2^nd Sunday of Easter, Year B: Reflection by Fr Julian Ekeh

THEME: THE GOD OF ANOTHER CHANCE COMES FOR YOU (Divine Mercy Sunday)

(John 20:19-31)

Today, the second Sunday of Easter is the Sunday of Divine Mercy.

Today, being the eighth day after the resurrection of the Lord, we call to mind the great mercy of God even in our unbelief and sinfulness. We have a God who gives us chances, first, second, and more chances. Do we utilize these opportunities?

The Gospel of today shows us manifestations of the mercy of God on the universal Church, in the life of the disciples, of the apostles and even in the life of Thomas the doubter. Jesus comes for you again and again to meet you in your weakness. He comes with peace and the Holy Spirit. He comes with reconciliation.

RECONCILES WITH THE RECONCILERS

The disciples had lost their friendship with Christ on account of their betrayal at different levels, disappointments, ingratitude, denials, abandonments, etc. They were filled with guilt, sorrows, shame, fears, troubles, regrets, and feeling that they had failed. They lost their peace of mind. Jesus came in as they shut themselves because of fear of the Jews.

Jesus stood

Jesus stood and watched Peter, watched all the apostles, and remembered their involvements in breaking His heart. He watched and saw them feel very sorry. He saw what was lacking in them; peace. They never expected it, but Jesus surprised them with it in His merciful love. He said: Peace be with you. This means: "I have made peace with you on the cross", " I have forgiven you", "We are friends once again", "Let's forget about the past", "Let's move on" 'Udo ka mma' (peace is better). Jesus gave them yet another chance to experience His mercy and compassion.

JESUS MAKES THE APOSTLES RECONCILERS

Jesus did not only get reconciled with His apostles He went forward to make them reconcilers. He entrusted the message of reconciliation into their hands. He gives them His Spirit, the Spirit to bind and lose, the power to forgive sins, and even to retain them. He restored the 'God breathedness' lost in Adam once more. He breathed upon them and filled them. Thus, the community of the apostles present got both the forgiveness of Christ and the power to forgive.

MERCY FOR THE INDIVIDUAL- THOMAS

For some reasons, Thomas was absent when Jesus visited the community of the apostles. For that, he doubted and wouldn't believe that Jesus is risen, that He who had these wounds, pains, scars, who died such a shameful death could just come back to easily forgive and restore his betrayers.  He challenged God, and Jesus came just for him. He gave him another chance of seeing Him. He gave him another chance of being forgiven, He gave him another special opportunity of touching Him. And the mercy and love of Christ amazed Him that He concluded that no man can do these. His eyes opened to see the God in Christ, and He proclaimed: My Lord and my God!

JESUS COMES TO YOU WITH MERCY

You see, Jesus comes to us with mercy, true love, and compassion. He knows we can't do without it. He knows how weak we are. He knows that we can err. He knows we are human, that we are made from humus, that we are fallible. But He doesn't want us to perish in the dust of sin, of shame, of immorality, of corruption. He raises us in the sacrament of reconciliation, nourishes in communion, and wants us to confess our sins and receive His mercy whenever we fall. He wants to hear us call for mercy. He hears our cry for mercy and heals us when we ask for forgiveness.

LET'S BE MERCIFUL

The Lord Jesus wants us to be filled with His mercy and show mercy to others. He wants to live in love. He wants us to forgive one another. Jesus wants us to have mercy on people around us. Jesus wants us to feel with the poor and the needy; those in need of our spiritual gifts, our moral support, our forgiveness, our peace, and our reconciliation.

Let us be merciful like our heavenly Father.

May God bless His word in our hearts.

LET US PRAY

We ask for your mercy, Oh Lord. We can't do without it. Plunge us into the ocean of Your Mercy. Forgive us our sins, and help us to take the chances You offer us in the sacrament of reconciliation seriously. Pardon us, Lord, give us Your peace and fill us with Your Spirit, restore to us the joy of our salvation through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Happy Easter/ Divine Mercy Sunday (Yr B)

Rev Fr Julian O Ekeh

 

2ND SUNDAY OF EASTER, YR B: HOMILY BY FR. JUSTIN ADIELE

THEME: LIVING AND SHARING IN THE MERCY OF GOD

INTRODUCTION:

Today being the second Sunday of Easter, we celebrate the Feast of the Divine Mercy of God which we are all living in and sharing in. And as such, we cannot live in denial of his mercies. The whole commemoration of the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus, is a commemoration of what Jesus has shared with us; his self-donation (his life) and his merciful love, by which we are now adopted, sanctified, forgiven and redeemed children of God. Our command, mandate and simple challenge today is to also mercifully share ourselves, our life, our love, and our goods with everyone around us.

 

THE FIRST READING (ACTS. 4: 32 – 35)

In the first reading of today, we read about the first company of believers who adapted immediately to living and sharing in mercy of God, they learnt to possess and share everything in common and to live to share with others, their earthly goods. Jesus came that we may have a share in his divine nature and heavenly riches/possessions. What we do not possess before, we now possess and share through Jesus Christ; that is, eternal life. We must practically learn to share with others every good we possess which they do not yet possess; be it faith, the gospel message, or anything God has blessed us with.

 

THE SECOND READING (1 JN. 5: 1 – 7)

In the second reading, we are meant to understand that living and sharing in the mercy of God with others is not just an option for all believers in God, but a command and rule of life that they must obey. If we believe in God, love God, and are born of God, we must keep his commandments which center on “love of one another”. When you love one another, you would be merciful and charitable enough to let others have a share in your earthly goods and blessings.

 

THE GOSPEL READING (JN. 20: 19 – 31)

In the gospel reading after Jesus had earlier shared with his apostles his own life, time, gospel, office/mission, and all heavenly secrets as he has heard from the Father, He went ahead today to share with them his office or throne of mercy. He sent them, as the Father sent him, and gave them the authority to forgive sins at the sacrament of penance. What we call presidential pardon today, Jesus leveraged and made easily accessible for us through his bishops and priests. Simply put, he made mercy and pardon readily available to the most common of men, and we are all living and sharing in it.

 

CONCLUSION

Brethren, it is barbaric when we receive forgiveness, but cannot forgive others; when we receive mercy and cannot be merciful ourselves. We cannot be living by the mercy of God, living in the mercy of God and yet we cannot share that mercy with others. Whatever we are now or possess now, it is by the grace and mercy of God, says St. Paul. (cf. 1 Cor. 15: 10). Like the first believers today, we must learn to share those physical or spiritual goods which we have mercifully and graciously received from our heavenly Father. God allowed us to live and share in his mercy, we must also allow others to live and share in our mercy.

Happy Sunday!

Be Merciful and sharing like the Father!

Fr. Justin

 

Friday of Easter Octave: reflection

Theme: THE SAVING NAME OF JESUS

Acts 4:1-12

Dear friends, we have a name above other names, a name at whose mention all knees in heaven, on earth and under the earth will bow (Phil 2:10). It is the name of Jesus, the savior who conquered death and gave us victory over our own death. His name heals, liberates and restores lost glories.

When Peter called on the name of Jesus with faith (Acts 3:6), the crippled man at the Beautiful gate was healed and his lost glories were restored. In today’s first reading, Peter was summoned by the priests and Sadducees to explain how he restored the health of the crippled man. Peter raised his voice and told them that it was by the name of Jesus Christ that the man was healed, that there is no other name by which we must be saved but the name of Jesus, and that there is no salvation anywhere else except in Jesus (Acts 4:12).

Let us begin each day by kneeling down and calling upon the name of Jesus Christ with faith; let us start every project and every activity by calling upon the name of Jesus. His name makes rough ways plain, restores what has been damaged or lost, liberates people from bondages, heals our infirmities, opens doors to success and protects all who cover themselves with it.

As you step out for the business of this Friday, may the name of Jesus lead and protect you. Amen.

Fr Isaac Chima

 Thursday of Easter Octave: reflection

Theme: Not to us, but to your name be the glory, Lord

Reading: Acts 3:11-26

In today’s first reading, I wish to call your attention to Peter’s first response to the people gathered around him and John in Solomon’s Portico. After Peter and John had healed the lame man at the Beautiful gate, he clung to them, thereby drawing the attention and admiration of the people to them. Then, Peter told them: “men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk?” He simply went on to tell them that it was Jesus’ name and faith in His name that healed the man.

We didn’t see Peter claiming that the man was healed because his altar was more powerful than the altars of other apostles, or that the man was healed because he released a triple dose of ‘abido shaker’ power. Also, Peter didn’t tell the crowd that the man was healed because he had prepared himself in the desert by fasting for 100 days. Yet, for many people of our time, men who lay claims such as these as the reason why miracles are flowing in their churches are the real men of God. It is a pity.

The lesson we should learn today is that whoever refuses to acknowledge Jesus as the power behind any miracle recorded in ‘his or her church’ did not perform such miracle through the power of Jesus, because the devil also performs wonders. This does not mean that all who shout Jesus! Jesus!! are disciples of Jesus. However, whoever is an instrument in the hand of Jesus will always realize that glories and praises from miracles should go to Jesus and not to him or her, and that every miracle is an opportunity to draw people closer to Jesus, as Peter did in today’s first reading, rather than an opportunity to flex his or her muscles.

