5th Sunday of Lent: Year C 2016

DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Isaiah 43,16-21; Philippians 3,8-14; John 8,1-11; 5th Sunday of Lent:  Year C  2016).

In the first reading, God, through the mouth of prophet Isaiah, promises to perform a new exodus and a new liberation in favour of the exiled Jews in Babylon. The new liberation will be as prodigious and marvelous as the first one during which he rescued his people from Egypt. God does extraordinary and even seeming impossible things for those He loves.  What is required of the beneficiaries of God’s new exodus is trust in, dependence on and collaboration with Him. The new exodus and new liberation, which God performed for his people in the OT, serve as anticipation of the real newness of life which God wishes to bring about in every soul through his Son, Jesus Christ. What is precisely being referred to as the newness of life is First of all, God’s wish to bring man out from the slavery of sin into the liberty of the son of God. Secondly, it is God’s desire to cause to spring up streams of living waters of grace from souls killed by sin. These aspects of the newness of life were realized concretely, in Paul’s experience and in the life of the adulterous woman of the gospel reading of today.

Paul was caught up by Christ, he was conquered by Christ. After his encounter with Christ on the way to Damascus, his life changed radically. He was no more interested in the privileges of his past life as a rigorous pursuant of righteousness derivable from the observance of the law of Moses. He was rather interested in the salvation or justification that came as gift from God through faith in Jesus Christ. All other privileges he had or whatever he regarded as important were regarded as loss in comparison with the knowledge of Christ. Everything else was like refused to him and he was disposed to lose it in order to gain Christ, have experience of him, know the power of his resurrection, participate in his suffering and become like him in death in order to rise with him. In the face of all these, Paul did not, however, relax his effort as if he had achieved the goal, reward and perfection of his life. Rather he tried to forget the past and put all his energy in what lay in the future. Like an athlete, he ran towards the goal, in order to obtain the extraordinary recompense which God calls him to receive in Christ Jesus. In the apostle Paul, we see how the infinite mercy of God, through Jesus Christ liberates, redeems and saves man. God manifested his divine omnipotence that changed human person from the interior and made him a new creature, putting him in the condition of newness of life. 
   

 In today’s gospel story, we have another instance where God, through his Son Jesus Christ, changed an adulterous woman into a new creature. The scribes and the Pharisees wanted to stone her to death following the prescription of the Law of Moses. But Jesus told them: He who has no sin, let him be the first to throw the stone. By this, he challenged them to look inside themselves in order to understand that they had no right to arrogate themselves the authority to judge and condemn others, while their interior were full of hypocrisy and wickedness. Alone with the adulteress, Jesus gives his sentence: No one has condemned you, woman? I do not condemn you either. This is a sentence of divine mercy.  He then added: Go and from now, do not sin again! These words of Jesus have two meanings. It is a command that she should not sin again. At the same time, it is a gift (I give you the power not to sin again). God’s pardon, does not only cancel the past, but also creates a new and better future, opens new possibilities and new ways, even for a soul that sin has irremediably rendered useless.

On this 5th Sunday of Lent, when the preparation for the great feast of Easter is taking final shape, we should, seriously, ask ourselves: What does God want from us today and what does he want us to learn from the Sacred Scriptures? Our reply could be: First, He wishes that we should believe in his vast, or rather his quasi prodigal (scandalous) goodness; he is always disposed to pardon our faults. He wishes us to seriously believe in his omnipotent (infinite) mercy by which, through his son, He wishes to make us new creatures, by radically transforming our situation of sin, degradation and death into that of life, grace and salvation. Secondly, God wishes that we should not arrogate to ourselves the authority to judge our brothers and sisters, talk less of condemning them, but rather look into ourselves to discover that we ourselves are in dire need of the mercy of God. Finally, God desires, that following Paul’s example, we are to strive with all the power and forces in us, to arrive at the sanctification of our lives and obtaining the reward of eternal life.  Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye

34 Sunday; Christ the King: Year B...(Daniel 7, 13-14; Rev 1, 5-8; John, 18, 33-37)

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Daniel 7, 13-14; Rev 1, 5-8; John, 18, 33-37; 34 Sunday; Christ the King: Year B)

   

The church invites us in this last Sunday of the liturgical year to celebrate Christ as the king of the universe. The three readings of this Sunday speak about the kingdom of Christ. In the first reading, Daniel in his nocturnal contemplation sees one like the son of man receiving full power and authority from God. The second reading is an acclamation of the book of Revelation that recognizes Christ as king who communicates to us his kingly powers. The third reading is from the passion of Jesus in the Gospel of John in which Jesus with exceptional dignity declares himself to be king, but not a political one.

