ZACCHAEUS AND I

REFLECTION FOR HOMILY FOR 31ST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME OF THE YEAR C

THEME: ZACCHAEUS AND I

R1: Wisdom 11:22-12:2

R2: Thessalonians 1:11-22 

Gospel: Luke 19:1-10

The story of Zacchaeus in the gospel reading of today is a very touchy one. He was a tax collector and he longed to see Jesus but was prevented by the crowd because he was a short man. When he went forward and climbed a tree, Jesus saw him and told him to come down, that he will dine in his house that day.  This story is embedded with many wonderful significances.

ZACCHAEUS’S DESIRE TO SEE JESUS:

Within the time of Jesus, there was hunger in the land. Many Jews only ate once a day. Most of them followed Jesus because they knew that after his teaching there would be food to eat(John 6:26). They imagined that the kingdom of God was a place of merriment, where there will be enough food to eat and drink (Lk 6:21, Is 25:6). They saw tax collectors as sinners because apart from defrauding others in the process of collecting high tax to enrich themselves, they were wealthy and ate to their full(Lk 6:25) from what was stolen from the poor. They were to avoid these sinners because in the kingdom of God there will be no room for them. Since people hated and avoided them (tax collectors), Zacchaeus headed to Jesus, knowing he will not be despised at least to have just a view of him.

HIS PREVENTION FROM SEEING JESUS:

Even though he wanted to see Jesus, he was prevented because he was short. Being short means he was small, insignificant, unimportant and invisible. That is, as a tax collector and sinner, coming around Jesus he becomes worthless in the midst of others (righteous) because that was not where he was supposed to be. Also, there were many tall people around that stopped him from seeing him, they didn’t want to give him a chance. The tall people implies , important people, holy people and significant persons, these prevented the unholy Zacchaeus because he was supposed to be with sinners.

The attitude of these tall people is a  common characteristic of the crowd and many of us, we see people as unimportant and worthless thereby discouraging them from growing. We sometimes see nothing good about the other; we condemn, we segregate, we hate to see certain people around us even in the church because we feel we are better, just as in the eyes of the Pharisee, Zacchaeus is just a tax collector. They avoided him and neglected him as we do towards those we consider as worthless.

HE MOVED FORWARD AND CLIMBED A TREE:

Knowing his limitations; his short height and the tall crowds that prevented him from his target (to see Jesus), Zacchaeus moved ahead of everyone to overcome such limitations by climbing a tree so that he may not miss his target.  We too must develop a strategy to overcome our weakness and limitations and the discouraging voice of the crowd. It is important that we too should discover what our limitations are and move beyond that. This includes overcoming the voice of the crowd. This needs courage. Strategy is an important element of success. 

Having overcome his limitations with his strategy,  Jesus saw him and called him by name, “Zacchaeus, come down.” It was no longer he that saw Jesus but Jesus that saw him.  The same thing happens when we put in an effort and develop a strategy to overcome our limitations and the discouraging voice of the crowd, God visits and changes our situations, just as he changed that of Zacchaeus from a tax collector to a son of Abraham (Lk 19:10). Zacchaeus experienced God’s love, this led to a total conversion of him and he expresses this love for others by returning whatever he had collected from them.

It is important for us to understand that being angry with anyone because of one’s behaviour, state of life, situation or attitude can’t lead to anything better. The anger of the Jews never changed Zacchaeus until he encountered the love of Christ. Christ’s love made him a changed person. So too, we can change the world with love. We can convert the world with love. 

This also answers why God allows even the bad people to exist in the world. The first reading says, he hates no one, he hates nothing that he created but he gives the bad time to change. He corrects everyone little by little until they are brought back to him. If the Lord loves everything he has created, we too, instead of despising and creating unwanted differences between us, let us give everyone an opportunity for repentance. Let us pray that God will make us worthy of his call to love, so that we may join the Psalmist to bless his name forever.

Rev Fr. Chukwuemeka VINCENT Livinus, SMMM.