May God bless and protect you as you face the activities of this Thursday. Amen.

Fr Isaac Chima

 

Wednesday of Easter Octave: reflection

Theme: SOMETHING MORE THAN GOLD AND SILVER

Readings: Acts 3:1-10; Lk 24:13-35

In today’s first reading, there was a crippled man who laid daily at the Beautiful gate of the temple to ask for alms. Obviously, he was receiving the help he requested from the crowd that went in and out of the temple. However, the silver and gold he received from the people as alms could not lift him up from his situation, they did not bring back the glory his condition made him to lose, for he returned to that same gate every other day to beg for alms.   

On the day he met Peter and John, he received from them something that was more than gold and silver – the name of Jesus – and his condition changed, his lost glory was restored, he received the ability to make his own silver and gold, and he never returned to the Beautiful gate again to beg.

Silver and gold can satisfy our daily material needs, but they cannot restore what has been stolen from us by the evil one; only Jesus can do this for us. Jesus is more than silver and gold and does more than silver and gold in the lives of those who recognize Him with faith.

I pray that you will have the Emmaus experience today, that opening of faith which will help the scales to fall from your eyes so that you will realize the power of the One in whose name you have been baptized, the power of the One whose body is offered to you free of charge. I pray that you will have this divine opening, like the disciples of Emmaus, to realize that even in the midst of your confusions, doubts, anxieties and depressions, Jesus is journeying by your side, and longing to give you something more than gold and silver, so that what you lost will be fully restored.

By the power of Christ’s resurrection, may your Wednesday be blessed and fruitful. Amen.

Fr Isaac Chima.  

 

Tuesday of Easter Octave: reflection

THEME: SAVE YOURSELF FROM THIS CROOKED GENERATION

Acts: 2:36-41

In today's first reading, Peter concluded his exhortation on the day of Pentecost by urging his listeners, who had realized their mistakes in the role they played in the betrayal of Jesus, to save themselves from this crooked generation. 

Is this call to save oneself from this crooked generation still relevant today? The answer is undoubtedly a resounding YES. These days, more than ever, the call to save ourselves from this corrupt and crooked generation is appropriate.

We live in a world where money can buy everything. Ours is a world where antilife programs are sponsored by global leaders and influential figures in the culture industries with funds that could have been used to better the lives of the impoverished masses. In this generation, taboos and evil in all its manifestations are marketed as normal lifestyle, choices or indications that there are alternative lifestyles, while the good is labelled as outdated and unprogressive. We might even say that we live in a society where many forms of evil are accepted as norms, masqueraded as a human right, and supported by funds intended for the general welfare of the underprivileged. Do we not live in a time where a great number of people are merrily and quickly making their way towards eternal damnation?

From the tomb of our Lord Jesus comes a new life full of hope, a force that can help those who embrace it in turning their lives around in order to save themselves from this generation that is rushing towards eternal damnation. The resurrection of Jesus equips those who allow themselves to be influenced by it with the power to do what their frail human nature normally would not allow them to do. Christ’s resurrection gives us the strength to break away from our old life of sin and embrace a new life of grace and hope.

I pray that the power of Christ's resurrection will free you from the bonds of the evil one. Amen

Fr Isaac Chima

 

Monday of Easter Octave: reflection

Theme: LET NOT YOUR VOICE BE BOUGHT BY MONEY.

Reading: Mt 28:8-15

 

In the gospel reading of today, we witnessed money doing the dirty job it has consistently done in our own world. For money, people sell their souls to the devil, sell their bodies, commit murder, betray their friends and families and tell all kinds of lies; for money, our politicians trample on the people they should represent and serve; for money in brown envelops, our journalists spin facts or jettison the truth and boldly promote false narratives. People do a lot of atrocities in our world just for money.

The gospel narrative of today informed us that the soldiers who witnessed the resurrection of Jesus were bought with money by the chief priests so that they can jettison the truth and, then, spread a false narrative. For money, they silenced their conscience, sold the truth and bought lies, which they spread abroad in place of the truth. They acted like most of our journalists.

The fact that their false narrative did not stand the test of time should be a warning to all those who are enticed or bought by money to do dirty jobs; lies cannot last forever.

Dear friends, we should not allow our bodies, souls, consciences, and voices to be bought by money. Any money made from trading our bodies, souls, consciences, and voices will do us no good in the long run.

Happy New Month.

May God grant you the grace to realize your good plans for this month. Amen.

 Fr Isaac Chima