22nd Sunday of the Year C 2016

May the good Lord grant you the graces of humility and the generous heart to be bounteous in your help to the needy. Happy Sunday!

DOCTRINE AND FAITH 
(Sirach 3, 17-18. 20. 28-29; Hebrew 12, 18-19.22-24; Luke 14, 1. 7-14 22nd Sunday of the Year C 2016)

   

In today’s gospel reading Jesus, exhorts us to imbibe two important attitudes in life: humility and disinterested generosity. The circumstances of this exhortation was during a sabbath meal in the home of one of the leading Pharisees. Jesus was startled as he noticed how the guests picked the places of honour. He took advantage of the situation to give advice: When some one invites you to a wedding feast, do not take your seat in the place of honour. The reason for this, based on human psychology, is that someone higher in honour might have been invited and leaving the honoured place for a higher guest and taking a lower place could be humiliating for someone’s ego. To avoid such a situation is to follow Jesus’ advice: He would have people humble themselves and refrain from self exaltation and so they can be exalted by God rather than man. It is difficult for us to follow the advice of Jesus. This is because we always seek when possible, to occupy the place of honour and we do not willingly accept to be modest in taking the least one. However, this attitude of humility is very important. It is all about giving up our initiative in seeking honour and glory for ourselves rather than accepting others to give us honour and glory. There is an innate thirst for honour and glory and if we want to obtain it for ourselves, it would land us to attitude of selfishness and pride, which degrades. Jesus adviced that we assume humble attitude, because humility manifests a disposition favourable for the practice of charity. The worst enemies of charity are pride and arrogance. Humility helps the advancement of charity. That is why Jesus wishes that we renounce all direct search for honour because it manifests a negative possessive attitude. 

    Pride is what can, fundamentally, block the action of God’s grace. He who is proud and presumptuous believes he is auto-sufficient and keeps his mind impenetrable from God’s influence. God would have no other choice than to abandon him to himself and when one is so abandoned, he falls to the lowest level of existence and remains degraded. To practice humility is to live in truth; that is to be aware of the gifts and blessings which are bestowed on someone, without boasting of them and aware that they come from God. Practicing humility also means being conscious of one’s limits and defects, but without getting disheartened on account of them because one’s confidence should be firmly reposed in God. Practicing the virtue of humility and modesty is necessary not only for the perfection of our Christian life, but also for our civil life in the society. It is therefore necessary to pray to the Lord that he may concede us the spirit of humility because pride, its opposite, is a capital vice that is very insidious, not easily recognizable, does infiltrate in everything even in good things we do and is extremely difficult to eradicate totally.

Jesus then takes up the theme of disinterested generosity which he wishes us to imbibe. He exhorts the host: When you give a lunch or a dinner do not invite your friends, brothers, relations or rich neighbours…on the other hand invite the  poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. One will be blessed in doing this for there is no expectation of being paid back. Jesus does not prohibit any convivial meeting of relations or friends. He himself participated in some of such festive meetings. He wishes to teach two lessons.  The first is that we should never do anything for selfish purposes, to have an advantage or for personal profit, if one hopes to be eventually rewarded by God. The second is that our gesture of love, (charity) and altruism should have preference for the poor, the needy in body and in the spirit. One should not expect any repayment from these categories of people. Rather, repayment for such disinterested charity will be rewarded at the resurrection of the just. This in effect means that there will be a divine payback which will be completely different from the usual repayment we do expect and have, and which often are vitiated.

    The psalm and the second reading from the letter to the Hebrews invite us to reflect on the bounteous generosity of God. In the psalm, the rain that falls on the entire landscape indicates the blessings of God that are showered on all. The chief recipients are the needy who cannot in any stretch of imagination pay back. For them the blessings are true gifts. They have not been earned, nor can they be repaid. Such is the nature of God’s giving. God’s openness to include all, is also seen in the letter to the Hebrews. All are invited to approach the heavenly city; the heavenly banquet will be open to the poor and those who have no way of repayment. No type of worldly possessions or accomplishment is needed for recompense. The only coin acceptable is a heart open to receive.

