2nd Sunday of Lent: Year B: 25th February 2018

May your participation in the Eucharistic sacrifice deepen your intimacy with God and enable you realise and live out the full implication that the incarnate Jesus who died and rose for the dead was the son of God. Happy Sunday! + John I. Okoye

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Genesis 22,1-2.9.10-1. 3.15-18; Rom 8,31-34;  Mark 9,2-10;  2nd Sunday of Lent: Year B: 25^th February 2018)

The liturgy of today prepares us for the celebration of Christ’s paschal mystery by discussing two events of his life, sacrifice and resurrection. The first reading has, as its main theme, the sacrifice of Abraham while the gospel treats, as its theme the resurrection of Christ by narrating his Transfiguration Christ. The first reading refers to the episode in which God puts Abraham to test. He has to take his son, his only and beloved son and sacrifice him as victim of holocaust. It is a test that God willed and wanted in order that his intimacy with Abraham may be deepened. We have to bear in mind that for the Jew sacrifice was not seen as a negative reality because it united one with God. Nowadays, we do not appreciate this positive aspect of sacrifice. We are, however, expected to discover the deep and rich value of this aspect. With unbounded generosity Abraham disposed himself to offer his only beloved son to God in order to be united, mysteriously, to him. But at the point Abraham took up the matchet to immolate his son, the angel of the Lord stopped him saying: Abraham, Abraham … do not raise your hand against the boy… do not harm him. God’s intention was not to get Isaac immolated, not even immolated in the positive prospect that sacrifice would unite Abraham with him. The angel realised that Abraham did not hesitate to immolate his only son as he affirmed: … for now I know you fear God. You have not refused me your son, your only son. The immolation of Isaac which, in reality, was not perfected became the source of immense blessings. God said to him:  I will multiply your descendants the stars in heaven  and the grain of sands in the sea shore…All the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your descendants, as a reward for your obedience. In this way the fecundity of sacrifice is revealed.

In the second reading, Paul shows that God himself made some sacrifice for not sparing his only begotten Son, just as Abraham did not spare his only son. Normally, we do not consider the death of Jesus as a sorrowful sacrifice on the part of God the Father; but it was really so. In the sacrifice of Christ, the infinite generosity of God the Father was revealed. What is more, Jesus sacrificed himself, thereby, adhering completely to this generosity of the Father. The first moment of God’s sacrifice was that he gave to us his only Son. John the Evangelist affirmed: God so loved the world as to give his only Son, so that whoever that believes … will have eternal life. This extraordinary generosity of God aroused much admiration in Paul and, at the same time, generated unlimited confidence as he affirmed: Since God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up to benefit us all, we may be certain, after such a gift, that he will not refuse anything he can give. The other things which God gave to us are certainly less important than the gift of his only Son. The sacrifice of Jesus generates immense confidence in us as Paul holds that nothing on earth, in the underworld as well as in the heavens will accuse or condemn us whom God has chosen and justified. The summit of the affirmation of Paul’s confidence is when he categorically affirms that Christ himself would not even condemn us for … he not only died for us - he rose from the dead, and there at God’s right hand he stands and pleads for us. One can see how today’s first two readings of show the positive aspects of Jesus’ sacrifice. One has to bear in mind that the sacrifice of Isaac is considered as the prefiguration of that of Christ.

The gospel reading narrates the episode of the transfiguration. This event has an evident connection with the glorification of Jesus. Here the glory of the resurrection is anticipated, even before the actual sacrifice of the cross. God declares him as his beloved Son and invites his disciples to listen to him. In this episode that took place on a mountain Jesus took with him three privileged disciples of his: Peter, James and John to prepare them against the scandal of the passion which he announced not long before then. At that moment of announcement, Peter did not understand the mystery of the passion in a positive manner and, therefore, opposed it. But the transfiguration illuminated the identity of Jesus before his passion. In this way they were able to enter into the mystery of his passion in a positive way without being devastated. The passion is a mystery of suffering but can be considered a blessed passion because it is a mystery of extraordinary love on the part of Christ. The Transfiguration helps to better interpret the resurrection of Jesus. If there was no Transfiguration with the attendant declaration of God, This is my beloved Son, the resurrection and the paschal mystery of Jesus would not have been well appreciated in all its depth. Indeed to understand the passion and resurrection, it was necessary to know beforehand that he who would be suffering and glorified was not just a simple normal person but the Son of God who incarnated to save us. In this way the light of the transfiguration illumined not only the passion of Jesus but also his resurrection. Through the light of the Transfiguration we also know that the Son of God again takes up again the glory which he was possessing before the foundation of the world. In the resurrection, the man Jesus was revealed as the true Son of God. He was not an adopted Son of God as some heretics were holding, but in reality the Son of eternal God.

