TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A, AUGUST 30 2020

May God grant us, in today’s Eucharistic celebration, the insight to see Christ not as a spiritual messiah but as the suffering one, who came to save mankind through the loving sacrifice of himself during his passion. May God grant us also, the grace to be his true disciples by taking up our own crosses and following him.

Happy Sunday!

 DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Jeremiah 20,7-9; Romans 12 1-2; Matt 16, 21-27: 22nd Sunday of the Year, August 30, 2020)

This Sunday, the Gospel presents us with Jesus’ first prediction of his Passion. Immediately after the confession of Peter, who proclaimed him the Christ, the Son of God, Jesus begins to announce his Passion. Peter opposes this perspective. Parallel to this tension between Jesus and Peter, the first reading presents us with a conflict, an interior tension in Jeremiah’s soul. The second reading is the beginning of Paul's great exhortations in the Letter to the Romans, with the invitation to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, in order to live fully in union with the passion of Jesus.

Jeremiah finds himself in a much tensed situation, which he narrates in some passages of his book called the confessions of Jeremiah. The prophet complains to God: You seduced me, Lord, and I let myself be seduced. Then he says that he has become an object of mockery every day; that everyone makes fun of him, because his prophecies always announce misfortune, violence and oppression. So people don't want to hear him talk anymore. Jeremiah would like to get out of this situation of interior tension. But this is not possible, because the word of God, the prophetic inspiration, is in his heart like a burning fire that he cannot contain.

The Gospel passage partially corresponds to Jeremiah’s situation, which shows that Jesus is moving towards his passion. He never complains of this fate; indeed, in a Gospel passage he expresses his desire to face the decisive struggle against evil (cf. Luke 12,50). But Peter is against this perspective. Shortly before, he declared with great enthusiasm the messianic and divine dignity of Jesus and was full of the vision of Jesus’ messianic glory. But now, the announcement of the passion that Jesus makes openly finds strong resistance in him, because this perspective is opposed to his ideas: for this would mean that instead of glory, there is humiliation; instead of success and victory, there are defeat and death. It is true that Jesus also announces his resurrection, but Peter does not accept this path towards the resurrection. Thus he begins to protest and to say to Jesus: God save you, Lord; this will never happen to you. Peter does not accept the passion of Jesus; he wants the glory of Jesus, but without going through defeat and pain. Jesus, in his own part, is determined to go on; he does not want to withdraw from God's will, because he knows that it is a will full of love, which has a positive meaning. Passion is necessary, because without a fight there can be no victory. He must face evil, sin and death, to establish a way through these realities of human existence: a way that is ultimately triumphal. He then reproaches Peter: You are like a scandal to me, because you don't think according to God, but according to men. Jesus then gives a teaching valid for all: to be his disciples, one must deny oneself, take up one's cross and follow him. This is the necessary way for the disciple of Jesus. Every Christian must face evil, sin and death in order to follow Jesus in the path that he has traced. This is the surest way to victory, therefore a positive way, even if human nature is opposed to it and would like to go through another way, avoiding these terrible demands. Jesus explains that whoever wants to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life because of him will find it. It is an absolute necessity. We are made for the fullness of life and happiness. In each of us there is an irrepressible impulse towards happiness, the fullness of life and glory. But we cannot reach them if we seek them directly. We are made above all to love. God, who is love, created us to make us partakers of his love. So our orientation must be to progress in love and to offer our life for the love of Jesus. The Lord says: Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. If we seek our happiness directly, we remain in selfishness, and, therefore, we cannot reach the fullness of life; we remain in a bankruptcy situation. But if we overcome our selfishness, thanks to the acceptance of the love that comes from God and practice self-denial with a positive impulse towards love, then we will truly reach the fullness of life. The Gospel is full of these seemingly contradictory demands: to save one's life, one must lose it; to reach glory, to be exalted, one must humble oneself. The key to all this is always the same: love, do not think about yourself, do not seek your own interest, your glory, your happiness, but try to live united with Christ in love. In this way the highest goal is reached, obviously at the cost of great renunciations, of a radical renunciation of oneself. It is necessary to deny the impulse towards happiness and glory, which wants to be satisfied directly, and instead follow the path that leads, surely, to that fullness of life that is so desired.