PUTTING UP THE RIGHT ATTITUDE TOWARDS GOD

HOMILY FOR 30TH SUNDAY IN YEAR C

WORLD MISSION SUNDAY

THEME: PUTTING UP THE RIGHT ATTITUDE TOWARDS GOD

R1: Ecclesiasticus 35: 12-14. 16-19, 

R2: 1 Tim 4: 6-8. 16-18, 

Gospel: Luke 18: 9-14_

The gospel reading is the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector who went to pray in the temple. The Pharisee, standing in front, boasting of himself for observing the Jewish law of fasting, praying and tithing faithfully and for not being like the tax collector  who knelt at a distance, feeling sorry for his sins and employing God’s mercy. The tax collector's prayer, according to the gospel reading, was answered. The prayers of these two persons prepare us for the right attitude towards having our prayers answered by God.

The Pharisee and his prayer: We may be too quick to say that the Pharisee in today’s gospel is a hypocrite. Was he? No. This man was actually an honest man. He was faithful to the prescription of the law and even more. For example, the law prescribes fasting once a week but this man fasted twice a week. However, his fault is his prayer. In his prayer, he was too boastful of his honesty and effort and he neglected and condemned the poor. 

The tax collector and his prayer: We may also be too quick to conclude that this man was a very humble person, but let us not forget that as a tax collector, he was a thief. Not that he stole from the rich rather he exploited the poor and peasants through the collection of high tax. However, in his prayer, he emptied himself before God, thus, he had his prayers answered. 

It is surprising that the man who was well-behaved (the Pharisee) was condemned while the sinner; the unworthy tax collector was considered just. How can we explain this?

Dear friends, it is important to know that even though the prayer of the sinner was accepted, Jesus never approved of his sins or his actions. His prayer was accepted because he emptied himself before God, he gave God all he had; his misery, his interior poverty and his sins. By emptying himself before God, he had submitted everything to God so that God may fill him, so that God will possess him and thus transform him. He gave God his miserable state, that God may heal him and grant him the almighty gift of healing and salvation. This is the right attitude to God; self-emptying.

The Pharisee, not minding the prestige of his moral life, thought he could win God’s admiration by telling Him how rich, how just he was and never asked for what he never had. His prayer was full of pride. In fact, he never prayed, he only gave God an information of himself so that God would applaud him. He gave God an edited version of himself; the righteous one, forgetting that no one is perfect except. He never realised the need of God. He faked himself before God (the perfect man).

Are we not like this Pharisee when we tell God how good and faithful we have been to Him, how we have served Him, how true we are to our neighbours and question Him for delays in answering us. Don’t we think that justifying ourselves before God and parading our good works before Him could be part of His delay in responding to our prayers? 

Let us understand that no matter how good or faithful we think we are, we are not without sin. It is dangerous to praise ourselves and condemn others. On our own and by our own effort alone we cannot gain salvation or win God’s admiration. Like saint Paul, after each work, we should consider ourselves as servants always who are only waiting for the crown of glory.  Our effort should be accompanied by a proper disposition of self-emptying before God, knowing that we are nothing and have nothing without him. With self-emptying, we would not be giving God an edited version of ourselves, rather, we shall be giving God a room to fill in and a proper attitude like the poor man who called, and the Lord heard him.

Homily by

Rev. Fr. Chukwuemeka VINCENT Livinus, SMMM

WORLD MISSION SUNDAY

Today, the celebration of World Mission Sunday, reminds us that the mission of Christ is for everyone both clergy and laity alike.

The Holy Father Pope Francis in his message for The world Mission Sunday 2022, tells us "the essence of mission is to bear witness to Christ, that is, to his life, passion, death and resurrection for the love of the Father and of humanity" (cf. Paragraph 5)

The Holy Father thus reflects on " the three foundations of the life and mission of every disciple".  These are:

"You shall be my witnesses"

"to the ends of the Earth"

"you shall receive the power of the Holy Spirit"

It therefore means that to be the witness of Christ is to live just like Christ. Our witness to Christ should not be restricted. For as Pope Francis rightly tells us, there are still areas in which missionary witnesses of Christ have not arrived to bring the Good News of his love (cf. paragraph 11).

So let us continue to press on with our mission of witnessing to Christ everywhere as we remain open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit without whom there can be no evangelization.

