30th Sunday of the Year B, 2015

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Jer. 31, 79; Hebrew 5, 1-6; Mark 46-52: 30th Sunday of the Year B, 2015)

            Bartimaeus was blind and a poor beggar. He was however fortunate. He was fortunate one day as Jesus was passing along the road where he was. He attracted Jesus’ attention who cured him of his blindness.  He had good qualities; his first quality was his belief that Jesus was the Messiah. He was shouting to Jesus: Jesus Son of David... After Jesus cured him of his blindness, he emphasized on Bartimaeus’ faith: Your faith has saved you. The second quality of this blind person was his insistence in crying out to Jesus to have mercy on him. He did not succumb to the people who tried to prevent him from making his request. His third quality was that he became a disciple of Jesus after his cure. We note that the cure of this blind man was Jesus’ last miraculous cure before he underwent his passion in Jerusalem. By this cure, he was able to confirm the faith of the blind man who was imploring for help and by the same cure he was able to demonstrate, even at the end of his public ministry, his divine, benevolent disposition and mercy towards the suffering human person.

            What is the key to the interpretation of the cure of Bartimaeus’ blindness? One finds a verse in the gospel of John as a ready key for an in-depth appraisal. This is where Jesus says: I am the light of the world, who follows me shall have the light of life. In other words, Jesus has the divine power to give back physical sight to a blind person in such a way that the blind person sees light again. But this does not exhaust the meaning that Jesus is the light of the world. He came into the world to be light to the minds and souls of men. He is light to the mind by indicating the way to be followed, teaching the truth to be followed in order to gain eternal life. He is light of the world by imparting, through the gift of faith, supernatural light by which one can participate in the intimate life of God and be acquainted with God’s plan for man.

            Jesus also affirms that whoever follows him will not walk in darkness (John 8, 12). Humanity needs Christ and without him humanity would be wallowing in darkness. Without Christ, man’s life would have no sense. Without incarnating in human flesh in this world, what would have been the goal of man? His destiny? Why does he live and what is the scope of his life? What is to be done with this life?  We, who are privileged to be adorned with the fruits of the incarnation and redemption wrought by Jesus need to shout out at the top of our voice, imitating the blind man of Jericho. We should be exclaiming: Lord that I may see! That I may see more clearly! I have eyes that tend towards darkness. Give me your light! Increase my faith in you and in your word. May I meet with you and experience you and know you very intimately. Let my faith in you not remain only in words but let it move me to follow you and become your generous disciple.

            To have, the light of Christ illumine us is necessary for and beneficial to me, you and also our brothers and sisters whom we meet on the way, in our homes, towns, villages, parishes, stations and places of work. There are so many of them who have lost the meaning of this life. They are lost as they do not have a reliable reference point they can turn to for illumination; they have no guide and are led astray by false doctrines. We, who have the gift of faith, are illumined by Christ, the light of the world, and share in his truth, have the duty and the great responsibility to be light for our brothers and sisters. Christ has already entrusted this work to us: You are the light of the world...Let your light shine before people and they will see your good works and will glorify your celestial Father. If we are unable to do this we are like lamps that are lighted and put in an opaque clay pot that do not illumine the surrounding. May we, therefore, in the Eucharistic assembly of this Sunday, request the Almighty God for the grace to be illumined by Christ, the light of the world, and the grace to share this illumination, as a generous disciple of Christ, with our brothers and sisters who are in serious need of it. +John I. Okoye

29th Sunday... Year B

May Christ Jesus our divine model of service, give you all the necessary graces 
and strength you need to serve humanity this Sunday and the rest of the week.

Happy Sunday!

+John Okoye

DOCTRINE AND FAITH (Isaiah 53, 2.3.10-11; Hebrew 4, 14-16; Mark 10, 35-45; 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