Paul's teaching in the Letter to the Romans goes in the same direction. He says: Brothers, I urge you, by the mercy of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. We must not seek our happiness, but offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. This means to place ourselves at the service of justice, holiness and love of God. This is the meaning of Christian sacrifice. In fact, sacrifice is a positive reality: it means welcoming into one's life, and also into one's death, the love that comes from God, to be transformed into an offering that rises to God and is pleasing to him. To do this, we must renounce the mentality of this century, in this bad world. We must not accept the mentality of the world, which is that of the search for pleasure, money and power. All of these are selfish pursuits. We must renounce the mentality of this world and transform ourselves, renewing our minds, in order to be able to discern the will of God, what is good and what pleases him. God's will, in fact, is that we live in love, not in selfishness. Every progress in love gives us profound, true and divine joy. God is love, his joy is that of loving, and his glory is that of giving himself with absolute generosity. Let us, therefore, in today’s Eucharistic celebration welcome and incorporate in our lives Christ’s perspective of showing love in suffering and in generous sacrifice as a sign of our discipleship to him. +John I. Okoye

graphics by chukwubike

21st Sunday of the Year: 23 August 2020

May our fervent profession of Jesus as Christ, the Messiah and Son of the living God in today’s Eucharistic celebration, obtain for us divine favours and a promise of the heavenly inheritance that will manifest in our daily lives. Happy Sunday!

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

Isaiah 22,19-23; Romans 11, 33-36; Matt 16,13-20: 21st Sunday of the Year: 23 August 2020)

 

Today, the liturgy presents us with a very important passage from the Gospel: The one in which Peter proclaims Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God. He proclaims him not only as the Christ, that is, the Messiah, but also as the Son of the living God. Jesus responds by making extraordinary promises to Peter: To you will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven. This detail of Jesus' promises is prefigured in the first reading, which reports the intervention of God to give the key of David's house to a certain Eliakim, son of Chelkia.

The first part of the Gospel revolves around this question that Jesus poses to his disciples: Who do people say the Son of man is? Jesus revealed himself through his authoritative teaching, miraculous power and, above all, his mercy towards people in need (the sick, the little ones, the sinners ...). Now he wants the disciples to draw the conclusion of his discreet revelation, which is already clear enough. People, who do not know Jesus closely, have different opinions: they certainly regard him as an important person. Some say that he is John the Baptist risen, because his mission, like that of the Baptist, is to call people to conversion: Get converted, because the kingdom of heaven is near. This was Jesus’ initial message (Matt 4,17); John the Baptist also called everyone to conversion for the remission of sins (cf. Matt 3 2). Others consider Jesus even greater than John the Baptist: they compare him to Elijah, who was a zealous prophet for God, an intrepid prophet, capable of commanding heaven to close himself so as not to rain; hence a prophet endowed with miraculous powers. Others then consider Jesus as Jeremiah, a prophet aware of living in a period of crisis for his people. Jesus also called the people to conversion, threatening times of complete desolation. He too has this awareness and expresses the urgency of conversion. He also, like Jeremiah, announces the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. Finally, others compare Jesus to some of the prophets. So, among the people there are different opinions, based on some observations about Jesus. But he asks the disciples: Who do you say that I am? The question is addressed to the disciples, who have been with him in his ministry, heard the explanations of the parables from him and have been introduced into the secrets of the kingdom of God. Simon Peter has an inspiration. He is the apostle who reacts promptly in many circumstances; he often finds immediate answers to give, or an action to perform in order to respond to a given situation. On this occasion, he replies to Jesus: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. This is a confession of Jesus' Messiahship and of his Divinity. Jesus is not a simple prophet, nor a great prophet like Elijah, nor a risen John the Baptist, but the expected Messiah, whom in Psalm 2, God called his Son: You are my Son, I begot you today (v . 7). And Peter proclaims: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Peter recognises that Jesus has a unique dignity and mission. And he is the Messiah, the Saviour. John the Baptist prepared his coming, and acknowledged that he was not even worthy to untie the strings of his sandals (cf. Matt 3,11 and par.). Jesus then comments on Peter’s confession: Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my father who is in heaven. He fully approves Peter's response, and explains that it is an inspired response: it is not simply a conclusion of human reasoning, but an inspiration that comes from Heavenly Father. Flesh and blood is a Hebrew expression used to designate men in their frailty, in their limitedness. Human nature in itself is not capable of expressing full faith in Christ the Son of God: an intervention by Heavenly Father is needed. Jesus also says the same thing in John's Gospel: No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him (John 6,44). Peter has this inspiration from Heavenly Father. 