HAPPY WORD MISSION SUDAY

HAVE A GREAT DAY

Rev. Fr. Kingsley Nonso Ogbu,SMMM

RAISING THE HAND OF PRAYER

HOMILY FOR 29TH SUNDAY IN ORDINRY TIME YEAR C

THEME: RAISING THE HAND OF PRAYER

R1: Exodus 17:8-13

R2:  2 Timothy 3:14-4:2

 Gospel: Luke 18:1-8

The traditional definition of prayer is “the lifting up of our hearts and minds to God.” The heart is the centre of the human person, thus, in prayer, we move from the centre of our being to have an encounter with the source of being so that we can establish a relationship; we can commune with him. This relationship with the divine  is only possible through prayer. When this relationship is established, we dwell in God and God dwells with us; our concerns become God’s concerns. To attend this wonderful relationship, let us be conscious of the following:

PRAYER DEMANDS CONTINUITY: It is common to be fade up with prayers especially when the answer to our prayers is delayed. The first and the gospel readings today make clear that for us to have the needed answer to our prayer, we must continue to pray, we must be persistent in praying; “we pray without ceasing” (1 Thes 5:17, Lk 18:1-8). This is exemplified in Moses in the first reading who, as long as his hands were raised in prayer the Israelites were victorious but whenever his hands fall, the Israelites lost. Also, when the woman in the gospel persisted in disturbing the king, she got what she wanted. We too must pray like that, with persistence we shall receive the needed answer.

ASK FOR SUPPORT WHEN POSSIBLE: There are times we may be helpless, there are times we cannot do anything for ourselves. In times like this, we need the support of others. Just like in the ordinary sense we may be denied some privileges we enjoy from our friends when we provoke them, we may also be denied temporarily of our request especially when we may have provoked God through sin, for “sin cuts off from God” (Is 59:2). When we are confronted with this kind of situation, our prayers become an abomination to God (Prov 28:9). In a situation like this, we can ask for help, for the prayer support of others; (including asking the saints to pray for us) so that God will listen to us. This is exemplified in the weak hands of Moses and the support he got from Aaron and Hur. Ask for a spiritual support always.

ESTABLISH A PRAYER COMMUNITY: You may notice that in the first reading, Moses was careful in the choice he made of those who will be with him on the hilltop for prayer while the Israelites were in the battle field. In the same way, be very careful of those you ally with especially when it comes to prayer. The choice you make can either influence you positively or mar your little effort. Establish a community of prayer of those  who have the same positive spiritual mindset with you. Get those who will encourage you spiritually. 

PICK UP YOUR BIBLE: The best way to pray is to pray with the Bible. The Bible offers solutions to all our problems. In the Bible, God communicates with us directly, the relationship we seek while praying is made easy via the Bible. Even when we are weak and have done wrong, the Bible brings us to the right way, it helps in correcting errors. Just as Saint Paul told Timothy,  the Bible equips us for any good work. 

Therefore, let us pray to God in season and out of season for “Our  help can only come from God, who made heaven and earth.”

Homily by:

Rev. Fr. Chukwuemeka VINCENT Livinus, SMMM.

OVERCOMING OUR LEPROSY*

REFLECTION FOR 28TH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR C

THEME: OVERCOMING OUR LEPROSY

R1: 2 Kings 5:14-17

R2: 2 Tim 2:8-13

Luke17:11-19_

In the ancient Jewish culture, leprosy was a symbol of sin, those who suffer from it were seen as those who have gravely  offended God through arrogance, theft, muder, perjury and insest. They were taken as the worst of all sinners hence, they were ostracised from the community and lived very far from others and had nothing in common with the members of the community to avoid contaminating them. They were to wear a bell around their waist while passing along a part to alert people that a leaper is approaching.