It is not surprising that in his second Letter, Peter was insisting on the event of the Transfiguration. This is because through the transfiguration we come to the profound knowledge of the paschal mystery of Jesus, that is to say, that he who suffers is the Son of God, that he who is glorified is the Son of God. Jesus was the Son of God before he received in his humanity all his filial glory through the mystery of his love which was the passion. We thank God for the gift of this event of the Transfiguration of Jesus which helps us to contemplate his glory. For us, it is beneficial to reflect on this very event and on its importance for our life of faith.

The liturgy of this second Sunday of Lent challenges us to examine if our obedience to God’s will is spontaneous and total as that of Abraham. The Transfiguration reveals the identity of Jesus as the Son of God to whom we should listen to. Do I listen to the inspirations of Jesus through the insinuations of the Holy Spirit? May we, therefore, during this period of Lent work towards growing more and more intimate with Christ, through prayer, penance, alms giving and reception of Sacraments. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye

graphics by charles

1st Sunday of Lent; Year B ....2018

As you participate in this Sunday’s Eucharistic celebration, may the good Lord nourish you with graces enough to sustain your baptismal vows and also maintain a rapport of filia love and profound friendship with him. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Genesis 9, 8-15; 1 Peter 3, 18-22; Mark 1, 12-15:  1st Sunday of Lent; Year B)

Each year Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. Lent which dates back to the 4th century after Christ is the period devoted to an intensive preparation for the great feast of Easter (the celebration of the Paschal Mysteries of death and resurrection of Christ), the Mother of all Liturgical Feasts. Lent was instituted for two purposes: firstly to prepare catechumens (persons who are receiving instructions in preparation for Christian baptism or confirmation) that is conferred on Easter Vigil of Holy Saturday Night. Secondly, Lent is instituted to prepare all the faithful to celebrate worthily the paschal mystery by remembering their baptism whose vows and commitments they renew on Easter Vigil. The Church through the liturgy of the Easter Vigil brings us to live anew our belongingness /adherence and allegiance to Christ because it is through baptism we are grafted into Christ and made to participate in the mystery of his death and resurrection.

Peter makes an explicit reference to Baptism in the second reading of today. He sees in the flood water of Genesis the figure and symbol of baptism. He reasons that just as the water of the flood served as purification for the sinful humanity and the beginning of a new covenant between God and his people, in the same way baptism signals the beginning of a new humanity redeemed by Christ who died once and forever for our sins and rose from the dead. This is a new humanity purified in his blood with which he ratified not only a new but also eternal and definitive/irrevocable covenant between God and the people. For Peter, Baptism is not merely a simple cleansing. Rather it is a transformative experience, just as the resurrection was a transformative experience for Christ. It would be very opportune to refresh our minds on the depth of the significance of baptism on this Sunday in order to be in tune with the spirit of Lent in order to live this period in baptismal dimension. 

All the sacraments, as we know, draw their efficacy of sanctifying the souls of people from the merits of Christ especially from his passion, death and resurrection. The efficacy proper to baptism is the conferring of the sanctifying grace to the soul, the greatest of all gifts God could give his creature. In fact, sanctifying grace is the divine life as lived by a soul. It is a divine engraftation in the substance of the soul which elevates it to the supernatural level; it is a regeneration, it is precisely a new birth to supernatural life. In a nutshell, it is the same as eternal life as St. Thomas explains: Grace is nothing else than the beginning of glory in us. He goes on to expatiate: The minimal grade of sanctifying grace (supernatural life) worths more than all the goods of the entire universe. Elevating us to divine and supernatural life baptism makes us really the children of God. As John asserts: we are already up to this time children of God and we are really so (1 John 3,2). We are adopted children of God through our participation in the divine life. God the Father bestows on us this supreme good and makes us his children through his only Son, the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, because in his holy humanity united in his divine person we have the plenitude of divinity and from this fullness we have received grace after grace (John 1,16). In baptism we are immersed in the paschal mystery of the dead and resurrected Christ to the extent that the sinful body is destroyed and we can rise and walk in a new life (Romans 6, 4-11). With the Sacrament of Baptism, we are united with Christ just as a branch of vine is grafted to the stem of the vine and we receive from him divine nourishment. United all in Christ, baptism makes us members of his Mystical Body. He as head and we as members become like a Church or the People of God, like the family of the children of God, like the community of brothers and sisters who share the same life of grace, the same mission in the world and the same final destiny.