    Only God can give gifts in this way, because only God has an infinite supply of blessings to give and has no need to receive in return. Yet we are admonished to be generous in this way. In the gospel we are told to open our tables and our hearts to those who are not able to respond in kind. There should be no restrictions on our openness to others, on our generosity with which we give of ourselves and our possessions. We must be as prodigal in our generosity as God has been towards us. As we have received from the bounty of God, so we are called to give to others. Only those who have received with a humble spirit can give with the generosity of God, for they know that they do not deserve God’s goodness, so they do not require anything from those to whom they give. There is no quid pro quo, no this for that. Everything is freely given and humbly received. The blessings of God are given to us so we in turn can give them to others. It is like love that is not really love until is given to another. We live in this paradox of receiving and giving and we are transformed as the process unfolds. May we, therefore, pray that  Christ Jesus, who gave himself up completely for our sake bless us abundantly in today’s Eucharistic celebration and make us practice disinterested generosity from humble hearts. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye

21st Sunday of the Year C 2016

May the risen Christ Jesus who appears to us in a special way during our Sunday Eucharistic celebration continue to shower God’s glory and graces on you and make you diligent and docile in witnessing through the way you live as a convinced and coherent Christian that God wants all to be saved. Happy Sunday! + John I. Okoye

DOCTRINE AND FAITH (Isaiah 66, 18-21; Hebrew 12,5-7.11-13; Luke 13, 22-30: 21st Sunday of the Year C  2016)

    As Jesus was moving towards Jerusalem, an unidentified person posed this question to him: Sir, will there be only a few saved? During Jesus’ time, there seemed to have been divergent opinions in Jew regarding the number of people to be saved. Some optimistically, held that all Israel would be saved while others held that only a few would. In reference to the pagans, the common opinion or hypothesis was that they would be excluded from the kingdom of God and salvation. This opinion, however, did not take into consideration the repeated prophetic indications regarding the universal salvation. In the gospel passage of today, Jesus does not give any direct answer to the question, but turns the focus from curiosity about salvation of others to concern about one’s own future. He exhorts: Try yourself to enter the narrow door, because I tell you many will try to enter and will not succeed. In this exhortation Jesus used the verb, to try, whose Greek equivalent(agonizomai) is used when describing the energy put forward during athletic competition (as a lot of people are doing these days in Rio, in Brazil). With this exhortation he is encouraging his listeners and us to struggle for the goal ahead so that we commit ourselves, wholeheartedly, to the task of contributing our quota towards our own salvation. He then tells a story about admission into the marriage banquet hall to illustrate how difficult it will be for some to be saved. This does not in any way give any hint that salvation is open to only a few. Rather, it shows that some do not make adequate effort to get into the banquet hall. They either do not respond to the invitation promptly and then come too late to be admitted, or they presume that casual association with, rather than genuine commitment to, the master of the house (presumably Jesus) is adequate. To add to the chagrin of those not admitted, they will be informed that those whom they look down upon as outsiders and unworthy for the kingdom will be the very people who will be admitted to the banquet while they will continue to remain outside and mourn their fates and disappointments. Those who will be admitted will probably be the righteous Gentiles who will be dining with the heroes and Patriarchs of the Jewish race.

    One may ask: what is the full implication of Jesus’ exhortation: Try yourself to enter the narrow door? What does it boil down to in real life for the listeners of Jesus in those days and for us Christians of today. It points, essentially, to two implications. The first is to deny oneself. Denying oneself means eliminating selfishness as well as various evil inclinations and accepting, willingly, the cross as a means of sanctification. The second implication is to follow Christ wholeheartedly. This means making a choice in conformity with the will of God without conforming oneself with the worldly mentality. But in effect, it is not easy because it is about living in honesty and sincerity in a world of iniquity and corruption, practicing justice in a world where injustice often prevails, living in a generous love in a world full of hatred and the spirit of vengeance; believing in the purity of heart, thought and sentiments in a world diffused with sensuality and moral corruption, believing truly in the detachment from material things in a world that worships material possession. In the face of all these, it is necessary to move against the current and commit oneself seriously and urgently in the struggle to be saved and be counted among those to be admitted into the banquet hall.

    In his exhortation, Jesus mentioned that the door that leads to salvation is narrow. It is too narrow to be used by more than one person at a time. In effect, it means making individual and personal choices and decisions. We do not go through it in virtue of any particular right or privilege. Just as it was no advantage to the Jewish people to have been the descendants of Abraham, the father of faith or to have had Jesus as a guest, or to have listened to him and even eaten with him, in the same way our mere belonging to Church through baptism does not matter much. We should not fall into the same kind of false security like the Jewish people who prided themselves as children of Abraham, yet could not recognize or believe Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Communicating at the Eucharistic celebration, listening to the word of God, invoking God in prayer will not be efficacious enough to save us if we do not go through the narrow door with the full implications of denying ourselves, accepting the sufferings and sacrifices that go with the cost of follower-ship of Jesus as his committed disciple.