It is surprising that in the gospel, Jesus encounters ten (10) of them. That means, these lepers took a risk and went against all the laws preventing them from associating with others, just to approach Jesus. The number ten is a significant one; meaning  completeness or totality. This number (10) signifies the totality of mankind. We have been separated from the community of God due to sin. The whole of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Even though we have sinned and gone far away from God, just like these ten lepers, we are expected to make a movement together as a community towards Jesus for healing. As none of the ten lepers was found wanting, we too must pray together as a family, as Church for the forgiveness of one another. There is no one who has no need of Jesus, since he alone can grant us healing and reconcile us with God and the family of God in heaven. To do this, we must all put aside pride and refuse to listen to the discouraging voice of the crowd that may prevent us from making a movement towards  Jesus. 

Jesus can grant healing directly by himself through a miraculous experience or through using others as agents to our healing. He may use others; priests, ministers, good advice from family and friends. However, we must listen to the instructions he gives (Go and show yourself to the priest or bath in Jordan). This voice of Jesus is essential in changing our situation.  

Refusing to listen to the voice of God will be like Naaman who almost lost the healing for considering the River Jordan as not a better river for him to bath. This is exactly how some of us see the Church and her teachings and the Bible as outdated and as nothing to help their conditions; they feel there is a better way to do things than following the commands of Jesus. The lepers would not have been healed if they refused or had seen Jesus’ command to see the priest as nothing. Hence, let us stop giving excuses and doubting, learn to listen to Jesus words and act on them then salvation will be yours. But remember, thanksgiving is important, it completes our healing process.

Reflection by:

*Rev. Fr. Chukwuemeka VINCENT Livinus, SMMM.*

SERVANTHOOD AND REWARD

REFLECTION FOR 27TH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR, C

THEME: SERVANTHOOD AND REWARD

R1: Habakkuk 1:2-3, 2:2-4; 

R2: 2Timothy 1: 6-8, 13 - 14, 

Gospel: Luke 17: 5 - 10

It is always difficult to relate our faithful service to God and his silence when we need his immediate response to our plights. Just a few days ago, I was having a discussion with a young lady who was very bitter that God has not really been good to her. She explained how she has been very faithful to God, the effort she has put to serve God in the Church and how she has tried for many years to be a good person. She was angry that God hasn’t answered her prayers as prayed and was very bitter that even some of her friends who do not  go to Church have been living a better blessed life than her and are all married except her. She questioned, “Have  I not served God enough? Why is He treating me this way?

The experience of this young lady is the experience of many of us. We find it difficult to understand why God keeps silent many times when we need Him, even though we have tried to be His good followers. Why does he delay when we call Him, why allow us to experience misfortune?

The prophet Habakkuk in the first reading lived within the time when there was a pronounced injustice in Israel. The poor were greatly exploited by the rich. Their only hope was the Lord and when they cried to Him, all they got was that He told them to wait.

Dear friends, today’s readings call our minds to understand things according to the mind of God and will not ours. God blesses those who He loves but His blessings come at His own time. To serve God and to have an answer to our request, we must disassociate ourselves from giving God a time limit.

In the first reading, the Israelites expected God to respond to their worries as soon as possible but God told them to wait. Waiting is patience and that is faith. This is essential in our worship of God. Waiting is to allow things to happen at God’s time and in God’s timing, a thousand day is like a day (Ps 90:4).

From the gospel, when we are serving God and are performing all the responsibilities of our Christian call, we must see that simply as a duty we must perform and not a condition for God to favour us. We are mere servants who must perform the work entrusted to us (Mt 17:18).It is wrong to give God a condition; I have done this for you, now it is time for you to bless me. God is not a businessman and has not entered into any contract with anyone such that He must necessarily pay us immediately we are done with the contract. We must separate our servanthood (service to God) from the reward seeking mentality. However, whoever faithfully serves God will get a reward from Him at the proper time. The highest of the gifts is that at last we shall receive an absolute peace; the kingdom of God. 

Most times it is difficult to keep waiting for this Lord’s time. So what must we do? Like the apostles, first, we must pray to God always to increase our faith, the faith that will make us keep trusting even when it becomes difficult. Secondly, we must fan into flame the gift of God we have received when we became believers. This gift will  grant us courage when we are afraid. This we have received at confirmation and Pentecost. Faith is patience, when we possess it we shall be confident to wait for God’s fulfilment at the proper time. 

Homily by: 

Rev. Fr. Chukwuemeka VINCENT Livinus, SMMM.