    In the gospel episode, Jesus was in a humiliating situation before the Roman authority. He was arrested, beaten up, insulted, chained and his enemies hoped to get him condemned to death on the cross. They presented him to Herod as one who aspires for political power, like a secessionist king of the Jews. The Roman procurator, Pilate, wanted to find out from Jesus if he was indeed king of the Jews. When Jesus eventually replied to his question he stated: Mine is not a kingdom of this world; if my kingdom were of this world my men would have fought to prevent my being surrendered to the Jews. But my kingdom is not of this kind. In the gospel passages it is clear that Jesus had no ambition for political power. After the multiplication of bread, the people, enthused by the miracle, wanted to take him and make him their king in order to topple the Roman government in Palestine and eventually establish the new political reign which they would have called the kingdom of God. But Jesus did not succumb to their ambition, for he knew that the kingdom of God is completely a different thing, which does not base on the use of arms and violence. Even in this passion narrative some of his disciples were still thinking that the kingdom of God was a political one, which would have to be established by shear use of arms. For at Gethsemane Peter pulled out his sword and had started the fight but Jesus stopped him. Jesus did not want to be defended by the use of arms. He wanted to do the will of God and thereby establish the kingdom of God, not through the use of arms, but through generosity and surrendering his vey life. The kingdom of God is, completely, different from the political one and earthly one. Reacting to what Jesus declared Pilate drew the conclusion asking: So you are king then? Jesus affirms: It is you who say it. The political power is not the unique power. There is a power that is more valid, which is not obtained by human means. Jesus came to receive this power and give testimony to the truth. He told Pilate: Yes I am king. I was born for this. I came into the world for this; to bear witness to the truth. Obviously, Jesus was referring to the divine truth; he does not speak of scientific truth, but the truth that is more profound, of God and in reality the revelation of love. The truth proclaimed in the New Testament is that God is love (1 John 4, 8.16) and wishes to establish on earth the kingdom of justice and holiness, but first of all the kingdom of love. Whoever is open to love, listens to the testimony of Jesus, accepts it and enters into the kingdom of God. 

    The second reading shows how the church and every single Christian participate in the regal dignity of Christ: … (He, that is Christ) loves us and has liberated us from the powers of sin with his blood. Our regal dignity consists of conquering the force of evil, freeing oneself from the enslavement of sin, having interior freedom of the spirit, and living as the sons and daughters of God. We are able to live out these aspects of the regality of Christ by virtue of the sacrament of Baptism and the grace which Jesus merited on our behalf through his sacrifice on the cross. Through our baptism we become members of the royal priesthood that is capable of entering into communion with God the Father and offering him the worship of praise, prayer and sacrifice. What is more, by virtue of our incorporation in Christ at our Baptism, we participate in the prophetic mission of Christ. By this it meant that we are participating in the task of spreading the tenets of the kingdom in the world, which Christ established in truth. Yes, through the Baptism we Christian are so much privileged. But the big question that should be ruminating in our mind today is: Is Christ really our king, my king? He would be truly so, if he is the centre of our lives, if he has regal power over us, if we allow him to lead us by his words and if the examples of his life become truly the models and principles of our actions. May we, therefore, at the solemnity of Christ the King pray earnestly that our celebration of the solemnity does not remain on the level of pure ceremony but through it we devote ourselves in becoming more and more the property of Christ. + John I. Okoye.

