THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR A: SUNDAY OF THE WORD OF GOD

There are three homily notes here. Scroll 📜 down 👇 and read. 

 

Isaiah 8:23-9:3/Psalm27/ Cor. 1:10-13, 17/ Matt.4:12-23

 

Fr. Daniel Evbotokhai 

THE WORD OF GOD 

1. Pope Francis instituted the celebration of the “Sunday of the Word of God” in his Apostolic Letter “Aperuit illis” issued September 30, 2019. This celebration is held every year on the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Today). We are to celebrate, study and proclaim the Word of God.

 

2. “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ” says St. Jerome. The bible is the primary text book for Christians. It is first point of reference for theology or God talk. It is the slate for learning the A B C D of the Faith. Today, Christians desire power and miracles but are not ready to acquire knowledge of God’s Word.  We all need to rediscover the Sacred Scripture; we need to hunger for this Word to be truly satisfied by it. We can’t know God if we are ignorant of his Word. Many Christians no longer have zeal for God’s Word. Zeeworld and the likes have diminished their zeal for the Word. Let us pray for revival.

 

3. Psalm 119:130 says the entrance of the Word gives light. Jesus the Word as soon as he entered the region of Galilee were he began his ministry the scripture says that the people who sat in darkness saw a great light and for those who sat at the region of the shadow of death a light was dawned. A fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah in the first reading. Jesus came to give them light to the world.  Jesus is the Word that gives light to the world. Where light is darkness disappears. So, John .8:12 “He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

 

4. The Word of God can be summarized in a simple message of repentance. Jesus says in the Gospel of today; “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Today most preachers no longer preach this message. They search the scriptures only for messages that suit their appetites and yearnings. Truth is taking away from the people; rather than calling man to conversion and salvation, preachers are trying to enforce miracles and healing. To repent is to change one’s heart and attitude. Oftentimes believers are not ready to change but they want all the miracles to manifest. The greatest miracle for a believer is repentance.

 

5. Again, Jesus calls us to follow him. He says to Peter and Andrew, “follow me”. To follow him means to imitate him. It is a call to discipleship. Who is a disciple? The New Ratio no. 61 says a “disciple is one whom the Lord has called to stay with him, to follow him, and to become a missionary of the Gospel”. We are disciples, let us stay with him to know him so that we can follow him better. Today we have become too obsessed with leadership and not follower-ship. Everybody wants to lead and so we have pockets of churches here and there. A good leader was once led.  We need to be good followers. If we follow him then we shall be saved.

 

6. More so, Jesus invites them to renounce the world. The Gospel says when Peter and Andrew were called immediately they left their nets and followed him. Again when He called James and John the gospel says they left their boat and their father and followed him. A true disciple must leave something; there must always be something to resist, and something to renounce in order to serve God genuinely.  In Luke 14:33 Jesus says “whoever does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”

 

7. Lastly as believers of God’s Word, Paul tells us in the second reading that we should cast away all sorts of dissension; division, envy and quarrelling. He desires we should go about and preach Jesus to the world. We too must understand that by reason of our baptism we have a mandate to preach Jesus. To preach Jesus does not literally require owning a big Bible and wearing the best suit; rather it requires a life of witnessing. Be a witness in the world of today. Be the Bible others want to read.

 

LET US PRAY

 

Almighty ever-living God, direct our actions according to your good pleasure, that in the name of your beloved Son we may abound in good works. Amen.

 

Rev. Fr. Evaristus Okeke

“ _The Lord is my light and my salvation_ ” (Ps.27:1a)

You are the light of the World

In John 8:12, Jesus described himself as the light of the world. The liturgy of today dwells on this description of Jesus as the light of the world. Before the coming of Jesus, was the light in darkness? If yes, what kind of darkness enveloped the world and man? Obviously, we are not taking about physical darkness, neither are we referring to darkness ensuing from physical blindness. Thus, understanding the answers to these and similar questions will enable us to see if we are in darkness today or not. The gospel reading records that at the advent of Jesus’ public ministry, light was said to have come. Interestingly, Isaiah had prophesied long before then, as contained in the first reading, that light will come upon those to whom Jesus will minister.

 

The thrust of Jesus’ ministry was and remains to take men away from darkness into light. It is true that light was the first thing that God created. Without this light, any other created thing would not have been perceptible and appreciable. This shows the primacy of light. Similarly, Christian living is not possible if the Christian is not first of all, in the light. So Jesus says: whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (Jn.8:12). In Matthew 5:14, Jesus says: you are the light of the world. Therefore, it is with the light that we can identify a true Christian. Consequently, the gospel reading of today through direct and symbolic manners, teach us how we must shine on as lights of the world.

 

First, Jesus’ pubic ministry started after the arrest of John the Baptism. John was not the light himself, but he represented the light very well. He invited people to move away from the darkness of sin to the light of righteousness. He spoke truth to power. His arrest was an attempt to dim or put off the light he so well represented. This continues to be the experience of every true light. You will meet will fierce opposition, doing all that is possible, to put off the light you bear. That Jesus’ ministry started after John was arrested shows that no one can put off the light of the world. Never you be afraid or intimidated; the mission of lightening the world is greater than any individual. No matter how much darkness tries, the light will shine on. If we on our part refuse to stop being light, the light will shine on. Therefore, the light of Christ is not dependent on us; are only privileged to participate in it.

 

The message with which Jesus shone as the light of the world is: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. This is worth noting! There can be no shining with repentance. Just as an electric bulb cannot shine unless it is connected to a source of power supply, so also we cannot shine in the world unless we are connected to the true light himself through repentance. It is through repentance that we submit to the Lord, asking him to do with us whatever He wills. It is sad to fine people who want to practice an irresponsible Christianity. They want to be great and do great things, they desire God’s miraculous acts in their lives, but they do not want to mend their relationship with God. No one can shine for the Lord without being for the Lord. So, the key that unlocks all the prayers you have made for a fruitful 2023 is reconciliation with God.

 

As Jesus went about preaching, he saw two fishermen Peter and Andrew at their business site: fishing. Jesus called them. The response to this call necessitated that they leave their fishing occupation and join Jesus in His ministry. Though Jesus was calling them into discipleship, this was an unusual patter. Usually, it is a disciple that chooses whom he wants to serve/follow as his master. A regular disciple chooses a kind of master he wants to be like economically. In the case of Jesus, he calls us not to teach us how to fend for ourselves but how to feed others. It is in feeding others through the tenets of Jesus’ ministry, that we shine as light to the world.

 

Responding to Jesus’ call must imply movement; movement from selfishness to selflessness, from sinful habits to works of righteousness. Until we are ready to accommodate this movement, we may just be caricature disciples. The beauty of life is not felt on account of what we do for ourselves but on the joys and smiles we put in the faces of others. When Jesus called James and John, not only did they leave their fishing occupation to follow Jesus, they also left their father Zebedee. This symbolically means that no matter how close we have clung to whatever separates us from the Lord, we must take the bold step to cut off. We must understand that following Jesus is most fulfilling than following our sinful inclinations and passions. Only Jesus calls to follow him without regarding us as slaves; He calls us friends. Anything and anyone else we follow, reduces us to slaves. He who calls you a friend, loves you; he who calls you a slave, uses you.

 

Today, the body of Christ must shine as light of the world first through unity. If Christians are divided, they preach the message of darkness. Unity is the first sign of authentic Christianity. It is the litmus test for a true Christian vocation. One cause for division, as illustrated by Paul in the second reading, is godfatherism – a struggle/feeling for supremacy based on a high personality one has attached himself/herself to. This means that the force that propels the individual is no longer Christ but a human being. Irrespective of whatever height such a person attains, he/she is not bearing/reflecting the light of Christ. Beloved, like the psalmist, ensure that the Lord is your light and your salvation. *God Bless You! 

 Rev. Fr. Stephen Udechukwu

United we stand, divided we fall

 

There is a popular Yoruba song that says “Nigeria yi ti gbogbo wa no, ko ma gbodo baje, …ejeka sowopo ka fi imo soko, gbe ke emi gbe.” It literally translates to “ Nigeria is for all of us, it must not be destroyed, let us unite together and use wisdom to be one… ”. Listening to this song, one may thus ask the cause or what motivated or inspired this kind of song. The composer of this song must have realized that there is power in unity. Hence it is said that “unity is power”. Jesus prayed for his followers in the Gospel of St. John 17:21 saying “Father that they may be one” and this obviously has been the prayer of many Nigerians since the 1914 amalgamation. Nigeria as it is the case is made up of three major ethnic groups which include: Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo but shortly after amalgamation the integrity of this amalgamation was tempered with such that today some of Nigerian citizens are clamoring for division. The Hausas want to be alone, the Igbos want to be alone and same with the Yoruba thus forgetting that one single broom cannot sweep better than when tied together and one tree at the same time does not make a forest. Since this clamour for disunity, Nigeria as a country has been experiencing many setbacks because there cannot be progress where division exists. Division is dangerous. Suzy Kassem says that “Unity is a beast in itself. If a wolf sees two little boys playing in the woods on one side, and a big strong man on the other, he will go to the one who stands alone”. Unfortunately, we find this poisonous bone called division in every nook and cranny of our society. The Church is fighting for superiority, pastors lead the fight, schools are immersed in the fight, and mosques are not left out while politics becomes the godfather of division.

 

St. Paul realizing this poisonous bone, its evil and the need to do away with it so as to allow progress take its place, decided to treat the issue as the first and most important of problems he dealt with while writing to the Corinthians. The Early Christians during the time of St. Paul took special pride in the name of the one who baptized them. Hence baptism which ordinarily should be a source of unity became a source of division among the early Christians. Thus St. Paul says “I heard from some of Chloe’s people about your rivalries. What I mean is this: some say I follow Paul, and others, “I follow Appolos,” or “I follow Peter,” or “I follow Christ,” Is Christ divided…?”’. Thus the effect of this division among the early Christians in Corinth was that the Church instead of progressing and gaining new members, was losing their members. Hence, St. Paul appealed to them in V.10 saying “I beg you, brothers, in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord, to agree among yourselves and do away with divisions; please be perfectly united, with one mind and one judgment”.

 

One of the major effects of division is death. Nigeria is experiencing more death than ever because we are physically united but spiritually divided. For this reason the Igbos kill yorubas because they feel they are not brothers, the yorubas in turn do the same, the Hausas also are not left out in this monstrous act. This brings to its fulfillment the words of Jesus in Mark 3:34 and Matthew 12:25 which say that “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand”. David lost his son Absalom in 1 Samuel 18:9-17 because both of them were divided in mind and heart and because of that both of them became at war till Absalom paid for that poisonous bone with his life just as many are paying for the division in our dear country with their lives. Saul and David were both living in peace not until those women in 1 Samuel 18:6-9 sang their song from which jealousy that divided both men emerged. In fact there is no rest where division exists. Immediately division came in between Saul and David, both became enemies and never rested from battle until the death of Saul who killed himself in 1 Samuel 31:1-6.

 

There is an Igbo proverb that literally say “urine foams only when it is done together”. Why not swallow your pride, put your differences aside and unite wherever there is division so that progress and breath of peace can return especially in our families. One thing we must know is that division pins down our progress; it locks up our breakthrough with its bone that is so sharp. Do you want to wait until your joy and progress is totally destroyed? The time to unite is now.

HAPPY SUNDAY AND GOD BLESS YOU.