1st Sunday of Advent, Year A, 2016

May God at the beginning of this holy season of Advent and the beginning of the Liturgical Year bestow on you the Grace to put on Christ, that is to say, to have the same attitude and sentiment, as Christ had and to be ready to do the will of God in all aspects of your life as He did. Happy Season Advent! Happy Sunday! + John I. Okoye

                      DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Isaiah 2,1-5; Romans 3,11-14; Matt 24, 37-44: 1^st  Sunday of Advent, Year A,  2016)

    With the celebration of the liturgical season of Advent we begin the liturgical year. The season of Advent prepares us for the celebration of Christmas. In the celebration of Advent, Christmas and other seasons of the liturgical year, we run the risk of considering them as mere nostalgic remembrance that has nothing to do with our actual present life. This can be avoided if we believe that Christ is not a personality of the past but the risen Lord, he is actively working in our lives today and in the Church. Our celebrations in the liturgical year will, therefore, be a memorial, that is  what Christ did in the past but will also be a re-enactment through which the risen Christ will enter into the lives of people with his grace and message of salvation. If this is the significance and scope of our celebrations in the liturgical year, then our celebration of Advent and Christmas, Easter, etc. is first of all  a memorial and bringing to mind the history of salvation wrought by Christ. But because he is the risen One and the living One, those celebrations of the past are renewed in the present: He is the one whose Advent (coming) is always being expected and desired consciously or unconsciously in the hearts of people. He is the one who is to come and who wants to come so as to insert himself into our life situation in order to liberate and save us. In Advent, therefore, we are not pretending to be expecting the Lord Jesus, we are truly and really waiting for his coming. Advent is not to be considered simply as the preparation for Christmas but should also be taken as the constant attitude of waiting for the coming of the Lord. Let us, therefore, dispose our hearts for his coming, to welcome his word and teaching, make room for him in our lives and create a new space for him in our public life. This our disposition in waiting for him and welcoming him in our lives and creating a public space for him looks forward to the future towards, the return of  the Lord at the end of our lives, the glorious coming back of the Lord for the final judgment and the final and complete realization of the plan of salvation. 

With what spirit, therefore, should we then live the season of Advent? What disposition of the mind should we have so that our lives become an expectation of/a waiting for the Lord? The readings provide some clear directives. In the first reading, Isaiah admonishes us to put away our instruments of violence and hatred, our swords and spears. We are to convert them into life-producing implements, into plows and pruning hooks. Jesus in the gospel reading insists on our keeping watch. We should not be distracted like the people of Noah’s time who were occupied with social events and  neither  know, read  the sings of time well , nor attune themselves to the will of God. They lost their lives in the deluge. So we are to watch and not fall asleep. Not falling asleep means paying attention to the right thing at the right moment, seeking for  what is really good for us and for other people, being generous, showing love to people, and living peacefully with people. Whoever is watchful and vigilant in this way will not be taken by surprise by the coming of the Son of Man at the end of life. In the second reading, Paul gives us a directive that is analogous to that of Christ, when he writes to the Christians of Rome: It is already the time to wake from sleep, because our salvation in nearer now than the time we became believers. Paul does not mean  waking from physical but  spiritual  sleep. This means that we are not to allow ourselves to be invaded and inundated by preoccupation for material things. We are not to be servants to material things, rather they are to be at the service of the most important aspect of our lives which is union with Christ. Paul goes on to teach: Put away the work of darkness and put on the amour of light. To put on the amour of light means to put on Christ. To put on Christ is to be identified with him, to have the same attitudes and sentiments which Christ had and live Christ’s life in one’s own flesh.
    Therefore we need to remind ourselves that our lives in this holy season of Advent must be lived in the actual world and circumstances we find ourselves. We are called in this season to journey deeper into our lives, not outside of them. That is where God is present. And if we are truly alert and attentive we will discover that it is in our own lives, as ordinary as we may think they are, that we will discover God. There we will come in contact with the Son of Man and anticipate the joys of the   end time.                            Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye

(GRAPGICS BY BLOGGER)