    In today’s gospel reading, Jesus indicated that those who would be saved will come from all the zones of the earth. This is in consonance with what prophet Isaiah has in the first reading, where God himself says: I am coming to gather the nations of every language. This gathering of people is very unusual, for the people brought together come from every nation. They were not Israelites returning home from the Diaspora, they were pagans. They were not captives of war who have been forced into the land by victorious Israelites, there to serve as slaves. Rather, they were brought in by God and to them will be revealed the glory of God. These foreign nations will be a sign to other foreigners of the glory they themselves have seen. They were also sent out to announce God’s fame abroad and to bring their new converts to worship the God of Israel in the Temple of Jerusalem. What is more, God will, from these foreign people call forth priests and Levites.

    Thus the passage from both Isaiah and Luke are astounding in their inclusivity, that is to say, they do not exclude anyone from the salvation of God. Both uphold the idea that God wants all to be saved. They show that God’s saving grace is unbounded. In the first reading the foreigners are to announce God’s fame and to bring in new converts. Today, the exhortation or command is directed to us. We are the ones who are being sent out to bring others to God. Every Eucharistic celebration ends with the commission to which we respond, Thanks be to God. (One of the commissioning exhortations runs thus: The Mass is ended, go and announce the Gospel of the Lord). The readings of today remind us of this responsibility. We are sent back to the people and circumstances of our lives, there to be ambassadors of the saving grace of God. Others will hear of the fame and see the glory of God only through us. We are sent to be the light shining on the hill for all to see, we are sent to be the yeast that enables the dough to rise. We proclaim the God we worship and serve in the way we transact our business in our offices, in the market places, in the classrooms, in the neighbourhood, in village gatherings, in social gatherings, in the family gathering, etc. Therefore, let the way we live, proclaim to the world, in which we live, that salvation is for all and we are evidence of this. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye 

GRAPHICS BY CHUKWUBIKE 

20th Sunday of Year C 2016

May Christ the Perfecter of our faith, confirm with his special blessings your choice to be his disciple and may your relationship with him grow deeper from day to day until he ushers you into the much cherished intimacy with the Blessed Trinity. Happy Sunday! + John I. Okoye

DOCTRINE AND FAITH 
(Jeremiah 38,4-6. 8-10; Hebrew 12,1-4; Luke 12, 49-57: 20th Sunday of Year C 2016)

