14,9), Jesus reminds his disciple, and all of us, that seeing him means knowing the Son, and therefore discovering a filial way of relating to the Father. Only by sharing his filial feeling can we encounter not a generic God, but the face of the Father. To know the Father it is necessary that he reveals himself in the Son (who is one with him), but it is equally necessary that we too assume an authentic filial attitude. If we remain servants we will know God as a master, certainly not as the Father. No one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him (Matt 11,27). And the Son reveals it to us by inviting us to learn from him, to assume his yoke, no longer that of the Law, but that of the filial condition. By sharing his feelings, we can get to know the Father and become a temple of the Spirit, so that, filled with his wisdom, we can also face new situations, such as the one created in the community of Jerusalem, according to the account in the Acts. The Apostles cannot remember a clear word of Jesus that helps them to face the problem, there isn't one: they are full of his Spirit who guides them to make the right decisions. Then the difficulty or obstacle turns into a propitious occasion for the growth of the community.

May the Lord give us the same attitudes, to transform even today's problems into opportunities in which the Spirit can once again speak his words of wisdom. If we abide in him and he in us it will be possible. + John I. Okoye.

(graphics  by Chukwubike)