34 Sunday of the Year: Solemnity of Christ the King: Year C 2016

May God grant you the grace that will enable you live your Christian life in such a way as to be worthy to hear at your death from Jesus Christ, the King of kings, these consoling words: Today you will be with me in Paradise. Happy Sunday! + John I. Okoye

                                                               DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(2 Sam 5, 1-3; Col 1, 12-20; Luke 23, 35-43: 34 Sunday of the Year: Solemnity of Christ the King: Year C 2016)

The last Sunday of every liturgical year is dedicated to the celebration of the kingship of Christ, that is, his sovereign power and authority not only over those who believe in him therefore, part of his kingdom on earth, but also over the universe, because he is the principle, the centre and the end of creation and human history. The first reading from 2 Samuel narrates the enthronement and consecration of David as king by all Israel (both northern and southern kingdoms). As king David had to be shepherd and leader (nagid) of his people. His duty was not limited to political and economic guidance of his people. He but also in spiritual and cultic matters (2 Sam 6,17-18). David’s kingship, though imperfect, can be considered as a prefiguration or anticipation of the kingship of Christ. Some aspects of Christ‘s kingship can be seen in the grandiose and solemn Christological hymn which we read as second reading in today’s Eucharistic celebration. Paul uses some metaphors to indicate some aspects of Christ’s kingship. The expression, image of the invisible God, acclaims the divine origin of Christ and by extension, the rule he exercises over all. The dominion of Christ includes everything over which God reigns. By first born of all creation, Paul places Christ over the entire created world. The Christ kingly rule is over the created world is not characterised through exercise of sheer power but through tenderness with which the shepherd-king tends the flock that is placed under his care. The expression, source of all created things acknowledges both Christ sovereignty and his importance as the model after which all things were fashioned. In other words, creation mirrors the image of Christ the King. Chris is also the head of the body the Church.This expression underscores the intimacy and interrelationship between Christ and all those who are joined to him through faith and baptism. This means that Christ is very close to those whom he rules, guides and protects. He is not a disinterested guide or leader who operates from a distance. Christ is also firstborn of the dead. This expression not only acclaims Christ’s resurrection but also guarantees the resurrection of those who follow him into death. Christ is the kind of king who shares his privileges with others.

If the first and second readings speak positively of the kingship of Christ, the Gospel reading that narrates the crucifixion of Jesus, at first instance, seems to contradict them. At Calvary, instead of Christ being revered as king, he was rather being abused and jeered at by the Jewish elders, Roman soldiers, even one of the criminals crucified side by side with him. If Christ was proclaimed king in the manner of the world the crucifixion and the death on the cross would have dealt a deadly blow to the idea of his kingship. But after conceding the fact, before Pilate, that he was king, he added: My kingdom is not of this world … my kingdom is not from here (John 18,36). The kingship of Christ has nothing in common with the earthly kingdom; its nature is totally different. It is spiritual and supernatural; even if it is inaugurated and develops itself in this present world, its full realisation is in the next world.

It is indeed on the cross that Jesus received his solemn regal enthronement. On the cross, he acquired the full title as king for through self-sacrifice he expiated the sins of the whole world and became the head of multitude of brothers and sisters (Mark 3,35; Heb 2,11). On the cross, Christ defeated death for himself and for all who believe in him, thereby becoming the first fruit of that entire rise from the dead. Through his immolation on the cross, Christ showed clearly His type of kingship. He said that kings and rulers of people show their powers of dominion over the people, but he (as king) was in the midst of people as one who serves(Luke 22,25-27). He was more explicit when he declared: I did not come to be served but to serve and give my life for the salvation of a multitude (Matt 20,28). The kingship of Christ, therefore, is neither dominion, nor  imposition of power, but service in the very expression of the word. It is the donation of oneself to ransom people from the slavery of sin and the recovery of their liberty as sons and daughters of God. All through his life Jesus’exercise of his kingship was the donation of himself, as expression of his love for people but at calvary this service and this donation reached their highest point and extreme limit. In Calvary, the kingship of Christ was manifested and reached its fulness in the love he showed till the shedding of the last drop of his blood; in the love through which he forgave even those who crucified him; in the love by which he saved someone who lived his life in sin because he had confidence in Him; in the love that refrained from the use of regal power to save himself. He used the power of his kingship to show love and manifest his mercy.

We are, through the gratuitous gift of God, sharers in the kingship of Christ: We were ransomed from the reign of darkness and brought into the reign of light, that is, the reign of truth, grace and of love; we have recovered our dignity as sons and daughters of God. From the day of our baptism, Christ is the king and master of our lives, and souls. But the sovereignty of Christ over us is not yet perfect for Christ is not uncontested master in our thoughts and minds, hearts  daily lives. This is because we often habour in our minds and hearts thoughts and sentiments that contrast those of Christ. It is to be noted that to the extent we are able to distance ourselves from sin and live in the grace and friendship of God, to that measure we participate in the kingship of Christ. The more we overcome, with the help of God, the temptation of pride, selfishness and transform our lives in humble service of our neighbours, and generous donation of ourselves, to that extent we are sharers in the reign of Christ, we belong and are his true subjects and he is our true king. Today’s world is full of all forms of selfishness, violence, and thirst for the acquisition of wealth and ambition for power. We believers are called, rather, to construct the Reign of Christ which is the kingdom of love, truth, justice, and peace. It is a homework that is difficult but sublime at the same time, and which requires courage and some measure of sacrifice and also the disposition to give up one’s life in love bearing in mind that the kingship of Christ is kingship of the cross. This is why, if the church and the disciple of Christ really want to celebrate (that is to establish in the world) the kingship of Christ, they have to first of all recover the life of the cross. This in effect means following Jesus right into Calvary where he is ignominiously crucified. There the crucified Christ outstretches his hands to embrace humanity .The nailed Jesus to the cross opens the gate of his kingdom to the repentant sinner: Today you will be with me in Paradise. These are the words we Christians like to hear, words that are empty when coming from one who has no authority, but charged with power when spoken by one who is King over all. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye

GRAPHICS BY CHUKWUBIKE 

 

33rd Sunday of the Year C 2016

May the good Lord grant you all the graces you need that will enable you to joyfully encounter him at the end of your life. Happy Sunday! + John I. Okoye
---------------------------------------                                                 DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Malachi 3, 19-20; 2 Thess 3, 7-12; Luke 21, 5-19: 33rd Sunday of the Year C 2016)
    Sometimes it appears that evil forces seem to prevail over the good and evil doers seem to be more powerful than sincere and honest people. For the unbelievers this does not constitute any problem. But for the believer it does, and they often ask: How is it that God watches things go so bad? How it is that God allows the just always to have the worse part? Is there no time when justice will be done? Such questions were posited by the Israelites of the time following the liberation from Babylon. This was a time, for various reasons, of deep crisis of delusion as the promises of the prophets seemed not to be fulfilled. It was a time of desperation that gave rise to religious infidelity, disorder in the area of morality and apostasy of the young ones 

       In the Old Testament the expression, the Day of the Lord appears in several places. The Day of the Lord is the time of fulfillment of all God’s promises and the realization of the destiny of the world. It is a time when justice will be revealed, when the scales of righteousness will be balanced, when good will be rewarded and evil punished and when evil will no longer prevail over good, nor wicked men over honest and sincere people. Initially, Israel thought that this day would be a time of vindication and, therefore, of rejoicing for them. Some saw it as the day of liberation, and therefore, of joy and happiness. The prophets, however, were announcing that the day would be that of anger and fury. In the first reading of today, Malachi describes the day thus: The day is coming now, burning like a furnace; and all arrogant and the evil-doers will be like stubble. The prophets, like Malachi, set the Israelites straight on the issue, insisting that Israel itself would have to face the righteous anger of God. Israel will have to pay for its sinfulness; there would have to be just recompense. 

        The gospel reading of today, which describes the destruction of Jerusalem that took place 70 years after the death of Christ is to be considered as a prefiguration of the end of the world, of the final judgment and  the manifestation of the glory of Christ. To the admirers of the temple in Jerusalem, Jesus indicated that there would be a time when the magnificent temple would be so destroyed that no stone would lie on top of the other. The interlocutors of Jesus wanted to know when that would be and what signs would precede it. Jesus did not answer any of the questions but changed the discussion to what would happen at the end of the world and the glorious coming of his Kingdom.  Even in this case, he did not indicate time or signs that would precede the event. What is to be taken home from the gospel reading is that the end of the world and the glorious coming back of Jesus will surely take place but not so immediate and imminent. Jesus did, however, stressed two things. First, is the indication to his disciples, on what would be happening in the short and long run of the history of the church and  the world. They include civil issues like wars and revolutions; cosmic matters like earthquakes, pestilence and lack of essential commodities necessary for human life; political issues like persecution from the ruling class, or from ones members of the family. These are what  to be expected in the course of the life of any Christian, at any given time and epoch. The second area where Jesus stressed was: In such circumstances as we have above how should the disciple of Christ then, and the Christian  of today behave? This is at the heartbeat of Jesus. The disciples of Jesus and Christian of all ages should heed the following points: (a) He should not allow himself be swayed away from the correct path by false prophets who claim to be Messiahs or friends of the Messiah. The Christian is not to listen to them at all. (b) The Christian is  not to allow himself be terrorised by stories about wars, revolutions,  cosmic cataclysms; he is not to panic or be anxious   on account of what is happening but he is to confront the situation holding on to his Christian values. (c) The Christian is  to bear witness to his faith; the persecutions, threats and even the sacrifice of one’s life are occasions and opportunities for the Christian to express his love for Christ and the confidence he reposes on Christ. (d)  He has to persevere in his faith, constant in his faithfulness to the gospel and coherent in his life

     In practical terms and in summary, what the Lord Jesus wants from us and every Christian of every epoch is that we do not allow ourselves  to be  blocked or paralysed by any event at all, no matter how pernicious it may seem to be. Jesus has conquered all things on our behalf. We are not to live in inertia, or in disinterest in, or in alienation from, the concrete problems of this life. On the contrary, we are to get ourselves more involved, allowing our actions to be informed by the gospel values and courageously inserting ourselves in all ambients  of life, be it social, economic, political, cultural, just as the Vatican Council II document exhorts us (Gaudium et see no. 37).

      The problem of dis-engagement, inertia and parasite mentality resulting from the thought that everything finishes soon and that Christ’s glorious return was imminent was that of the church of Thessalonica (See 2nd Reading). Today we run the opposite risk of not engaging ourselves sufficiently in things that pertain to our Christian life. We neither think about the end of the world and the day of the judgment of the Lord, nor about the Day of the Lord. But taking the end of the world aside, our individual and personal lives are moving resolutely on its own towards their end and to particular judgment of God. We need to give this a serious thought so that within the time that is still at our disposal we would still be able to perform good works and transform not only our lives but also  the ambient in which we live. May the good Lord grant us his grace and wisdom in today’s Sunday Eucharistic celebration 

Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye

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32nd Sunday of the Year C 2016

May our good God grant you strong belief in the future life with him after death, equip you also with all you need to prepare for it through a transformed Christian living, here and now, that is nurtured by the word of God and the Eucharist. Happy Sunday! + John I. Okoye

DOCTRINE  AND  FAITH

(2 Macc 7, 1-2.9-14; 2 Thess 2,16-3,5; Luke 20, 27,34-38–10: 32^nd  Sunday of the Year C 2016)