From the above as premises we derive very important and practical conclusions and consequences.

(a) If baptism communicates life of grace and is the highest good, a treasure which is more precious than all the ones we have, then we have to do all that is possible to preserve it and if unfortunately we momentary loose it through grave sin, we have to do all that is possible and, as soon as possible, to regain it through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

(b) If baptism makes us children of God it means that we have to make effort to live out this supreme dignity, and manifest in our conduct the comportment of the Father and maintain a rapport of filial love and profound friendship with him. If God is the Father of all of us why do we regard and threat our brothers and sisters as outcasts (Osu, Ohu etc), discriminate against them as non indigene or marginalise them and refer to the as underdeveloped?

(c) If baptism has engrafted us to Christ and has made us members of his Mystical Body, the Church, this means that we have to faithfully follow him who is the perfect image of the Father and our way to the Father; we have to always draw from him, his Word and his Sacraments the vital sap of grace. It is in the Church, particularly in the parish ambient that we have to make effort to be active members who are deeply inserted in her human and divine realities, where we participate in her mission of salvation. It is in the parish environment that we shall involve ourselves in the initiatives of doing good and not simply stay there as spectators who live in the margins of the community of faith who wait to enjoy the services of the community.

(d) As we have heard from the Gospel of Mark that it was after Jesus has stayed 40 days in the desert, continually, tempted by Satan that he began his public ministry proclaiming the gospel of God, that is, the Good-news, that God loves his people and that he would bring all to salvation. The Evangelist Mark condensed his proclamation in three brief affirmations: The time is fulfilled and the reign of God is near; repent and believe the gospel. The church our mother and teacher repeats to us today, at the beginning of Lent, this urgent invitation to pay attention to the words of Jesus because the reign of God not only that it is near, but that is already in us. This is because from our Baptism, as we saw above, God is already reigning in us with his grace in the intimacy of our hearts. The exhortation, repent which the Church directs to us in the name of Jesus means that we have to be coherent with our baptism to become in a more perfect manner that what we are radically are by virtue of our baptism, developing those potentialities of graces we are gifted with.  Our Lent should, therefore, be a spiritual exercise of 40 days, a period of training specially of the soul through more intense prayer, more docile reading of and listening to the word of God, the practice of mortifications, doing works of charity so as to celebrate with renewed spirit and heart the holy feast of Easter and make our lives become a continual conversion to God. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye

pictures  by chukwubike

6th Sunday of the Year; Year B: 11 Feb.2018

 May the good Lord, heal you of all your ailments as to become a veritable instrument in the work of evangelisation just as St. Paul was.Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Leviticus 13,1-2.45-6; 1 Cor 10,31-11,1; Mark 1,40-45: 6th Sunday of the Year; Year B: 11 Feb.2018)

In the first reading of last Sunday from the book of Job, the harshness of human life came out well. Today’s first reading from the book of Leviticus indicates that the life of a leper can also be quite distressful. In addition to the physical discomfort the leper had to endure, there were the social and religious estrangements as well as ritual alienation that were imposed. Lepers were deemed unclean, banished from the community, and required to keep their distance from others. If by chance, someone should unknowingly approach them, they were to warn them by crying out ‘Unclean, unclean!’ In fact, it was their very state of being unclean, not merely the physical condition itself that was thought to be contagious. Anyone who had direct contact with someone or something that was unclean was considered unclean. Clean and unclean were religious designations, and so the priest was involved in making such determinations.  When the condition that made a person unclean no longer exists, it was necessary for the person to undergo some rite of purification before being readmitted into the community. It could have been that such social and religious alienation were so severe, that it was believed that the condition was brought on by some kind of sin (Numbers 12, 9-10). This made the one with leprosy not only physically loathsome and socially dangerous, but also morally reprehensible.

One can only visualise the agony and suffering of the leper. Suffering by its nature tends to alienate us from those who are healthy and secure. Leprosy may be an extreme example, but it reveals various aspects of suffering. First, there are the circumstances of the misfortune itself. These might include pain, anxiety, diminishment, and ultimately death. In addition, suffering can sap our energy, jeopardise everything we have achieved, and leave us unproductive and feeling worthless. There are also social consequences. Suffering reminds us of our own finitude and the contingent nature of life in totality.