    The figure of Jesus is prominent in the liturgy of today. In the first reading, prophet Jeremiah was thrown into a pit full of mud. The reason for this was that he communicated the message he got from God to the people, who preferred to listen to false prophets. His life was saved through the efforts of Ebedmelek. He is the figure of Christ who was rejected by his own people and eventually condemned to death but rose from the dead through the power of God the Father and the unction of the Holy Spirit. 
      At the beginning of his ministry Jesus was baptised by John, the Baptist, at river Jordan. Here in Jordan, God the Father and the Holy Spirit gave audible and visible testimony of Jesus’ mission, at the time when his public ministry was to begin. In today’s gospel, Jesus declares: I have come to bring fire to the earth, how I wish it were blazing already! There is a baptism I must still receive and how great is my distress till it is over. The great baptism Jesus is referring to is his passion at Calvary. It is in obedience to the Father’s will that Jesus plunges himself into suffering at Calvary, submerging himself, as in Jordan, in the purification required for sinful humanity. This time the baptism is not a simple manifestation of his mission; it is its achievement, its predestined consummation. When Christ rises out of the purifying bath of pain, the whole human race would be changed in his flesh. The Spirit descends, sent by Christ in the Pentecostal fire, upon the Church. The image of fire which Jesus mentioned he would bring into the world refers to the fire of his love, of the Holy Spirit that will be given as the fruit of his passion, death and resurrection, that is to say, the fruit of his baptism at Calvary. Now, men are given the means by which they may have fellowship with Christ in the baptism of Calvary and share in the divine sonship revealed at the Jordan. This privilege is what all Christians share on account of the providence of God.
    Also in today’s gospel reading Jesus affirms, a surprising statement. Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. In the face of Jesus, other statements like: I leave you peace, I give you my peace (John 14,17) and the paschal greeting, Peace to you (John 20, 19.26) his affirmation today seems to be in contrast to the spirit of his gospel and the mission of salvation for all. However, Jesus is not in contradiction with himself. He brings his peace. His peace penetrates into the inner chambers of the conscience and heart so that they will be liberated from the disorder of sin. Jesus’ peace restores the good relationship between God and man, which helps man to live according to the will of God. Jesus’ gift of peace to people is useful and effective in establishing good rapport and love among them. There is no doubt that Jesus coming brings about division among people. First of all, we notice such divisions in our lives, for the truth which Jesus preaches does not leave us in peace but in disquiet, disturbance and also provokes, so to say, battle within us, as one part of us, wishes to stay with Christ while the other resists and rebels. Paul experienced such interior division (Romans 7, 14-24). Jesus provokes division as he proposes that people should make fundamental choice in their lives, that is, his choice or rejection. The division arising from such choices often happens in the same family, an ambient of work, the cycle of friends and even in the large society. As Christians we are not to pretend that such divisions do not exist, nor think that we are dispensed from siding with Christ and the Church when the circumstances demand it. The division which Jesus brings about can be seen in another way. It can be compared to fire that separates metal from impurities. Jesus came to separate light from darkness, truth from falsehood, what is just from what is unjust and good from evil. Before Christ, we are not to remain indifferent, we need to make a choice: with him or against Him. Who chooses him will no longer accept ambiguity in his life, nor live in hypocrisy and incoherence. 
    The second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews holds that we should not lose sight of Jesus, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection. The author here wishes to say that Jesus is our guide and model in all things: in love and obedience to God the Father, which enabled him to do God’s will in all things. Jesus is also our model in the love towards neighbour on whose account he gave up his life as sacrifice to redeem us. The second reading still indicates some positive attitudes of Christ which the Christian is not to overlook but to use in order to succeed as Jesus did:  He still writes: … for the sake of joy which was still in the future, he (Jesus) endured the cross …And after enduring the cross, by following the way of passion God marked out for him, Jesus now sits at the Right of the throne of God

    The author of the letter to the Hebrews uses sports competition as the mental structure through which he delivered his message of exhortation to the Christians so that they can fix their mind on Christ. For success in athletic venture requires that one have a goal and this goal is kept uppermost in the athlete’s mind. The author insists that Jesus should be the goal continually before the eyes of the runner. Like the witnesses in the stands, Jesus would urge the runner to strain further and further. He would do this because he has already ran the race and won. He faithfully endured both the cross and opposition of others. Having been put to death, he is now seated triumphant in the place of honour in heaven next to God. He has run the race. He now enjoys the crown that is the reward for the success. As the runners began to tire, they can look to him.
    Looking up to him also means accepting his teaching, especially, as today’s liturgy helps us to pinpoint. As we have been incorporated to him in our baptism, let us follow him to be baptised anew in the baptism of passion by accepting difficulties in our lives and not running away from them, searching for miracles here and there. As we practice our prophetic role of preaching Christ through our lives, as Jeremiah did, we should not give up when persecution arises. Neither Jeremiah nor Jesus gave up in the face of persecution. Yet, both were delivered from their difficulties. Jeremiah drawn out of the pit and Jesus made to rise from the dead.. Let us also make the fundamental choice of our lives to be and remain the disciple of Jesus throughout our lives, our focus should be on Jesus who will never fail us but who cheers us up to join the innumerable members of the communion of saints, co disciples of Jesus, dead and living. Let us do it immediately and live in coherence to it. Therefore, let us renew the graces of good relationship with Christ, which was started at our baptism, by growing in intimacy with Christ (by living our normal daily life in a heroic way). This intimacy with Christ will eventually usher us into intimacy with the Blessed Trinity. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye

19th Sunday of Year C 2016

May the good Lord increase your faith and give you the grace to be vigilant and ready always in order to respond promptly to the call of discipleship as you wait his return on the last day. Happy Sunday! + John I. Okoye

 

 

DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Wisdom 18, 3.6-9; Hebrews 11, 1-2. 8-19; Luke 12, 32-48: 19th Sunday of Year C 2016)