            The episode of today’s gospel follows the third announcement of his passion and death by Jesus. After each announcement, Jesus gives a catechesis that goes to correct some false idea about his mission as the God sent Messiah. After the third announcement he emphasizes that the principle of greatness is in serving other people, and therefore, whoever wishes to be the first must be the servant of all. 
            The gospel reading of today shows the apostles James and John’s who requested that Jesus should do them a favour. In his benevolence and amicability Jesus gently asked: what would you want me do for you? They replied: Allow us to sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory. What they really mean is to have posts of absolute privilege of power in the kingdom that Jesus came to establish. Is this not fully fledged presumption and lack of perception? Indeed, they have not understood what Jesus said before: Jesus was speaking of the imminent passion and death he was about to undergo and they were not thinking of any other thing but having posts of honour in his glory, and first places in his kingdom. Jesus tried to dissuade them to drop their day-dreaming and make them aware of the raw reality that awaited him in Jerusalem. He asked them, using several metaphors, whether they would be ready to undergo the sort of suffering and humiliation that awaited him in Jerusalem. They answered in the affirmative: We can! What a presumption! What they were actually saying was that they wanted to undergo the type of suffering of Jesus, by their own strength, without the help of God. Jesus then confirmed that they would suffer martyrdom and shed their blood for his sake but as for taking the places of honour in the kingdom of the Father, Jesus indicated that it was under the competence of God the Father. It is the gift of God, the special privilege of God the Father. It is not merited by anybody and no one should pretend to lay claim to it.
            One would have wished that the other disciples would be more reasonable. They were angry when they heard what the two disciples did. Why were they angry? Were they ashamed of what the other apostles did or was it out of envy that  they hid some inordinate ambition, like that of James and John? It is to be seen how difficult it were for James and John and the rest of the disciples to understand the logic of Jesus and the plan of God. They were still thinking according to human logic, in terms of personal interests, success and glory, even though they have been in the company of Jesus for some time. They did not actually know him and were ignorant of his mission as the suffering Messiah. They were not the only ones that have not understood the mission of Christ. A lot of us, who profess the Christian faith, do not know Christ nor do we understand his mission. Christ came into the world with a single motive, to take us back to God. For him to do so, we have to be faithful disciples, who can boast of knowing him and who have imbibed his attitude. He gave up his Godhead to become man in order to serve man. He hung on the cross as the maximum way to demonstrate his service to us. But most of us are following the examples of James and John to look for glory and honour, to enjoy the privileges of the children of the kingdom. If Christ is really our master and we are his disciples, let us tow his path, which is a mission of service to the needy neighbour, even when it will entails our giving up our lives in it.
            In our gospel reading of today’s Sunday, Jesus went on to say: Whoever wishes to be great among you, will have to be your servant and who wishes to be the first shall be the servant of all. He then used himself as an example: The son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. He gave his life to be immolated for the salvation of mankind. Thus one can see the Christian/gospel perspective of power: Power is meant to render disinterested service to others, a sort of donating and spending oneself for the benefit of the other and when necessary to give up one’s life for the other. May we apply this Christian and gospel perspective of power in our families, places of work and our Christian communities and see how beautiful our lives would be.

As Jesus is the divine model of service to the neighbor, who came to serve and give his very life up, we therefore need to cling to him as the second reading enjoins us: We have to maintain our faith in him (Jesus). He is the one who will help us  transform our quest for raw power, that humiliates our neighbor into power for service that will make us, following his example, give up our lives for the sake of the people whom we serve. +John I. Okoye.

28th Sunday... B.

DOCTRINE AND FAITH 
(Wisdom 7,7-11; Hebrew 4, 12-13; Mark 10, 17-30; 28th Sundayof Ordinary Time, Year B)

          Today’s first reading praises the loftiness of wisdom. It surpasses wealth, beauty, and precious stones. When asked to request for anything he wished, Solomon preferred wisdom to every other thing. One may ask, what is wisdom? The answer, however, is not simple. Wisdom as the Bible would have it is allying one’s will with that of God. The recurrent refrain in the corpus of Wisdom Literature of the Bible holds: The fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom. A wise person may be simply defined as one who gives things their proper values and who orders his priorities well. He is the one who gives God what is due to him and does same to fellow men.
       Themes in today’s readings may serve as yardsticks with which to measure how wise we are. The second reading from the letter to the Hebrews dwells on the effectiveness of the word of God. It holds that the word of God is alive and active. Once it leaves the mouth of God it must produce the effect it is meant to achieve. This is because there is life and power in the word of God. Let us recall what is in the creation narrative: God said; Let there be light; and there was light.The prophet Isaiah compares the word of God to rain that never returns to the sky as vapour unless it has achieved its purpose. Thus, we can describe the word of God as being dynamic. A truly wise person is one who allows the dynamism that is encapsulated in the word of God to become effective in him by allowing the word of God transform his or her life. He lays his heart bare and open to the word of God. We are also wise when we allow the word of God described as incisive and penetrating to really enter into our innermost being, into our heart in order to pass judgment on our emotions, aspirations, thoughts and actions. Our wisdom depends on the extent we allow the word of God to transform us.

       The gospel reading presents the incident of a young man who approached Jesus demanding to be told what he was to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus indicated to him the ordinary way of keeping the commandments. When he pointed out that he has been observing them then Jesus told him that what he needed to do was only one thing: Sell all you have, give them to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven, then come and follow me. The young man went away sad. Instead of accepting and welcoming the invitation of Jesus which is the expression of his love and condition to be happy, the young man went away sad and afflicted because he was rich. He was not wise enough to follow the directives of God that would bring him true happiness. He was much attached to his wealth and did not accept the divine wisdom which, according to the first reading, is more precious than gold and silver: I reckoned no priceless stone to be her peer, for compared with her, all gold is pinch of sand and beside her silver ranks as mud. Divine wisdom which looks like foolishness in the eyes of men consists in renouncing the goods of the earth in order to live fully in love and having treasures in heaven which satisfies the human heart. It is, therefore, necessary to be detached from the goods of the earth. It is a sign of wisdom to have our priorities right:spiritual things first; then followed by the material ones.Jesus further remarked that it is difficult for a rich man to enter into heaven. To enter into heaven, it is necessary to have a pure heart. If the heart is loaded with attachment to material things, there would be no space for charity and generosity. The unfortunate thing about material thing is that the quest to have more of it never ends. The Latin adage has it thus: amor habendi habendo crescit (literal translation goes thus: the love of having, by having increases). What is forgotten is that material things never satisfy human heart. We are created not to be attached to money or other material things. Money should be our servant not our master as most of us do make it. A truly wise person is one who makes his heart free from all attachments to money and material things. The wealthy person who is not attached to his wealth but uses it for works of charity and generosity is also wise. May we ask the good Lord in today’s Mass to give us the wisdom that would enable us to allow the word of God transform our hearts and make it free from all attachment to material goods and be disposed for generous and spontaneous works of charity to the needy among us. +John I. Okoye.

27th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Genesis 2, 18-24; Hebrew 2, 9-11; Mark 10, 2-16; 27^th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

Today’s liturgy presents for our reflection the noble institution of marriage. The first reading from the book of Genesis and the Gospel show clearly that marriage, the union of one man and one woman, has its origin from God. One of the characteristics of marriage is that it is a union of fellowship, companionship and love. Adam was first created and had no companion. He was lonely and not able to find a fitting companion from among all the animals God had created. God then created Eve from the rib He took from Adam’s side. When Adam saw Eve he realized intuitively that he and Eve were of the same nature. He exclaimed: This at last is bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh. This is to be called a woman, for this was taken from man. Matrimonial union is meant to fight solitude. But alas, many of our married couples are lonely even though they live together in the same house, eat at the same table and sleep on the same bed. They stay together but seek the happiness of their life elsewhere other than from their marriage. They are supposed to be of the same bone, of the same flesh and even of the same heart. Unfortunately, it is not so. Openness to one’s wife or husband is a necessary ingredient for the happiness of the couple.

It comes out clearly from the readings that God created man and woman equal. None was created superior to the other. Earlier, we hinted that Adam and Eve possessed the same nature and,therefore, the same dignity. Therefore, the wife is not to be domineered, enslaved, reduced to the status of a servant and a domestic one for that matter, abused, ordered about, or simply used as an object of pleasure. Reflecting on what the text of Genesis says that the man is to leave his father and mother and cling to his wife so that the two become one flesh, we note that in God's plan the union of a man and a woman in marriage is inseparable, indissoluble: they are one flesh. God's plan for marriage is that through this stable union, a planned and ordered continuance of the human race is assured. In the gospel reading, Jesus neglecting the concession granted by Moses to the man to divorce the wife by giving her a writ of divorce as a sign that she could remarry, insisted that God ab initio made marriage indissoluble. To maintain the union of marriage is difficult but not impossible, otherwise God would not have so established it. We need to understand that what keeps the couples together in marriage is love that is reciprocal and generous. If any of the couple thinks only of his/ her interest, pleasure, and satisfaction, there is no true love. Such union of selfishness will not last. Whoever is wishing to marry will have to understand that marriage is a union of a man and a woman who love themselves and not two egoists. In marriage there is always need for faithfulness.

The second reading shows the faithfulness of Jesus. For the author of the book of Hebrews, Jesus is exalted far more than the angels, but was made like us to become for us our high priest. He died for us as an example of his faithfulness in love. He was faithful to the will of God the Father and was faithful in showing solidarity to us. This example of Christ should therefore, inspire our married couples, motivating them to fully live the graces of matrimony to the point of reaching the summit of generous love of giving one's life for the sake of the partner. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye.