(Jeremiah 20,7-9; Romans 12,1-2; Matt16, 21-27: 22ndSunday of Year A)

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Jeremiah 20,7-9; Romans 12,1-2; Matt16, 21-27: 22ndSunday of Year A)

Last Sunday, we saw the eulogy, which Christ accorded to Peter, as well as his investiture as the head and foundation of the Church: Blessed are you Simon, son of Jona... You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church. Today, on the other hand, we hear Jesus rebuke Peter in very strong terms: Get behind me Satan, you are an obstacle in my path. This boils down to mean: You are like Satan to me who is an obstacle in my effort to realise the will of God. This is because the way you (Peter) think is not God’s way but that of man. Last Sunday, Peter thought like God when he recognised Jesus as not only an exceptional person but also as the Messiah sent by God and  the Son of God. Indeed at his profession of faith, Jesus declared: It is not flesh and blood that revealed this to you. This means, that it was not human reasoning but God’s revelation that helped Peter to come to that conclusion. In today’s gospel reading, we see Peter follow human reasoning when he did not accept the idea that Jesus was to suffer and die on the cross. At the mention that Jesus was to go to Jerusalem to suffer and die on the cross, Peter remonstrated with Jesus: This must not

happen to you. According to him, it was unthinkable. Thinking according to God means two things: The first is to accept Christ as the Son of God who was sent and consecrated by God the Father for the mission to save the world. The second is to also accept the scandal of the cross: this means the mystery of God made man who underwent crucifixion in order to save the world. He has to undergo crucifixion because it was the will of the Father in His programme of salvation. Jesus began to make it clear to his disciples that he was destined to go to Jerusalem. Jesus was destined, because it was willed by God the Father. From the onset, Jesus knew that he had to follow the will of the Father to the end. 

To think like God is to understand that the disciple will have to follow his master. The master is Christ, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. The disciple of Jesus should also be able to share in His destiny of sacrifice and suffering in order to participate in his destiny of glory. Jesus invites us to participate in his destiny when he declared in today’s gospel: If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. Every Christian should be the disciple of Jesus and to be really so he/she has to:

 (a) to renounce himself/herself. This would mean that he should not accept nor recognise the inner disorder which he notices in himself as a result of original sin as legitimate. It means also that he is not to give in to tendencies of passion like pride, avarice, lust and in short, to selfishness. On the other hand, he is expected to endeavour, with the help of  God, to create order and interior equilibrium, to allow reason and strength of will prevail over instinct and passion and to foster the triumph of love over egoism/self-centredness. 

(b) has to take up his/her cross, just as Christ took up his own. Cross includes physical and mental suffering, hostilities, misunderstandings and derisions, which come our way as we profess and live out our faith. The Christian is called to co-operate in the redemption of the world through his suffering, carrying his cross together with Christ and uniting his sufferings with His. 

(c) To be  truly a disciple of Christ the Christian should be the one who follows Christ.  He should be the one who follows the steps and the ways of Christ, his examples, comportment, thoughts, sentiments and in short, one whose life is in uniform with that of Christ.  

St. Paul lends voice to the discussion on how to think like God and how to be a true disciple of Christ when he exhorts: Do not model yourselves on the behaviour of  the world. This is because the world is a slave (according to St. John, the Apostle) to triple concupiscences of the flesh (lust and  sensuous life), the eyes (avarice) and the pride of life (aspiration to power and lordship over others). The disciple of Christ has to fight and combat, energetically, the slavery of passion, for it not only leads to eternal damnation, but also does not really bring happiness in this life. 

The havocs these triple concupiscences cause are  tremendous: families are broken up, the society is in turmoil, one not only hears of rumours of wars, but sees the effect of wars and destruction of lives and properties, life is no more safe even in the broad day light, kidnapping and killings of human lives, corruption from top to bottom of the societal ladder, theft and robbery, alcoholism and drugging among our youths. How do we avert these evils of our societies? It is an up hill task which we have to begin now and from ourselves. We begin today by thinking like God and truly following Christ by modelling our lives, both in our thoughts and actions after his. Let us pray in the Eucharistic celebration of today that the good Lord may give us all the necessary graces we need in order to follow Christ by taking up the crosses of our daily life.

 HappySunday!

+John I. Okoye

DOCTRINE AND FAITH (Isaiah 22,19-23; Romans 11,33-36; Matt16, 13-20: 21st Sunday of Year A)

The gospel episode of this Sunday can be described as the centre of the whole gospel narrative; it is the point that divides the life and preaching of Jesus Christ into two phases. In the first part of the gospel, one notices isolated cases of hostility against Jesus because his actions did not correspond to the expectation of his contemporaries. In the second phase, which follows the episode of this Sunday hostilities against Jesus, were no more isolated cases but became a habitual and growing attitude that developed into the concrete plan of his physical elimination. Jesus did not see the situation just as casual happenings emanating from erring human mind and will, but rather as a part of divine plan towards the realisation of God’s salvific intention for humanity. Jesus was aware that the plan to save mankind will be actualised by him through suffering and death. In God’s plan/design the destiny to suffer and even to die was not Jesus’ lot alone, but also that of his disciples.   It was, therefore, necessary for Jesus to reveal to his disciples his true identity. That was what he did with the episode of today’s gospel reading. 

Firstly, Jesus asked the disciples whom the people thought he was. The replies of the disciples showed that the people held him as a great and important personality to accost and identified him with some of the great prophets, like John the Baptist, Elijah and Jeremiah. But this general opinion was still inadequate and inexact. Jesus then directed the question to his disciples. Peter, inspired, proclaimed on behalf of the other disciples: You are the Christ (the Anointed,  the Messiah), the Son of the living  God.Jesus declared that the proclamation/ confession of Peter was not out of human effort of reasoning but the gift of God the Father. 

The mysterious reality of Christ can be grasped only by the supernatural illumination, which comes from the Father and which man/woman welcomes in faith. On account of Peter’s confession, Jesus called him blessed and by giving him (Simon) the new namePeter, Jesus announced a new mission for him. The new name Peter is symbolic as Peter/Rock should be the foundation stone,the rock, that should be strong and solid enough for the Church to be built upon. In addition, Peter was also conferred with the plenitude of power for salvific mission in the Church: I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven (the key is symbol of sovereignty and absolute power). Peter would have supreme power of decision on doctrinal and disciplinary issues of the Church and the decision he takes will be recognised and ratified valid in heaven: Whatever you bind on earth, shall be considered bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall he considered loosed in heaven. This solemn investiture of Peter as head and fundament /foundation of the Church is concluded with Christ’s promise that he would be assisting the Church and with the assurance that the power of evil will never prevail over the Church. Jesus declared: and the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. 

Peter answered for himself and for the other disciples, yet the question stares us on the face: Who is Jesus? This is a question which is addressed to all who come into contact with him in one way or the other. Everyone will have to, willingly or unwillingly, take personal position about him. It is a major part of the work of evangelisation of every age and epoch to pose the provocative question: Who is Jesus for you?  The mission of the Church is no other than to repeat at one generation or the other the confession of Peter, to make it the topic of constant preaching to the world:Christ is the promised Messiah; he is the Saviour of entire humanity; Christ is the Son of God. If we ask people on the street, that is, the ordinary people, what they think of Jesus, perhaps we would be having some distressing answers. Perhaps, most people will consider him as a great benefactor of humanity, a first class and insuperable moralist, or even an ideal person, a genius in fighting for justice, righteousness and concrete love. It is not enough to say that he is a super-man or even a super-star just as the answers given by Jesus’ contemporaries were inadequate.Christ is a mystery that is beyond human understanding and which is grasped only in faith. But, if the question, who is Christ to you, is posed to us, the practicing Catholics in Nigeria, what would be your answer? The question will surely throw a good number of us into confusion and embarrassment. This is because, it is not just giving an answer from the doctrine or dogma point of view even though such answers will easily come to mind but what is required is an answer that is the fruit of personal conviction, that is, the result of lived experience of faith. 

      Is Christ really salvation, redemption, sanctification for me; the supreme and the ultimate reason of my existence? Is he the one who has radically changed my life? Is Christ a brother, friend, companion for me in the journey of life? Is he the one to whom I can confide the real and hidden story of my intimate life? Is he the one to whom I can entrust with the real motives of my actions? Jesus meets everyone of us personally and individually and poses the question: Whom do you think I am? In the secret of our consciences each one of us will have to give answer to this very important and determining question. May we in the Eucharistic celebration of this Sunday beg God for divine inspiration and revelation in order to answer correctly, convincingly and adequately from the depth of our hearts. Happy Sunday! 

+John I. Okoye

DOCTRINE AND FAITH(Isaiah 56,1.6-7; Romans 11,13-15.29-32; Matt 15, 21-28, 20th Sunday of Year A)

The readings of today’s Sunday have a theme that runs through them: God’s will for the salvation of all, Jews and Gentiles alike. However, we would prefer to concentrate our meditation on the gospel reading that deals on Jesus’ encounter with the Canaanite woman. In today’s gospel, Jesus stepped outside the territory of Israel into the commercial and pagan city of Tyre and Sidon. Here, he came across a Canaanite woman who implored him in a loud voice: Sir, Son of David, take pity on me. My daughter is tormented by a demon. She was asking for a miraculous cure for her daughter. But, unfortunately Jesus did not utter any word to her. He ignored her completely. Even the apostles joined in requesting this favour for her as they said: Give her what she wants, because she is shouting after us. But Jesus response was still negative as he said: I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. By this statement he meant that his mission of salvation was first to the people of Israel and only after that can it go beyond the territory of Israel and spread to other parts of the world. The woman came near to Jesus, insisting on her supplication and prostrated herself to the ground saying: Sir, help me! Jesus again gave her a negative response when he said: it is not fair to take the children's food (that is food meant for the people of Israel) and throw it to the house-dogs (the pagans). However, the woman did not give up but pointed out that the house-dogs can eat from the scraps that fall from the master’s table.  At this point, Jesus could not continue to turn a deaf ear to the demand of the woman and said to her: Woman, you have a great faith. Let your wish be granted. The gospel of today concludes that from that moment her sick daughter was healed. 

Having gone through the narrative we wonder why Jesus delayed in fulfilling the wish of the poor woman. Was Jesus deaf or indifferent to her request? Could it be that Jesus wanted to make it categorically clear that he was following the path traced by his Father by which his primary mission of evangelisation was among the people of Israel and later to other nations/pagans? Was St. Augustine correct by holding that Jesus delayed granting the request of the woman in order to fan up her desire and make her faith and hope more alive and profound?  St. John Chrysostom thought that Jesus so delayed granting the woman’s request in order to exalt her faith and use it as a model to all and to reward her beyond expectation. This is also a plausible hypothesis.

Certainly, the Canaanite woman’s attitude is presented to us as a marvellous example of faith in Christ; her trust in him never waned, she never lost hope of being heard. She is also presented as stupendous model of perseverance in prayer; she knocked, insisted, supplicated, implored without getting tired or discouraged by Jesus seemingly refusal to grant her request. She is shown to have exhibited exemplary humility; she did not revolt when it seemed that she was not taken serious and harshly treated. She accepted being called a house-dog and was even satisfied with the scraps of bread. We, Christians of Nigeria, indeed, have to admire and imitate her faith and immense trust in Jesus as well as her insistent, persevering and humble prayer. Often times, we experience what is sometimes called the silence of God in our lives (we pray and sometimes it seems no answer is forthcoming). We also experience what would seem persistence on God’s part not to concede us the graces we consider necessary for our good. Even, we sometimes receive the opposite of what we expect and request in prayer. Our error is that we get discouraged, we desist instead of insisting on prayer. Sometimes, we even revolt against God. The silence of God or the delay in answering our requests or the lack of response to our prayers does not mean that God does not hear or appreciate our pleas. Perhaps, God wishes to first put us to test, or he wishes to prepare for us some greater blessings. Certainly, he would reward us more if we persevere in prayer and continue to have confidence in Him, even if it seems that He does not grant us what we desire or what we consider useful and necessary. Let us learn to say:Lord I ask for this grace, but let your will be done, help me to do your will. I trust you as you know what is really good for me better.(May we therefore, always conclude our prayer of request with a prayer like what we have above whenever we make any request to God).  Happy Sunday!

 +John I. Okoye

DOCTRINE AND FAITH ---10th August 2014

(1 Kings 19, 9.11-13; Romans 9,1-5; Matt 14, 22-33, 19th  Sunday of Year A)

We are going to reflect on the word of God this Sunday under three headings. The first is: The Prayer of Jesus: After sending the crowd away he (Jesus) went up into the hills by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone... After the miracle of the multiplication of bread and fish, Jesus carefully avoided assuming the air of triumphalism and importance. Rather, he saw the need of spending sometime in prayerful solitude and silence with God, the Father, completely away from people. He stayed long in prayer until the evening, even far into the night, almost the whole night. In order to perceive God and be in solitude with him, Prophet Elijah traveled mount Horeb and climbed into the cave there. There, however, he did not encounter God in the noisy natural phenomena like the wind, earthquake and fire, but in the silence and peace of a gentle breeze. 

We Christians of nowadays, especially in Nigeria are, therefore, expected to learn from the example of Christ and Elijah, the value and fundamental importance of prayer in our life. We are also to keep in mind the importance of silence and recollection, as the essential conditions to perceive the presence of God and to hear his voice. It goes without saying that we, in Nigeria, do pray day in day out, in the night and sometimes the whole night, in crusades and vigils, in prayer meetings and bible fellowships. The question here remains:Are we praying well and correctly? Let the examples of Jesus and Elijah guide us. We need to create more time for silence and solitude with God, some oases of meditation and recollection, some moments of quietude and interior tranquility. We need to move away from the noise of the material world and shed off all material inclinations. Perhaps, when we seek God in solitude and silence, He will let his presence manifest before us and then prayerful conversation with him will be joyful and consoling.

Another theme from today’s reading worth reflecting upon is: The Boat of the disciples of Jesus. This boat in which the apostles were on board was tossed about by the waves of the sea. It  is the image of the Church, which from its beginning has been seriously battered and wounded by one persecution or the other, persecutions that were and are instigated by evil and negative powers. However, this boat, the Church will continue her journey across the world and will continue being the beacon of light, sign and call for salvation for all humanity. But she cannot be so, if Christ were not with her, for it is the presence of Christ that is her guarantee for security. The reassuring words of Jesus: have courage, it is  I, do not be afraid, continues to re-echo and repeat itself. The boat of the disciples of Jesus (the Church) will never sink as long as Christ is with her and Christ had promised that He would be with her until the end of time. If, at times, we are despairingly worried about the situation of the Church today in the world, it is probably because we do not strongly believe that Christ is really present in the Church, and we think that we are alone in the boat/church being tossed about by the wind. It could also be that we do not fully believe that Jesus is truly the Son of God. 

The third theme worthy of meditation from today’s readings is Jesus’ address to Peter: Man of little faith, why are you doubting?In the gospel story of today, Peter represents every one of us well. In his usual impulsive manner, Peter said to Jesus: Lord, if it is you, command that I walk on the water. Jesus did as he wished. But as the wind beat on him, he became afraid, and actually his trust in Jesus began to wane. Consequently he started to sink into the water. What happened to Peter usually repeats itself in us. Often when we are tested, we begin to doubt God, doubt also his existence, his goodness, and as we do so, we begin to lose faith in him, and fall away from Him. On the other hand, Peter also teaches us a way out of every difficult situation, no matter how difficult they seem to be, even when they seem, humanly impossible .Peter shouted: Lord, save me! And at once, Jesus took him by the hand and pulled him up and said to him: Man of little faith, why did you doubt? What does this say to us? It is eloquent in indicating that prayer is our salvation, especially when the prayer is like the cry of the soul that reposes full confidence and trust in God. It is good to note that Peter who doubted Christ, and later denied him, was the same person whom Jesus eventually chose to be the fundamental stone of his Church and who had the duty of confirming and supporting the faith of his fellow apostles. This tells us that the Church should not depend on the bravery/skill/strength of those who govern and lead her, but rather, on the presence of Christ and the assistance of the Holy Spirit. Peter, as we know, continues his mission as the Vicar of Christ and the universal Pastor through the person of the Supreme Pontiff (the Pope) down the century. The Pope himself is certainly a human person and as such has his limitations and could have even some human defects, just as Peter had. But the Lord is with him, and has assured him of special assistance for the good of the Church and by extension also for us. While there are some, even within the Church, who think that they know better than the Pope and do nothing but cast aspersion on him and condemn his teaching and work, we should rather show our affection and devotion to him, and avow our unconditional obedience and renew our prayerful support to him. Let us pray in this Sunday Eucharistic celebration for a deep and lively faith in God the Father and in Jesus Christ and also for the favour of prayerful recollection by which we would be able to perceive the presence and manifestation of God in our lives, in the Church, the ministers of the Church and especially the Pope and his immediate collaborators, the Bishops. 

+John I. Okoye

DOCTRINE AND FAITH...18th Sunday of Year A

(Isaiah 55,1-3; Romans 8,35.37-39; Matt 14, 13-21, 18th  Sunday of Year A)

Reflecting on the gospel reading of today, the first thing that strikes the mind is the compassion of Jesus; He saw a great crowd and had compassion on them. To have compassion does not just have to do with mere sentiment and emotion; it is not simply saying on seeing someone who is suffering: oh poor him/her without doing anything else. Compassion means suffering with, feeling the suffering of the other person as if one is himself/herself undergoing the pains the suffering; it means putting oneself in the physical and psychological situation of the one who is suffering. Jesus felt the suffering of the crowd as if he were the one suffering; he put himself in the crowd is position that was spiritual hunger, suffered physical hunger pangs and also the sick among them, who were suffering physical pains. What else did he do? He taught them, preached the word of God to them, and healed the sick and procured food for them. Jesus’ first lesson to us this Sunday is: We should learn how to be compassionate, in the true sense of the word, and that is to say: putting ourselves in the position of the disadvantaged, our brothers and sisters who have physical and moral pains to bear. We should not just be satisfied with empty words by which  we purport to alleviate their suffering. We need to do more concrete things. Mother Theresa of Calcutta used to say: The worst evil of our time is the indifference towards others who are in the situation of need, an indifference that does not move us into action to help. Such attitude should never rear its head in any Christian or among any Christian community, because it is a behavior that is opposed to the very gospel we embrace and the example of Christ. 

Jesus further proposes to us something very important, which we may rightly name the second lesson of today’s gospel: he calls us to share what we have with those who do not have. Jesus did not want to conjure loaves of bread and fish (he could have done that anyway) in order to satisfy the hunger of the crowd, but rather said to the disciples:bring to me your five loaves of bread and you two fish. He wanted them to put the little they had at the disposition of and share them with the crowd. From this little, he worked the miracle of the multiplication of bread. Jesus asks us to do the same today in respect to the needy among us. Often it is asked: Why can’t God intervene miraculously so as to alleviate such and such miserable situation of suffering? This is just a way of washing our hands off, and running away from, our responsibilities. God’s wish is that we alleviate the suffering of the needy with the much we have, which we even received from God. It is also his wish to ease the suffering of others through the loving attention and care of those who are better off. It is when all human possibilities are exhausted, that we should invoke the help of Almighty God. Unfortunately, our society is increasingly from day to day, becoming more selfish. The sharing of goods, amenities, love and concern, that was the hallmark of our traditional society and that was the quality of our Christian communities is fast fading out.  In our parishes, stations, zones and villages, the aged, sick and the hungry are left to suffer and often die in abject neglect and penury while the next door neighbor wastes food and resources. Where is our Christian charity? Why do we want to help our fellow men and women who suffer? What do our rich Catholics do with their wealth, as thousand and thousands of children, sick, widows and orphans live in abject poverty and die when one could argue that it is not yet their time to die. Let us look around us and we will discover that so many people nowadays die of hunger, because they are unable to provide one square meal a day? A good number of our people die because no one could provide some fund to get them cured in a hospital. Such deaths could have been prevented if our faith is translated into concrete action of charity. Jesus is telling all of us to share what we have with out needy neighbors. When we share the little we have he knows how to multiply it as well as its effects.  

Jesus by the miracle of the multiplication of loaves wishes to anticipate the miracle of the Eucharist. There are similarities of words and gestures in the narrative of the multiplication of bread and that of the institution of the Eucharist: He took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread and gave it to his disciples. What does the coincidence of gesture and words tell us? 

(a) Just as Jesus multiplied the material bread for the body, in the same way, he can also multiply the spiritual bread (i.e. the Eucharist) for the soul.

(b) As the people have need of nourishment for the body, more so do they need the food of the soul, that is to say, Christ, the bread of eternal life. 

 (c) It is necessary to get nourished by Jesus in order to be like him and to have the same sentiments like his and in particular to have compassion towards our brothers and sisters in need, to know how to share with them what we have; in short to know how to conquer our egoism or selfishness and be open to love and charity.  Let us note one important point of the narrative of the multiplication of loaves: No one can outdo God in generosity! After feeding five thousand men, as well as many women and children, Jesus left twelve baskets full of bread and fish at the disposal of those who supplied him with five loaves of bread and two fish. God will restore all generosity we show to him through our needy neighbors. He will somehow restore all, and with interest. Whoever gives to the poor, gives to God.  There is more joy in giving than in receiving, in giving than holding tight egoistically to what we have. Let us in today’s Eucharistic celebration ask Almighty God to bestow on us the compassion and generosity of Christ who not only shared with us his divinity by sharing our humanity but also died out of compassion in order to save us! Amen!

 +John I. Okoye