The first reading is taken from the book of Wisdom, one of the books that make up the corpus known as the Biblical Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament. The reading is a reinterpretation of what happened in the night in which the people of Israel finally left Egypt. The author used a literary genre known as syncrisis, a kind of comparison that points out the contrast between the plight of the Israelites and that of the Egyptians. The literary form was used to show that God reversed the means the Egyptians had hoped to use to afflict the Israelites. The outcome was that the Egyptians were smitten while the Israelites went unharmed.  The point the text wants to make by using the literary form was to show God’s providence for Israel, his elect. Even though they took great risk in fleeing their place of oppression and bondage, they trusted in the promises of God and the usual benevolence of God. God’s favours were kept in mind in order to instill trust that He will not abandon his people in the face of present or future danger.
    The Israelites were God’s elect in the Old Testament. The disciples of Jesus and we Christians in that vein, by virtue of our baptism are God’s elects, the adopted sons and daughters of God. Being so, and emboldened by the Holy Spirit we dare call God our Father and have the hope to be accounted worthy to receive an inheritance from God Himself (See the Collect, the prayer of the assembly). The inheritance is surely in the next life. But already in this life, as the gospel reading shows, our provident Father is ready to give Jesus’ disciples his kingdom: Jesus said to his disciples: There is no need to be afraid, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom. God the Father wishes us abundant grace, new life, redemption and the liberty to be His sons and daughters. If God is ready to continue providing for us in this life and in the next, how should we comport ourselves? What should we do? We have to follow the directives which Jesus gives in today’s gospel. First of all, we should not be attached to material goods that get corrupted. We should rather go for purses that do not wear out and treasures that do not fail us. But how can we detach our hearts from material goods and acquire the inexhaustible treasure for heaven? We do by works of charity; succouring the needy, sharing one’s resources with those that are in distress and not keeping them selfishly for oneself. Secondly, Jesus admonishes that, while waiting for his return, we should be vigilant, attentive and always ready, with our lamps of faith and grace lighted and making sure that we do not wear anything that could block our movements. As one does not know for certain when the Lord would come, it is, therefore, necessary to be ready, morally awake and living in the grace of God. Keeping vigilance and awaiting the Lord should not give rise to inertia or idleness. Jesus enjoins us to be faithful and wise administrators. We are administrators and not proprietors of any material goods we have. This is because they are gifts of God to us and should be fully utilized in order to produce the expected fruit. We become faithful and wise administrators if we use the goods we have according to the will and desire of the master, God Himself. Faithful and wise administrator connotes the idea of always being active at work: Blessed is that servant  whose master finds at work at his arrival. 
    

The theme of vigilance usually comes up at the beginning and end of the liturgical year. Occurring at this time of the ordinary time of the year and from Jesus reminds us that we must be always vigilant. We must always be ready for the return of the Lord, for we do not know when he is coming, either for the general end of time or the end of our personal and individual time. It is also true for other times when the Lord comes to open the door or windows of life and call us into a deeper realization of the sacred dimension of life itself. We must be ever vigilant so as to recognize the Lord in the people with whom we live and work. Again we must be ever vigilant to recognize the advent of the Lord in the world events of which we are a part of. Furthermore, we must be ever ready to respond to the call of discipleship, to serve where there is need to carry out our life responsibilities, in a fair and equitable fashion because we can never be sure of the hour of our calling, because in a sense every hour is the hour of our calling. Therefore, we must be ever vigilant. 
    God provided for the Israelites as they were coming out of the bondage in Egypt. We are also beneficiaries of God’s providence. In order to continue being beneficiaries of God’s providence the author of the Letter to the Hebrews (2nd Reading) presents faith is a sine qua non, as he holds: Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for or prove the existence of the realities that at present remain unseen. This statement shows that faith is more an openness of mind and heart than a set of theological propositions. The author uses the tradition of Abraham in the Bible to show what he means. In Genesis 12, 1-2, God said to Abraham: Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land where I will show you… Abraham departed his home, where he was familiar and secure, to a place where he was completely a stranger and bereft of kinship assistance. God promised Abraham that he would make of him a great nation, even when Abraham’s age and that of his wife would make it humanly impossible. Yet he believed and looked forward to it. Eventually, Sara the wife bore him a son, Isaac, the supposed offspring from which the great nation would grow from. God further asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son. He remained firm and open in his trust in God. Throughout his life, Abraham lived by faith, clinging tenaciously to it despite what appeared to be impossible odds. Faith is the way we live when we do not see what we think we should see in order to go on. It is through faith that we courageously endure the heartbreaks of life and the diminishment we all must face. It is faith that is the inner light that enables us to carry on in the dark. Therefore, let us pray together in today’s Eucharistic celebration and henceforth several times each day of our life: Lord God, increase our faith! Amen. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye

(GRAPHICS BY CHUKWUBIKE)