Then Jesus says to Peter. I tell you: You are Peter and on this stone I will build my church. The name Peter does not come from Aramaic, it comes from Greek. We know from the Gospel of John that the Aramaic word used by Jesus is Kefa, which means rock. Jesus, therefore, gives Simon, the son of Jonah, a new name: the name rock, to indicate that he will build his church on it. To Simon, who said: You are the Christ, Jesus replies: You are rock and on this rock I will build my church. The Greek translation is not precise because the term stone does not fit a masculine name; therefore, in Greek they translated Kefa with a masculine name (Peter), this makes the sentence a little less clear and gives rise to wrong comments. For example, some Church Fathers say that the rock is not Peter, but the faith of Peter. But Jesus said: You are rock and on this rock I will build my church. Thus he highlighted the function of Peter for his entire project of salvation of men through the Church. Jesus insists a lot on this, and says: The gates of hell will not prevail against it. That is, infernal powers will not have real power against the Church. Peter will have the keys to the kingdom of heaven, that is, the power to bind or loose, so much so that his decisions on earth will be definitive and valid even in the heavens. Here we see that, according to Jesus’ words, Peter’s role is of great importance. And it cannot be a role limited only to his life. It is clear that Jesus wants to build his Church through the ages. Therefore the Catholic faith recognises that the successor of Peter in Rome also shares this function of Peter: obviously not in an identical way to Peter, because the Pope is not a witness to the resurrection of Jesus as Peter was. St. Peter's Basilica testifies to this faith of the Catholic Church in an impressive way. We must accept Jesus’ insistent words which the four Gospels highlight. In them, no other character was given prominence as Peter. This is the indication of a divine plan: to build a church, you must have a solid foundation, otherwise the building will crumble. Jesus wanted to build his Church on a solid foundation, which is Kefa, the rock, Peter. But the last sentence of today’s Gospel is startling: Jesus commands the disciples not to tell anyone that he is the Christ. First, he made his disciples aware that he is the Messiah, and now he wants this revelation to remain hidden, why? Jesus does not want to be considered an earthly Messiah, a political saviour, or a person who has the ambition to have political power on earth. He knows that to be the saviour, he must go through the suffering and humiliation of the cross. Therefore, in order to prevent people from becoming enthusiastic about him and proclaiming him king - as actually happens in some episode of the Gospel (cf. John 6,15) - he orders the disciples not to speak of his messianic dignity. The revelation granted to Peter is only a first revelation; it is not yet the full revelation of the mission of Jesus the redeemer, saviour through his passion.

In the second reading, Paul expresses his admiration and amazement for God’s wisdom and knowledge. And it is true that the divine mysteries are always disconcerting for the human mind. Jesus’ destiny is a divine folly, but a folly that is wiser than all human plans. How inscrutable are his judgments and inaccessible his ways!" Paul is full of admiration, and also invites us to be so, for this fulfillment of God's plan in the life of Jesus. In the moment in which it could be more glorious, Jesus accepts to be humiliated. The moment he might impose his power, he agrees to be sentenced and crucified. Thus he realises his mission of salvation for all men, even for the worst and most criminal. In fact, God's plan is to save all men, and the necessary way is that of revelation in two stages: the revelation of Jesus' messianic dignity and the revelation of his paschal mystery. Therefore, let us open our hearts to this mystery! +John I. Okoye

(GRAPHICS  BY CHARLES  CHUKWUBIKE)

20th Sunday of the Year; 16th August 2020

 May we, in this Sunday’s Eucharistic celebration, obtain the grace to be open to God’s attitude of universal salvation for all as well as favours of ardent faith and perseverance in prayer.

Happy Sunday!

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Isaiah 56, l.6-7; Romans 11, l3-l5.29-32; Matt l5,2l-28; 20th Sunday of the Year; 16th August 2020)

 

Today's Gospel presents a beautiful teaching on praying persistently, with full faith. The protagonist is a person who does not belong to the chosen people, but to a pagan race. This Gospel is prepared by the first reading from the Prophet Isaiah, which predicts that the Lord will be full of kindness to foreigners who adhere to his word in order to serve him. The second reading is the conclusion of the Letter to the Romans and deals with the theme of the conversion of the Jews.

We notice the evangelical scene, full of life and spontaneity. Matthew described it with an impressive progression. Jesus sometimes went out of the Israelite territory into pagan regions. This time, he headed to some parts of Tyre and Sidon, north of the Holy Land. And behold, a Canaanite woman, who comes from the region, begins to cry out: Have pity on me, Lord, son of David. My daughter is erudely tormented by a demon. It is a cry dictated by an urgent need and supported by maternal love. The daughter of this woman is crudely tormented; that is why the mother turns to Jesus. She must have heard of him, his kindness to the sick and miraculous interventions. She addresses him with a request and intense faith. But this time Jesus exhibits a surprising attitude; he ignores this intense prayer and does not say a word to the woman. He shows that he does not want to intervene, and does not want to put his miraculous powers at the service of a mother so extremely put to test. The disciples approach him and invite him to do something in favour of this woman. They say to him: Hear her out, see how she shouts after us. What pushes the disciples to intervene is not so much compassion for the mother but the disturbance caused by those shouts, which many people certainly listened to, thereby, drawing attention to the small group of Jews who came there. Then Jesus explains why he does not want to intervene: healing the daughter is not part of his mission. He says: I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Jesus, the Son of God, is aware that his mission is limited to the people of Israel during his earthly life. Jesus, meek and humble, does not want to go beyond these limits, so he does not want to take initiatives that are not foreseen in his ministry. This is a manifestation of great humility and docility to God on his part. Despite the compassion he feels, Jesus does not want to, miraculously, intervene. But this woman does not despair, rather, she approaches him, prostrates herself before him and says to him: Lord, help me! Jesus gives her a response similar to the previous one: It is not good to take the children's bread to throw it to the dogs. It is a harsh word from Jesus: the Canaanite is compared to a little dog. The woman could have taken offence by this expression and could have gone away from him, avoiding speaking to him after his refusal. But instead of feeling offended, she insists and finds a way of insisting that corresponds to Jesus’ word; she says: It is true, Lord, [therefore she admits Jesus’ word; but then she adds] but also the dogs feed on the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters. So this woman also shows great humility: she agrees to be compared to a little dog. But she manages to use this comparison to persevere in her prayer: if the dogs cannot pretend to receive the bread of their children, they can nevertheless feed on the crumbs that fall on the ground. What an encouraging effort the woman makes to save her daughter! Then Jesus says to her: Woman, truly great is your faith! Let it be done to you as you wish. Jesus admires this woman’s faith, admires her insistence in persevering prayer. Therefore, he agrees to go beyond the limits of his mission. He says to the woman: Let it be done to you as you wish. And from this moment the Canaanite daughter is healed. Although Jesus' mission is limited, he felt he could go further, because this woman's faith was visibly inspired by the Heavenly Father. Therefore, he felt inspired by the Father to be wholly compassionate towards her. Thus, this Gospel passage manifests the universal openness of Jesus.

We find this universal openness of God's love for man in the first reading. In the Old Testament, God chose a people, to whom he, generally, reserved his favours. But there are many texts from the Old Testament which clearly show that this limitation is not rigid; indeed, the privileges of the chosen people were ultimately destined to be shared with all nations. The Prophet Isaiah does not hesitate to say that God will lead some foreigners to his holy mountain, then to his temple: those who have joined the Lord to serve him and love the name of the Lord. God says through the Prophet: I will lead them to my holy mountain and will fill them with joy in my house of prayer. The Lord cannot promise anything more extraordinary than this: to fully associate foreigners with the chosen people and introduce them into their intimacy. He then says: Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be welcomed at my altar, because my temple will be called a house of prayer for all peoples. God’s intention is that of universal salvation and openness to the whole world. When he grants a special grace to a person, this grace is never reserved exclusively to that person, but is given to her for the benefit of all. Think of Mary, who had extraordinary privileges. Mary received them to collaborate in the salvation of all men, which was accomplished by her divine Son.