        The mystery of death and what follows have been occupying and tormenting human intelligence. Human intelligence, with all its resources has succeeded in giving us some intuition, some feeble information that is neither certain nor secure, but such that only satisfies our desire and curiosity. Every year, in the liturgy of the Church we celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints and the day after the Commemoration of all the Dead. It all means that the mystery beyond death is proposed annually for our reflection as Christians. What is more is that through these celebrations our faith in a future life is solemnly reaffirmed. Even the liturgy of this Sunday takes up this reflection.
    The word of God and especially the revelation of Jesus Christ give us a clear answer: Not only that there is life after beyond this earthly life but also our bodies will rise to new life one day. It is in 2nd Maccabees that we find for the first time, in the Old Testament an explicit affirmation of faith in the resurrection of the body. In the liturgy of today and precisely   the first reading of today we come to  know that seven sons and their mother were ready and decisive to undergo martyrdom and to sacrifice their young lives instead of contravening the law of God. Where did these young people find the strength and courage for their resolve? This is from the certainty that after their death, on account of observing the law of the Lord, God will raise them to a new and eternal life. In other words, it is good to die from the hands of men at the same time expecting from God the fulfillment of the hope to be with him in the new life of the resurrection.

  In the gospel reading of today, Jesus gives an answer that is clearer, authoritative and convincing. The Sadducees (a sect of intellectual Jews) who were in opposition of the Pharisees (a more popular sect) negate the resurrection of the dead. In order to ridicule those who believe in it, the Sadducees trumped up a hypothetical question about the resurrection that was absurd and detached from reality. They presented a woman in fulfillment of the law of levirate (a custom of the ancient Hebrews and some other peoples by which a man may be obliged to marry his brother's widow to raise children in the name of the dead brother) who was married to seven brothers and they asked Jesus:  At the resurrection whose wife will she be? In his reaction, Jesus indicated that their problem was a misunderstanding of the issue, because in the future life there will be no need to marry husbands or wives. The error of the Sadducees is from the fact that they imagine the future life is a continuation of the present one, with the same conditioning, exigencies and relationships; but it is not so. Resurrection rather signifies, the entrance into a new condition of life, for the risen will be similar to the angels and the sons of God. This is to say, that they will be in perfect union with God, participate in the fullness of divine life. It is a condition we cannot imagine or define with our finite human mind. In answering the Sadducees, Jesus further searched out from the Scriptures argument in favour of the resurrection. The passage he referred to, was from one of the books attributed to the authority of Moses which the Sadducees recognized: And Moses himself implies that the dead rise again in the passage about the burning bush where he calls God, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is God, not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all men are in fact alive.  The great Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were united to God through faith and love and God made a covenant with them and promised them protection and salvation.  Through this covenant God established a relationship with humans. The issue here is whether the relationship is severed by death. Is death powerful enough to break the ties that bind us to God? But it is God’s desire that the covenant endure. The later traditions of the Bible, in places where this issue is addressed, clearly state that God’s desire to be united with us is stronger than death. That is why, God is faithful in his promises; God who is lover of life cannot abandon his friends as victim of death and he cannot be impotent before death, otherwise he would not be God. He is not the God of the dead but of the living: all those who are worthy of the future life live by God.

    There are circumstances in which Jesus better explains the resurrection: I am the resurrection and life:  whoever believes in me even though he is dead will live and who is living and believes in me will never die (John  11,25;  See also John 5, 28; 6,40; and 1 Cor 15,14.20). The unique condition that Jesus gives for the resurrection of life is to believe in him and be united to him as a branch is united to the stem of the vine. Another condition is to feed on him who is present in the word of God (Scriptures) and the Eucharist:  I am the bread of life, whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him on the last day.

    If we Christians, who have entered a new relationship with Blessed Trinity through our incorporation into Christ at Baptism, are assured of future life, how are we to live it until it dawns? Indeed the future life has dawned. This is the eschatological hope in which we live by the grace given to us from God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Our future is already present and we are therefore called upon to conduct lives that are radically transformed. However, the future is not completely dawned and we find ourselves living both in this age and in the age to come. Thus we live proleptically; we anticipate future lives but we live them in the present. We are supposed to live like angels and sons and daughters of God who are already in the future life. As difficult as this may be, we have the eternal encouragement of Christ. We have the promise that God will strengthen and guard us. We have the instructions of our religious traditions and our present teachers of faith that direct our mind and hearts. When we live life of the future, we truly enable the future to dawn in the present. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye

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