32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(1 Kings 17, 10-16; Hebrews 9, 24-28; Mark 12, 38-44:  32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B)

  Today’s liturgy brings two widows together, one from the OT and other from the NT. Both of them belonged to the lowest cadre of the society, weak and poor, therefore, seemingly not in position to do much. But as it turned out, these women were the protagonists of two extraordinary gestures that made them to be regarded as models of true believers and authentic practitioners of religion.

    The first reading takes up the meeting of the widow of Zerephat and Prophet Elijah. Being persecuted by King Ahab and running away from his men, Elijah ran the risk of dying of hunger. As he entered the city of Zerephat, in Sidon, he met a widow and her son, whose only hope for survival consisted on a handful of meal (flour) and some little oil. So stressed up by hunger, Elijah begged her to prepare, first for him, a scrap of bread and then something for herself and her son. Elijah went on to proclaim what the Lord had revealed to him about her future sustenance: Jar of meal shall not be spent, jug of oil shall not be emptied, before the day when the Lord send rain on the face of the earth. What the prophet actually demanded from the widow was blind trust in divine Providence and in the word (utterances) of God. Indeed, the widow trusted in God and placed all that she and her son needed to physically survive hunger and live on (her last handful of meal and the last bit of oil in the jar) at the Prophet’s disposition. Her confidence in the Lord yielded much fruit as the meal and the oil were miraculously replenished throughout the period of famine caused by lack of rain.

    In the gospel reading the focus is still on another widow, in a scene where Jesus plays an important but curious role. He was sitting near the offertory box (temple treasury) and was watching how the worshippers were making their offerings. He noticed how the rich were throwing in lots of money (coins of much value) into the box, probably with a lot of ostentation. He also saw a widow who threw into the offertory box coins of little value; one can say an insignificant donation.  Jesus draws the attention of his disciples and indicates: I tell you solemnly, this poor widow has put in more than all who have contributed to the treasury; for they have all put in money they had over, but she from the little she had has put in everything she possessed, all she had to live on.

    What do we learn from these two bible episodes?

The first lesson is that we should never judge people or their actions from what they do or their appearances. By appearance these two widows were people of little worth, incapable of doing anything worthwhile and good for nothing. But in reality, they were wonderful and exceptional people, capable of performing two wonderful gestures. Who knows how many times we have assigned little worth to persons who are rather endowed with uncommon interior gifts and who have much favour in the eyes of God! Let us bear in mind the Bible verse which holds: Man sees the appearances while God perceives the interior (1 Sam 16, 7).

    We also learn from the two widows that to truly believe and be really convinced in our faith means trusting God completely, and abandoning oneself to him and to his Providence. Whoever has this type of faith, is not satisfied with donating to God or to our needy neighbours what is only superfluous, what we do not actually need to survive. There are some who make donations but only after they have made sure that their future well being, pleasure, leisure and comfort have been well provided for and doubly assured. Such offerings do not make any changes in their existence and style of life. Donating from one’s superfluity is not yet an act of love. Neither is it an act of faith. It becomes an act of faith when such offering exposes our life or survival to some difficulties and hardship. The poor widow of today’s gospel offered to God all she had; this is authentic faith. In a similar manner the widow of the first reading offered to the man of God, Elijah all she and her son had to survive on. That was also an act of authentic faith.

    The gospel narrative also brings into focus Jesus’ critique of the practice of religion in his own time. He had strong words against the religious leaders of his people: the Pharisees, Scribes, and Priests of his time. He denounced them on account of their vanities, ambitions, greed and ostentations. Jesus could not tolerate their duplicity, hypocrisy and falsehood which they presented as the authentic way to practice religion. The sharp condemnation of these religious leaders by Jesus should make us reflect on our way of life, so that we should not be content with the practice of religion that is apparently external, superficial which gives us the impression that we are doing well while we are actually far away from authentic faith and true conversion.   Let us therefore, pray in the Eucharistic liturgy of this Sunday for the grace to always offer up ourselves and all we have without reservation and in absolute faith to Almighty God. Happy Sunday!John I. Okoye

DOCTRINE AND FAITH : 22nd Sunday of the Year, Sunday22: Year B)