In the second reading Paul explains his attitude towards the unbelief of the Jews, who do not want to accept God’s grace offered to them in Christ. Like the Canaanite, he too does not lose hope. In fact, as he says the hope of saving many Jews would be honour to his ministry. He explains that God’s gifts and calling are irrevocable. Therefore, Jews are always the object of special love on God’s part, and it is certain that, ultimately, God's plan includes their salvation. But they need to be likened/compared for some time, so to speak, to the pagans in disobedience, in order to obtain mercy. If they remain in their proud self-sufficiency, they cannot receive grace, but their difficult situation shows the divine intention of giving them unlimited mercy. Paul says: God has locked/imprisoned everyone in their own disobedience, only to show mercy to all mankind. This is the universal aspect of God's plan. We must, therefore, open our hearts to the universal love the Lord wants to pour into us. We must not remain in narrow perspectives, but must always have generous hearts to welcome all the people whom the Lord puts on our ways. +John I. Okoye

(GRAPHICS BY CHUKWUBIKE)

19th Sunday of the Year, August 9, 2020

 May God, through this Sunday's Eucharistic celebration, bestow firmness to our wavering faith and make us realise his presence in the trying and fearful moments of our lives.

Happy Sunday! 

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(1 Kings 19,9a.1l-13a; Romans 9,1-5; Matt 14,22-33: 19th Sunday of the Year, August 9, 2020)

On this Sunday, the liturgy presents us with a very significant Gospel episode: Jesus walking on the sea and Peter who wants to meet him in a similar way. The first reading tells us of another divine manifestation offered to the prophet Elijah. The second reading has no direct relationship with these texts: it expresses Paul's pain for the unbelief of his blood brothers, the Jews.

The first reading presents us with a theophany, that is, a manifestation of God. Elijah, who is in a moment of great difficulty and danger, because Queen Jezebel wants to kill him, takes refuge in the desert and reaches the mount of the Lord, the Horeb; enters a cave to spend the night there. The Lord invites him to await his manifestation: Get out [of the cave] and stop on the mountain in the presence of the Lord. Then the Lord passes, but in a very different way from his great manifestation on Mount Sinai, in front of all the people. There he manifested himself as an impetuous, tremendous wind, with an impressive storm, making the whole mountain tremble. Thus, he revealed his power and filled the people with fear. Fear of God is something positive, because it preserves us from sin: whoever has the fear of God does not dare to do things that will offend him. Even in the case of Elijah there was a strong and impetuous wind that can smash the mountains and break the rocks, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, there was fire, but the Lord was not here either. So in this episode, there is nothing of the manifestation of the Lord on Sinai. In the end there was the murmur of a light wind, and here the Lord manifested himself. Elijah then covered his face with his cloak and stood at the entrance of the cave to listen to the voice of the Lord. This passage makes us understand that God can manifest himself in very different ways: in an impressive external way, with frightening meteorological phenomena, but also in the depths of the heart, with the murmur of the light wind, of a gentle breeze. Perhaps this latter manifestation is more significant than the other: it indicates that God is truly within all realities and all people; and present in our heart, even if we don't recognise him.

In the Gospel, usually Jesus manifests his divinity with gestures of mercy, generous kindness, welcoming everyone: heals the sick, embraces children, forgives sinners, multiplies loaves for the crowd. But he also manifests himself in other ways. Today's episode, which comes after the multiplication of the loaves, demonstrates that to us as he walks on the sea. After the multiplication of the loaves, Jesus orders the disciples to board the boat and cross the lake. He dismissed the crowd and went up the mountain. Therefore, he does not want to exploit the success of the multiplication of the loaves, and John explains why: the crowd wanted to take him and make him king, but Jesus did not want to be an earthly king; he came to give his life, not to impose his dominion (cf. John 6, 14-15). That was why he went up the mountain to pray. Meanwhile, the boat in which the disciples were, was in difficulty: it was tossed by the waves because of the contrary wind. In the Gospel, Jesus' disciples often found themselves in situations similar to this. Even for us, sometimes, Jesus seems to be far away, almost non-existent, while we have to face many difficulties in life. But it is necessary to have faith, know that he is praying and that he will bring us all the necessary help. In fact, towards the end of the night, Jesus came to the disciples walking on the sea. It was a divine manifestation, a theophany, which revealed the peaceful power of Jesus. He can walk on water as if it were earth. In the Exodus, the Jews crossed the sea, but walking on dry ground; Jesus instead walks on the sea. Obviously, the disciples, seeing him walking on the sea, were upset, they had the impression that he was a ghost and they started shouting in fear. This too is a situation that often occurs in our life as disciples of Jesus. He seems a ghost to us, looks completely different from how we know him, and this arouses fear. Then Jesus reassures the disciples: Courage, it is I, do not be afraid. Peter, who among the apostles appears to be the most enterprising, the one who often takes the initiative, thinks to ask Jesus this question: Lord, if it is you, command that I come to you on the water. Peter, instinctively, always feels like being with Jesus in any situation, he had such deep affection for him that he wanted to accompany him everywhere. Here he asked to be able to accompany him walking on the water. Jesus granted his request: Come! Peter then got off the boat and started walking on the water towards him. This too is a situation in which we Christians can find ourselves. Sometimes we take very generous initiatives, but also a little exaggerated. To help the poor, come to the aid of people, or do something in honour of the Lord, we think we are doing extraordinary things, and Jesus approves them. So we too start walking on the water. But after a while we realise that we are in a strange, unnatural, dangerous situation. So Peter, due to the violence of the wind, became frightened and began to sink. Then he cried out to Jesus, Lord, save me! And immediately Jesus stretched out his hand, grabbed him and said to him: Man of little faith, why have you doubted? I told you: Come! So you could walk on the water without fear. But you lacked faith, and then you started to sink. In fact, what keeps you standing is faith. When we take a generous initiative, based on an inspiration received from the Lord, we must have faith and keep this faith in all circumstances, even the strangest and most difficult. In fact, if we keep the faith, we can overcome every difficulty. Already prophet Isaiah said: If you don't believe, you won't have established (Isaiah 7,9); Whoever believes will not waver (Isaiah 28,16). And the moment Jesus gets on the boat, the wind stops. This episode is very significant for us if we are generous Christians. If we are mediocre Christians, we do not take any particular initiative, we are content with a rather selfish life, limited to our interests, and then we are not facing great difficulties, but if we are generous Christians, every now and then we are faced with difficult situations. The Gospel tells us that this is normal. We must, therefore, not give up our initiatives for fear of difficulties we may encounter. We must go on, after praying to the Lord to find out if he approves these initiatives; and we must always keep faith. The Lord will help us: sometimes even miraculously, and always effectively. So we can carry out his work in the world.

In the second reading, Paul speaks of his relatives by flesh, the Jews. He says he feels great pain for them; continuous suffering: I tell the truth in Christ, I don't lie, and my conscience gives me testimony in the Holy Spirit: I have great pain and continuous suffering in my heart”. Where does this pain come from? The Apostle does not explain it here, but from the following we can understand that it is the unbelief of the majority of the Jews. When he dictated the Letter to the Romans, the situation became clear enough: Christians are only a minority among Jews; the majority of the people, led by the Pharisees and the high priests, have rejected Christ, they do not want to believe, because the Christian messages, somehow, reduces the privilege of the chosen people and extends it to the pagans, provided they have faith in Christ. Pagans were welcomed into the Christian Church as if they were Jews. The Jews then opposed this perspective, which deprived them of their privilege, and committed themselves, vigorously, to hindering faith in Christ. In the Second Letter to the Corinthians, Paul explained that he had to suffer greatly from his compatriots: he received thirty-nine blows, was beaten with rods, and stoned. However, the greater suffering is seeing that his compatriots rejected Christ (cf. 2 Cor 12, 24-25). Instead of saying bad things about them, Paul lists all their privileges: They are Israelites; theirs the adoption, glory, covenants, legislation (giving of the Law), worship, promises, patriarchs; from them (this is the greatest privilege) Christ comes according to the flesh, he who is above all things. God who is over all be blessed forever. Jews have many privileges, but they rejected Christ. Because of this, Paul felt profound pain, so much to say: I would like to be anathema myself, separated from Christ for the benefit of my brothers, my blood relatives in the flesh. The Apostle was ready to face every sacrifice, just to save his brothers, to introduce them into the Church of Christ and offer them redemption through faith in Christ. We can then appreciate this generous attitude of Paul, this truly apostolic heart, which suffers for those people who do not accept faith in Christ. We too should suffer because our present world often refuses to adhere to Christ. In our world, there is a tremendous tendency to reject faith. We speak of secularism, which means the refusal, not only of Christ, but also of God. Man does not want God to be honoured and taken into account in the different kinds of decision that he must take. This should, therefore, arouse in our hearts a profound suffering and desire to pray for the conversion of those who do not believe. Then we will truly be united with the Saviour’s heart. +John I. Okoye

graphic  by chukwubike

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18th Sunday of the. Year, 2nd August, 2020

 May God, in this Sunday's Eucharistic celebration, grant us the grace to be aware of the responsibility and priviledge of providing the needs of our neighbours.

Happy Sunday! 

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Isaiah 55,1-3; Romans 8,35.37-39; Matt 14,13-21: 18th Sunday of the. Year, 2nd August, 2020)

This Sunday, the Gospel presents us with the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves. We admire Jesus’ generosity, for he cares and provides for the needs of the people. Jesus had left the boat to retire to a deserted place: he was looking for a little peace of mind with the apostles after a tiring activity and ministry. But the crowd learnt about it and followed on foot. So Jesus, getting off the boat, saw a large crowd. Our spontaneous reaction in these cases would have been annoyance, because the effort to have a little time for calm has been thwarted. But, Jesus completely disregarded his plan. On seeing a large crowd, he immediately felt compassion and healed the sick. Feeling compassion is Jesus’ characteristic in the Gospels. He usually thinks about people's discomfort, needs, sufferings, and feels compassion for them. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus takes up twice the expression spoken by God through prophet Hosea: I want mercy, not sacrifice (Matt 9,13; 12,7). Jesus knows that the Heavenly Father is full of mercy, and he passes this compassion of God through his human heart, putting himself at the service of all the needy: healing their sick. Jesus comes to heal and give men joy and peace. When evening came, the disciples showed that they do not share this compassion of Jesus, that they reason in human form; they said to Jesus: The place is deserted and it is already late; dismiss the crowd to go to the villages to buy food. This is common sense reasoning: there are so many people, it seems impossible to provide for them all, and, therefore, the most logical thing to do is to dismiss all these people, so that they can fend for themselves and get out of trouble. The People came on their own initiative, now they can also leave and look for food in the villages. But Jesus does not agree with this natural way of reasoning; He said to the disciples: They do not need to go to the villages; feed them yourself. These words of Jesus inspired many saints, who, seeing the needs of the people of their time, instead of complaining or thinking only about themselves, took care to meet those needs, establishing dedicated religious Orders and Congregations to charity. "Give them something to eat yourself” is a phrase that each of us must feel as if it were addressed to us. When we meet people who are in need, if we want to be Christians, we must worry about them and do everything possible to remedy their hardships. The disciples remain disconcerted at these words of Jesus, because for them it is impossible to feed such a large crowd; they say to Jesus: We have only five loaves and two fish!. In the Gospel of John Andrew he adds: What is this for so many people? (John 6,9). Indeed it is nothing. Therefore, it seems that Jesus' order cannot be realised. But Jesus thinks differently; he says to the disciples: Bring them to me here. Then he orders the crowd to sit down; he takes the five loaves and the two fishes, raises his eyes to heaven and pronounces the blessing. Here we have an important and decisive element. Jesus does not stop at the horizontal level of many social works, but takes a vertical direction: he raises his eyes to heaven, that is, he puts himself in relationship with the heavenly Father; and pronounced the blessing, that is, give thanks to the Father. In fact, according to the Hebrew way of speaking, blessing God means thanking him. After the birth of John the Baptist, Zechariah blessed God, saying: Blessed be the Lord, God of Israel, because he has visited and redeemed his people (Luke 1, 68). We also in the Offertory during Mass thank the Father, saying: Blessed are you, Lord, God of the universe; from your goodness we received this bread ... The blessing addressed to God means thanksgiving. Jesus thanks the Father for the little he has available and, at the same time, for the much he will receive from his goodness. In fact, he is convinced of the divine generosity and, when he pronounces the blessing, he foresees that the Father will meet this uncomfortable situation and find a solution. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, who distributed them to the crowd. Everything happens very discreetly: there is no visible multiplication of the pieces of loaves, but everyone ate, and they were satisfied, and in the end, many more pieces of the five loaves and two fish that were available at the beginning were left over. Thus in the end, the manifestation of divine generosity became evident. The whole crowd was able to eat, thanks to the union of Jesus with the Heavenly Father, his prayer, the compassion of his heart and his generosity. This miracle is not only an event limited in time, but it has a very wide scope: it is a prefiguration of the Eucharist. Also at the Last Supper Jesus will take the bread, break it and, after pronouncing the blessing, he will give it to his disciples, saying: This is my body which is given for you; do this in memory of me (Luke 22,19). This means that this action of Jesus must be multiplied. Indeed, it continues to multiply today in an ever more abundant and generous way. Jesus came to heal our souls, much more than to heal our bodies; he came to feed our souls, much more than to satisfy a crowd hungry for material bread.

Today's first reading makes us think, precisely, of a spiritual food. The prophet Isaiah reports these words of God: O you who are thirsty, come to the water, let anyone who has no money come equally; buy and eat without money and, without charge, wine and milk. Spiritual food cannot be sold as material food: it is a gift from God, which is communicated in the Church through the sacraments and which nourishes souls, giving strength, light and inner peace. The Prophet states: Why do you spend money on what is not bread, your wealth on what is not satisfied? Why do we care so much about material things, and not enough about spiritual things? Listen to me and you will eat good things and you will taste succulent food. It is an invitation to welcome the gift of God, which is basically only one: the love that comes from him and that wants to transform our life. This love passes through the heart of Jesus and reaches us in our situations of spiritual need. It is a wonderful food that feeds us. We mostly do not think about it, but our deepest desire is to welcome the love of God. This is our vocation: we are made to be loved and to love, in union with God and Christ.

The second reading shows us the value and power of this love. Paul says: Who will separate us from the love of Christ? This love is a value that has been assured in, an absolutely, strong and imperishable way. The Apostle listed all the most serious and terrible obstacles: Tribulation, anguish, persecution, hunger, nudity, danger, sword", and concludes: In all these things we are more than victors for virtue of the one who loved us. Here we see what strength is contained in the love that is given to us by God through the heart of Christ. God's love for us is the absolute power of God who puts himself on our side to make us more than winners, to find the true solution of our problems. Whoever believes in God's love is truly free in the deep, free from everything. It is a force that overcomes all obstacles, which gives us the ability to transform all obstacles into an opportunity for progress in love.

Paul again affirms: I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither present nor future, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature can ever separate us from the love of God, in Christ Jesus, our Lord. We do not only receive this love passively from God, but it is the love that gives us the capability to love. This is the food we really need. In life there is no need more essential than this: to have the ability to love in all circumstances, to always find a solution of love for all difficulties and needs. Instead of going in the direction of selfishness, pride or mistrust and discouragement, with this food we can always find the light and strength to transform all situations, even the most negative ones, into good.

The depth of the meaning of the multiplication of the loaves is precisely this: God gives us food that nourishes the capacity to love, making us victorious and instilling in us the deepest joy, because there is no greater joy than that of loving in a generous way. +John I. Okoye

(graphics  by Chukwubike)