Sunday 18 May 2014

DOCTRINE & FAITH 18 TH MAY 2017

 The word of God in today’s liturgy allows us to focus on three characteristics of the Church as willed by Jesus Christ. She is the people of God on the way to her blessed homeland; she is a community of service, called to serve and she is a priestly people. 

            The church as the people of God on her way to her blessed homeland. In the Gospel, Jesus alludes several times to eternal life to which we are destined. The reason for his coming into the world was to teach us (reveal to us) about our destiny, which is to attain eternal life and  offer us the means of reaching there. He says: I am going to prepare for you a place. Paradise or eternal life means to be with Christ, in perfect communion with him and  God, the Father for ever, without any fear or danger of ever being separated from them. Paul expresses this idea as he writes: we shall all be with him forever; comfort one another with these words. (1 Thess 4,17-18). Jesus did not only reveal to us our destination, but also the way to it. He himself is the Way to  enter Paradise; he is the way to encounter God, the Father. There is no other way; it is just enough to follow him as He is the Truth. It is sufficient  to believe in Him for He is the Life. We need to be united to him, just as a branch of a tree is united to its trunk.  Jesus reveals to us all these because he is One with the Father. The Father speaks through him, and through him God, the Father accomplishes works (miracles), which no other person is capable of achieving. Jesus himself said: If for no other reason, at least believe on account of the work, which I do. We Christians are the people of God in a journey towards the blessed life in Paradise and our way is the one which Jesus designates. 
            The Church is a community of service, which is called to serve. Every baptized person is called to accomplish some work, some services. In the Acts of the Apostles (1st reading) the young Church has already division of service. The apostles dedicated themselves to the service of prayer and preaching the word of God. The early church had to choose other people who occupied themselves with the material assistance to the widows and the needy. Later on, the apostles instituted the services of presbyters and the deacons as their helpers. Thus, three holy orders of services or ministries were delineated: the bishopric, the presbyterate (the priests) and deaconate. However, it was never meant that the services were to be restricted to the bishops, the priests and the deacons. The laity, are also assigned areas of service for the growth of the Christian community and  the spread of the Kingdom of God. The Vatican Council II makes the laity very conscious of their mission and the possibilities of serving Christ and his Kingdom by assigning to them various forms of services: like serving as permanent deacons, as catechists who help prepare people for the reception of the sacraments, and as lectors who proclaim the word of God. This services are ad intra, that is, within the Christian community itself and for its growth. But there is another very important service which a truly believing lay person should take as his/her prime duty to accomplish: to colour with a Christian spirit whatever they are doing and to sow and insert seeds of evangelization in the environment of their human activities, some of which are: governance, politics,  judiciary, civil service, economy and business, different levels of education, different forms of professions, family, buying and selling, health care delivery in hospitals, sports, science and technology and private sectors. To bring Christ into these ambients is the  special duty of all the baptized lay people. It is high time that our lay Christians in Nigeria became fully conscious of their vocation and mission and to work actively and courageously as Christians in the world and in our country. 
            The Church is a priestly people. The text of the 2nd reading gives the fundamental reason why all Christians in the whole world, according to their particular situation and their particular gifts are called to render services: ... set yourselves close to him (Jesus Christ) so that you too, the holy priesthood that offers the spiritual sacrifices which Jesus Christ has made acceptable to God, may be living stones making a spiritual house. All Christians, in virtue of their baptism, make up a holy race, kingdom of priests, that is to say, that they participate in the priesthood of Jesus Christ; they have, therefore, the right and duty to the apostolate, and to participate actively in the liturgical celebration especially the Eucharist. The Vatican Council II, distinguishes ministerial priesthood (those who receive the Holy Orders) from the universal (common) priesthood of all the baptized. The Council also indicates how every Christian should exercise the priesthood which is the participation of the priesthood of Christ.  Vatican Council holds: All the work of the laity, prayer, initiative of apostolates, their conjugal life, daily activities, spiritual and material comfort and even the difficulties of life, if borne with patience,  become spiritual sacrifices pleasing to God through Jesus Christ; and all these, during the Holy Mass, are offered to God the Father together  with the oblation of the body of the Lord (Lumen Gentium 34). We can then see how every Christian will have to live out his priesthood derived from baptism. He/she has to offer to God all his/her life; joys, sorrows, stresses, hopes, ups and downs, etc. When all these are done in faith and love, they become spiritual sacrifices that are pleasing to God and which are united to the sacrifice of Jesus (and of the Church) in the Holy Mass. May we in today’s Eucharistic celebration ask for the graces to be good Christians, who by fulfilling our daily duties in our homes and our places of work, will be exercising our common priesthood of the baptized and at the same time will be propagating the Kingdom of God on earth, a kingdom whose members we are already on earth and, which will be our eternal patria, if we continue to remain united with Christ who is the Way, the Truth and Life!    
  +John I. Okoye

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