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)