    In the gospel story of today a leper approached Jesus and requested to be made clean. Though socially alienated and ritually unclean, the man did not adhere to the laws governing  those afflicted as he was. Instead, he boldly approached Jesus and begged to be made clean. It is interesting that he asked to be made clean, and not to be cured. Social and religious acceptability seem to be more important to him than physical healing. Jesus was moved with pity and touching the leper cured him. By this touch Jesus would have been ritually unclean himself. Besides, the touch that others expected would render Jesus unclean actually healed the man and restored him to the state of ritual purity. Jesus was not deterred by human suffering. He welcomes all that approaches him: he touches what might repel others. His healing touch reincorporates those who have been ostracised; his loving embrace re-associates those who have been alienated. In the kingdom of God there are no outsiders. All belong to Jesus and, therefore all belong to one other. Those who have been shunned because of some physical condition and social status have been brought back into the circle of the community and the community is made whole again. Human life is fraught with suffering, which follows us through the gamut of our human life. We only endure suffering and lose the opportunity it offers to come closer to Jesus. The time of suffering is a period we are vulnerable to God’s mercy, to the healing touch of Christ that can heal our souls and even our bodies. It is during suffering that we can authentically participate in the cross of Christ.

    In our effort to understand the text of the first reading, it was insinuated above that leprosy could be as a result of sin. Considering the social, religious as well as the ritual alienation that were associated to leprosy, we can appreciate what sin de facto is: spiritual alienation from God. Sin is leprous.  Sin is worse than leprosy. It alienates us from our God, and our community. If we are unfortunate to fall into the leprous grip of sin, we need the purifying touch of Jesus to make us clean, reconcile us to God the Father and restore us to our Christian community. Jesus heals us through the sacrament of Reconciliation.

    In the second reading, Paul invites us to imitate Christ when he says: Be imitators of me as I imitate Christ. We are, therefore, called to imitate Christ. We are to be compassionate to those who stuffer, as Christ was to the leper, to sinners who are separated from their Christian community due to their faults and who no longer have any positive relationship with God and their brothers and sisters. Called to imitate Christ means that we have to do all things for the glory of God as Jesus did. On the other hand, we need to make effort to be in good relationship with everybody without seeking any personal advantages for ourselves; we are to do just as Paul did. In imitating Christ we need to always have before us the two dimensions of evangelical love: love towards God, that is to say, to do all for God’s glory and love towards others in union with God. We also imitate Christ by boldly shunning all social inhibitions as far as doing good to an afflicted brother or sister is concerned. If Jesus had adhered to the ritual laws forbidding contact with a leper he would have missed the opportunity of restoring purity to the leper and reinstating him back to his community. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye

garphics by chukwubike

CATHOLIC BISHOPS BARE THEIR MINDS ON THE FGN

AN ADDRESS PRESENTED BY THE CATHOLIC BISHOPS’ CONFERENCE OF NIGERIA (CBCN) ON THE OCCASION OF A COURTESY CALL ON HIS EXCELLENCY MOHAMMADU BUHARI, PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, THURSDAY, 8 FEBRUARY 2018

Your Excellency,

Preamble

We, the representatives of the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria, bring you our cordial greetings and blessings. We desired this meeting, in order to continue the dialogue we initiated with you even before your election as President. We therefore thank you for granting us this audience, which affords us the opportunity to share with you, once again, our thoughts and concerns on some issues affecting our dear country, Nigeria.

 First, we thank God for bringing you back to us healthier and stronger after a period of ill health. We hope and pray that you continue to make progress on the way to full recovery, in order to be able to face the enormous challenges emanating from your exalted office.

 Your Excellency, needless to say that, as President, you are the Father of our dear country Nigeria. It is therefore pertinent that as loyal citizens as well as informed members of the society we come to you from time to time to express not only our willing cooperation with the government in working for the progress of our country, but also to share with you the feelings of the multitude of Nigerians at this moment. We work with the people at the grassroots and, therefore, have first-hand information about what they are going through.

There is no doubt that when you came into office, you had an enormous amount of the goodwill of Nigerians, since many saw you as a person of integrity who would be able to bring sanity into a system that was nearly crippled by endemic corruption. Nearly three years later, however, one has the feeling that this good will is being fast depleted by some glaring failures of government which we have the moral duty to bring to your notice, else we would be failing in our duty as spiritual fathers and leaders.

Our Concerns

Your Excellency, there is too much suffering in the country: poverty, hunger, joblessness, insecurity, violence, fear… the list is endless. Our beloved country appears to be under siege. Many negative forces seem to be keeping a stranglehold on the population, especially the weaker and defenseless ones. There is a feeling of hopelessness across the country. Our youths are restive and many of them have taken to hard drugs, cultism and other forms of violent crime, while many have become victims of human trafficking. The Nation is nervous.

 Just as we seem to be gradually emerging from the dark tunnel of an economic recession that caused untold hardship to families and individuals, violent attacks by unscrupulous persons, among whom are terrorists masquerading as herdsmen, have led to a near civil war situation in many parts of the country. We are saddened that repeatedly innocent citizens in different communities across the nation are brutally attacked and their sources of livelihood mindlessly destroyed. Property, worth billions of Naira, including places of worship, schools, hospitals and business enterprises are torched and turned to ashes. We are still more saddened by the recent massacre of unarmed citizens by these terrorists in some communities in Benue, Adamawa, Kaduna and Taraba States which has caused national shock, grief and outcry. What is even more distressful is that the government, whose responsibility it is to protect the life and property of every citizen seems either incapable or unwilling to do this. The silence of the federal government in the wake of these horrifying attacks is, to say the least, shocking. There is a feeling of helplessness among the people and the danger that some people may begin to take laws into their hands.

We therefore earnestly urge the government to take very seriously its primary responsibility of protecting the lives and property of its citizens and ensure that such mindless killings do not reoccur. Herdsmen may be under pressure to save their livestock and economy but this is never to be done at the expense of other people’s lives and means of livelihood. We would like to add our voice to those of other well-meaning Nigerians who insist that a better alternative to open grazing should be sought rather than introducing “cattle colonies” in the country. While thinking of how best to help cattle owners establish ranches, government should equally have plans to help the other farmers whose produce is essential for our survival as a nation.

In a similar vein, daredevil kidnappers, who at present are having a field day, with a feeling of invincibility, must be made to understand that there is a government in this country. Government should invest more in equipping our Police Force with modern high-tech devices that will help them track down and arrest these criminals and make them face the wrath of the law.

The Federal Character Principle is enshrined in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria:“The government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or in any of its agencies” (Section 14, Sub-section 3-4). Disregard for this Principle in some federal government appointments as well as perceptible imbalance in the distribution of federal amenities has created the loss of a sense of belonging in many parts of the country, hence the constant cries of marginalization, agitation for secession and calls for restructuring.

Conclusion and Assurance of Prayers

Our Church has always complemented the efforts of government in such areas as providing quality education and primary health care services to our people. We shall continue to support the effort of the government in nation-building. As the voice of the voiceless, we shall therfore continue to highlight the plight of our people and play our prophetic role of sensitizing the government, thus promoting national unity and cohesion. As we encourage you to spare no effort to build a new Nigeria, we reassure you of our support and prayers for your success.  On the long run,Government under your watch must do all in its power through good policies to restore confidence that government is for all and sundry. Our collective efforts must be seen in the desire to return to the fine principles of democracy such as true federalism, negotiation and consensus building as means of achieving a more equitable distribution of the resources of our country.

Thank you, Your Excellency, for the audience and may God bless you.

Most Rev. Dr. Ignatius Ayau Kaigama 
Archbishop of Jos President, CBCN

Most Rev. Dr. William Avenya 
Bishop of Gboko
Secretary, CBCN

5th Sunday of the year 4th February2018

May God grant you life of intimacy with him that will enable you participate actively in the work of evangelising the world and renewing humanity. Happy Sunday +John I. Okoye 

Doctrine and Faith

(Job 7,1-4.6-7; 1 Cor.9,16-19.22-23; Mark1,29-39: 5th Sun of Year 4 Feb. 2018: Year B)

The gospel of today may be considered a narration of a typical day in the life of Jesus. In this narrative, Mark the Evangelist, brings up three moments in the ministry of Jesus:evangelising the people orpreaching the gospel,alleviating human suffering by curing the sick and strengthening his relationship/intimacy with the Father through prayer. From the gospel reading, it is clear that evangelization,as proclamation of the Good news, is the principal duty of Jesus. This is clear from his words to Peter and the other disciples who wanted him to spend more time at Capernaum, where everyone was looking for him. Jesus retorted: Let us go elsewhere, to the neighbouring country towns, so that I preach there too, because that is why I came.Indeed as Mark noted, Jesus went through all Galilee, preaching in their Synagogue and casting out devils. Evangelisation means bringing to the world the good news of God’s love for it and his wishes for its salvation. It connotes also how and the means of achieving salvation without wasting any effort. Through the work of evangelization, Jesus makes concrete, visible and palpable the goodwill of God the Father towards his children and his plan for their salvation.

From the gospel reading, we can see Jesus’ involvement in human suffering. The first reading from the book of Job can be considered the epitome of human suffering. For Job, human life itself is harsh and he cites the hard military service, the beholden attitude of a hireling and the servile life of a slave as a typical examples. He then goes on to give instances how miserable his own life is. His days are charged with hardship and his nights are fraught with sorrows. Job is also perturbed by the transitoriness of life. His life is like a wind that has no substance. Its comes and goes, it cannot be directed, and leaves nothing of value behind it. Job sees no value in the life that has been thrust upon him. It is filled with affliction and empty of meaning. The suffering and laments of Job can be interpreted as the consequences of the disruption of the harmony between God and man through the sins of Adam and Eve. Humanity lost its glory then. Having lost the privilege of God’s friendship on account of disobedience, man’s life and existence suffered a terrible shift away from God’s originalplan. Contrary to a blessed life of abundance and plenitude of satisfaction, man would have to contend with harsh conditions for survival. The cursed pronounced by God after the fall revealed in unmistakable manner the very unpalatable experience that would be the lot of humanity. With the loss of God’s friendship, man was deprived of blissful living. Suffering and drudgery thenceforth characterised his existence. Suffice it to say that humanity was wounded and in dire need of healing and restoration. That was the primary reason why the Son of God took flesh: to heal the wounded humanity and restore it to the order of divine harmony. In the gospel of today, we see Jesus bringing healing, cleansing and restoring people. The healing activities of Jesus in the Gospel should be seen from a wider spectacle of his mission to bring restoration of wholeness to humanity. This wholeness is not only about physical healing; it touches everything about man – his identity, social life, psychic make-up, psychological orientation and so on. More importantly, it is a spiritual wholeness that aims at restoring in man that image of God tainted by sin. The healing and restoration Jesus brought to humanity gave an entirely new meaning to our earthly existence. One who discovers and accepts this healing sees life no longer as drudgery, but a participation in God’s own life. In Jesus therefore, one finds life, restored harmony and friendship with God. Outside of him, it is unending drudgery and meaningless.

 Jesus was able to restore humanity to its pristine splendor because of his union with God the Father which he constantly nurtured through prayer. Prayerful silence is the third characteristics of the daily life of Jesus as depicted today in the gospel reading. Leaving synagogue (a place of prayer and meditation on the word of God) Jesus enters into the home of Simon and there heals his mother-in-law. Thus he immersed himself in human situation of suffering passing from the life of prayer to action and from action to prayer, from cult of God to the service of the neighbor and vice versa. The evangelist Mark notes that in the evening Jesus  cured the sick and sent many evil spirits away from their victims but in the morning, long before dawn, he got up and left the house, and went of to a lonely place and prayed there.  One may make bold to say that Jesus’ human soul/natured was completely absorbed in contemplating the Father; that Jesus entered into a very intimate communion with God and that Jesus identified himself fully with the will of God, whence he drew strength to fulfill the dictates of God’s will in their depth.

The disciples of Jesus of his time and of today, are challenged to follow the example of Jesus in his work of evangelization, restoration of humanity and in his life of intimate relationship with God the Father, a relationship each of us started at our baptism. Paul stands in for us all in taking further the work of evangelization. He identifies himself as a messenger of the gospel of salvation and fulfillment. For him, he has no option than to preach because it is his destiny. He does it wholeheartedly, with fervor and dedication. He is so committed to his mission that he empathises with all those who will hear his preaching. He identifies with the slaves, the weak, the brokenhearted, all those who know well the harshness of life. He does this so that the message he preaches does not appear to be disassociated from the realities of life. Just as we so easily identify with Job in his suffering, so should we identify with Paul in his commitment to evangelization. By the power of God, Jesus addressed the needs of his day, by the power of the same God; Paul addressed the needs of his. Now it is our turn. We are the disciples who must bring the good news to the brokenhearted, to those who are enslaved, to those who are weak. We are the ones who will then share in the blessings of this good news. Happy Sunday!+John I. Okoye