(Deut 4,1-2,6-8; James 1,17-18,21-22,27; Mark 7,1-8,14-15,21 - 23: 22^nd Sunday of the Year, Sunday22: Year B)

In the Old Testament Theology, a necessary link exists between the quest for life and faithfulness to the law of Yahweh. It is the latter that guarantees the former. In today's first reading, Moses put this very clearly before the Israelites. He enjoined them to be faithful to the laws of the Lord which he placed before them so that they might have life and possess the land. In addition to the guarantee of life which fidelity to the law of the Lord would give, it would also be an indication of the depth of wisdom of the people. He said, "Keep them, observe them, and they will demonstrate to the peoples your wisdom and understanding".

St. James took up this same issue of finding life through fidelity to the demands of the law of the Lord in today's second reading. Consistent, with the Old Testament theology, he was convinced that submitting to the demands of the word of God necessarily brings life. On this issue, he was quite emphatic: "Accept and submit to the Word which has been planted in you and can save your souls. But you must do what the word tells you, and not just listen to it and deceive yourselves ".

In the gospel today, Jesus chided the Pharisees and Scribes for their hypocrisy. They pretended to be very zealous for the religious laws and customs. However, Jesus looked beyond their external observances to condemn their lack of sincere worship. He had this terse statement for them: "You put aside the commandment of God to cling to human traditions ". In essence, true religion is not about the externalities. Observance of religious customs and rites are meaningless without the readiness to allow the demands of the word of God and the divine law to transform one's life. It is in the latter that true religion is found.

In our lives as Christians, we need to discover the wisdom embedded in the commandments of the Lord. They are not just legal codes to be formally observed to avoid punishment. In them, we rather find practical guide to a good and purposeful living. The litmus test of the depth of the Christian life, therefore; lies in the extent to which the commandments of the Lord determine our actions and system of value. When this link is missing, our religion lacks depth and runs the risk of becoming pretentious and empty ritual. When this happens we would be honouring God with our lips and not Our hearts and we would be far away from God. This would be hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy is an evil, dangerous snare that can take root and nest itself in our comportment as Christians. It pushes us to pretend to be better Christians than we are, to cultivate in our religious living exteriority more than interiority, to pay more attention to formalisms of religion than to the substance of it, and sometimes going ^thereby, against the commandment of God on justice, love of needy neighbour, honesty of life, and moral rectitude. This is probably why we scandalize the non-Christians and remain a hindrance to their conversion as they do not see the life of a true Christian in us. Rather, what is manifest is the disharmony between what we believe and what we do; a violent contrast between faith and life. What do we do so as not to be hypocrites? The readings of today leave us with some directives. The gospel enjoins us to purity our hearts, make our intentions straight, eradicate from our hearts all those things that are in disharmony and in contrast with the will of God:For it is from within, from men's heart, that evil intentions emerge... We need to put our hearts in order. In the second place, as Moses teaches in the book of Deuteronomy, we have to conduct our lives according to the commandment of God and put into practice the word of God that we listen to every day. St James takes up this theme in the second reading of today. We are not to be onlylisteners to the word of God but also doers of the word of God. The word of God is both dianoetic(imparts knowledge) and dynamic (transforms). When we listen to the word of God it indicates to us what God would want us to do (dianoetic quality of the word of God) and at the same time it transforms our lives (the dynamic quality of the word of God). Transformation of our lives is the end result of listening and adhering to the word of God. Once our lives are transformed to be in conformity with the mind of Christ, hypocrisy will be a far cry from us. Thirdly, to avoid a life of hypocrisy and live as authentic Christian live have to pay attention to the poor and very weak ones among us, (the sick, the abandoned, the elderly ones, the lonely, the handicapped, the homeless, and beggars) and come to assuage both their material, moral and spiritual needs. Also we cannot call ourselves good Christians and declare ourselves in favour of divorce, abortion; practice dishonesty and cheat in business, transgress justice, manifest all sorts of selfishness in our families and in the society. May we therefore ,pray that the word of God we listen to will transform our lives to resemble that of our Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye