Friday of 15^th Week, Year II: reflection

Theme: The power of Relationship Capital in our affair with God

Reading: Is 38:1-6.21-22:7-8

In human relationships, it is advocated that the parties involved do everything possible to build relationship capitals in one another. Relationship capital is the value created through building and maintaining or nurturing good relationship with people over time. This may be accomplished by consistently adhering to the rule of reciprocity, pursuing the wellbeing of partners, providing value to their lives, assisting them in achieving their objectives, meeting them at their various points of need, and so on.

These relationship capitals function like a bank. As we deposit money into our bank accounts and fall back on them when we are in need, we likewise deposit positive behaviors/impressions in our friends, thereby building a capital or trust base in them. We fall back on these capitals when we make appeals to our friends; our friends also fall back on these capitals to consider or reconsider their actions towards us, especially when there are issues in the relationship.  

The first reading of today tells us that there should also be a relationship capital in our relationship with God, and that such capital can help us to attract God’s intervention in our difficult moments. King Hezekiah was sick and has been told by the prophet that he will die. But then, he turned to God in prayers and reminded Him how faithful he had walked before Him, the good things he did for Him and for the people. God answered him, healed him and prolonged his life.

Dear friends, let not our relationship bank be empty in our affair with God. By being upright before God and sincerely making good impacts in peoples’ lives, we fill our relationship bank with goodies in our affair with God (the same should also happen in our affairs with human friends), goodies we can fall back on when we pray to God in times of troubles. So, start today to invest in your relationship with God.   

May God’s grace lead and guide you in today’s activities.

Fr Isaac Chima

 Thursday of 15^th Week, Year II: Reflection

Theme: Burdens become lighter when we share them with God

Reading: Mt 11:28-30

Dear friends in Christ, today's gospel reading is one of the shortest gospel readings for Masses in the Church's lectionary; nonetheless, it is a gospel reading that is rich with promises from Jesus' mouth, promises that speak to the situations in which God's people find themselves. In this gospel passage, Jesus speaks to all of us who have been burdened by the troubles and cares of this world, inviting us to come to Him for succor and rest.

Jesus does not promise to solve all of our problems, nor does He guarantee his followers a trouble-free life. But then He provides the grace needed to be victorious over problems as they come.

Those who stood and witnessed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being thrown into the burning furnace expected their God to demonstrate His power by extinguishing the flames of the furnace. But when God came down, He did not extinguish the fire; instead, He stood with them in the centre of the extra-heated furnace, keeping them alive in it by stopping the flames of fire from consuming them.

God's presence in and around us does not promise us a problem-free life, but it does provide us with the grace to deal with issues as they arise, because problems will not stop coming to us as long as we live in a world where people use political and financial problems as weapons to reach their ends.  

Therefore, don’t carry your heavy emotional, health, financial, marital, social or academic problems alone; instead, go to Christ today and share them with Him. In fact, hand them over to Christ, and you will see how light they will become; He will ensure that you emerge victorious over them all.

May Christ give you the grace to emerge victories over the challenges of this Thursday. Amen

Fr Isaac Chima

 

 Wednesday of 15^th Week, Year II: reflection

Theme: We are nothing without God; be grateful

Reading: Isaiah 10:5-7,13-16

Dear friends in Christ, during the 1990s and early 2000s, a Nigerian TV program concluded each episode with a lovely message that "we are like pencils in the hand of our creator." Indeed, we are like instruments in the hands of our Creator; without Him, we are nothing. In today's first reading, God posed several questions whose responses would remind us of who we truly are before Him. He asked: can an axe claim to be greater than the man who uses it? Is the saw more important than the man who saws with it? A club does not lift up a man; rather, a man lifts up a club.

These questions arose as a result of the arrogant behavior of the king of Assyria whom God aroused and used to destroy many pagan nations that refused to hearken to His voice. Full of himself, the Assyrian king began to boost of his might and started attributing combat successes to himself and to the strength of his arm, while also threatening Jerusalem, the city where God chose to dwell. Because of his arrogance and pride, God swore to withdraw his strength and to punish him accordingly. One might ask why God would use a pagan king to achieve his goals, but we know that God’s ways are not our ways.

Dear friends, our life is a gift from God; the breath that keeps us alive, our strength, our beauty, intelligence, and many more features that we rely on every day to make our millions are all from God. Most of the time, we are led to think that our wealth is the reflection of the strength of our hands and our connections, but we forget that without the breath of life from God, we will not be alive to achieve anything. Without the hands of God in our life, we are nothing and can’t achieve anything. This calls for humility and gratitude to God for all we are and all we have.

May God’s blessings be upon you are you embark on the activities of this Wednesday. Amen  

Fr Isaac Chima

 Tuesday of 15^th week, Year II: reflection

Theme: What we should do after receiving God’s blessings

Reading: Mt 11:20-24

Dear friends in Christ, our Lord Jesus speaks to our hearts through the gospel reading of today. He reminds us that there is a purpose for the miracles that we receive from God everyday of our lives. He also reminds us that every word that comes from his mouth should be reciprocated with appropriate positive action from us. He went further to tell us that there is a prize to pay for any failure to respond positively to his miracles and calls.

The catechism of the church teaches us that God created us to know Him, to love Him, to worship Him in this world, and then be with Him in heaven. In the same way, the miracles from God are meant to bring us closer to God, to appreciate God, and to change our old and sinful ways of lives. They are meant to show us how much our God loves us and desires to draw us closer to Him. They are not meant to satisfy our quest for fantasy.

The Gospel reading of today tells us that Christ looked at the cities of Chorazìn, Bethsaida, and Capernaum where He performed most of His miracles, and when He saw their inability to respond positively to his mighty works among them, he was filled with anger. Possibly, these cities failed to understand that those miracles were meant to draw them closer to God. Instead of responding positively to the miracles of Christ, they rather continued living in their old sinful lives.

My dearest people, our God has done many miracles in our lives. That we are alive today is a miracle from God because we are not holier than the dead. Every new day is a miracle from God. That we recover any time we fell sick is a miracle from God. That we can see, walk, talk, and have other good features of our body are indications of the love of God for us. Are we really grateful to God for all these? Today’s gospel challenges us to return praises to God for all these miracles by living a holy life and helping the needy.

Secondly, the gospel reminds us that Christ expects His words to bear the fruit of repentance in our lives. In the passage we read, Christ expected His words preached to the three cities of Chorazìn, Bethsaida, and Capernaum to lead them out of their sins, but they stayed comfortable in their sins even after hearing the words that called them to repentance. My dearest people, Jesus looks at us every day to check if we are responding positively to His words. He moves around us every day to check if His words are bearing fruits of love, forgiveness, repentance, charity, and peace in us. Let us not remain comfortable in our old sinful ways of life. Let us not get used to sin as the cities in the gospel reading of today did.

Finally, Jesus reminds us that there is a prize for every failure to put His words into practice. There is a price to pay when we refuse to respond to His miracles in our lives with living a holy life. In the gospel, he proclaimed woes on the cities of Chorazìn, Bethsaida, and Capernaum; He condemned them for their hardness of heart, and for their insensitivity.

May God give us the grace to respond positively to the miracles and words of Christ. Amen

Fr Isaac Chima

Monday of 15^th Week, Year II: reflection

Theme: The kind of prayer and offering acceptable to God

Reading: Is 1:10-17

Dear friends in Christ, our God cannot be bribed with gifts. God examines the hands with which gifts are offered to Him, and He rejects gifts offered to Him with hands soiled with blood, oppression, impurity, corruption and all forms of evil.

Some people believe they can hide their evil in the society by making large donations to churches or by marching towards the altar every Sunday with fat cows and other precious gifts. Sometimes, some people believe that by bringing costly sacrifices to God, despite their evil lifestyle, they will entice God to shower them with blessings. But God is saying in today’s first reading that such people are just wasting their time because their offerings and prayers are abominations before Him; He turns away from such prayers and offerings.

What, then, should we do to make our prayers or offerings acceptable to God? In today’s first reading, God says we should cleanse ourselves of our sins before appearing in His presence with our gifts and asking for favours; He says we should cease doing evil, and do good instead; then, in everything we do and everywhere we go, we should seek justice, correct oppression, defend the fatherless and plead the course of the widow.  When we act in this manner, our prayers will be acceptable to God and our offerings will be received in His sanctuary like incense.

May your new week be bountifully blessed. Amen

St. Bonaventure, pray for us.

Fr Isaac Chima 

 15^TH SUNDAY, YEAR B: HOMILY BY FR. JUSTIN ADIELE

THEME: “CALLED AND SENT TO BRING CHRIST TO THE PEOPLE”

INTRODUCTION:

At an international gathering of young people in New York, a young American asked a girl from Burma what is the religion of the religion of the majority of the Burmese. The young woman told him that it was Buddhism. The American not wanting to feel special nor offend her, replied her; “oh well, that doesn’t matter; all religions are the same.” But the Burmese girl retorted; “if you had lived in my country, you would not have said that. I have seen what centuries of superstition, fear and indifference to social problems have done to my people. We need the truth and the upliftment of Christianity. My country needs Christ.” Every corner of the world; our town, our village, our homes, our factories, and our schools… needs Christ. Jesus has called and sent you and I as disciples and committed Christians to bring Christ and the truth of the gospel to our world. We must not shy away from this nor miss the mark of our mission. We must not be around and yet God still lacks disciples and prophets to teach his people.

 

THE FIRST READING (AMOS 7: 12 – 15)

The first reading presents us with the worst case scenario of our world today. The priest Amaziah was present at Bethel yet God still had the need to look for a prophet. God even had to send a herdsman and a farmer; Amos to prophesy and minister the truth to his people. Our world is full of this scenario of plenty of Christianity and yet no Christians; the scenario of plenty of churches and pastors, yet no true conversion or spiritual direction going on; the scenario of plenty preachers, but no one is preaching the truth or the true gospel values of Christ to the people (In Igbo; “mmadu no, mmadu ako”).

 

THE SECOND READING (EPH. 1: 3 – 14)

In the second reading, St. reminded the Ephesians and reminds us today; the God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places; he has chosen us in Him, He has bestowed grace, forgiveness and redemption on us; and He has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of His will and His purpose and plans which he set forth in Christ. It is our duty then to foster this divine will and purpose of God in our world, leading the people around us to the gospel truth, to holiness, to blameless life and to the glory and possession of the heavenly kingdom.

 

THE GOSPEL READING (MK. 6: 7 – 13)

The gospel reading captured the call and first mission Jesus sent his Apostles. Interestingly, they went with nothing except with the authority of Jesus Christ. They preached peace and repentance to the people; they visited and healed the sick and cast out demons. We all share in this apostolic mission of preaching and bringing peace to our families and communities; we all share in the mission of bringing people to repent and believe in the gospel; and we all share in the mission of bringing healing to our sick world, and delivering and casting out the demon of corruption everywhere we go.

 

CONCLUSION:

Beloved brethren, we have been blessed and anointed at baptism, and we carry in good and varied measures, the authority of Christ as king, priest and prophet. Let us not compromise our faith and our mission like Amaziah the priest in the first reading, because of the things and glories of this world. Let us not keep God busy still searching for real Christians who would do for Him what you and I could have done for God; that is, bringing Christ and His gospel message to his people.

Happy Sunday!

Fr. Justin

 15^th Sunday, Year B: Homily by Fr Isaac Chima

Theme: Materialism: the enemy of our priestly and prophetic mission

Reading: Amos 7:12-15; Eph 1:3-14; Mk 6:7-13

Dear friends in Christ, last Sunday, we were reminded that on the day of our baptism, we were anointed with the oil of Chrism, made priests and prophets and commissioned to free our world of evil, to admonish wrongdoers and help in the building up of the kingdom of God on earth. We were told that this prophetic mission would face many obstacles from the world, then, we were taught how to deal with such obstacles when they come.

This Sunday, the Church reminds us that obstacles to our prophetic and priestly mission in the world can also come from within us, from our desires and how we treat material things. The Church tells us that how we manage or value material things in this world may distract us from God and from the mission He gave us.

In the gospel reading of today, Jesus sent out his disciples on a missionary journey. He gave them authority over unclean spirits and instructed them against materialism. They were not to take any money, bread, bag, or extra tunic. At the end of their mission, they came back with good news that demons were cast out and the sick were healed. Their testimony demonstrates that the success of our prophetic mission does not depend on material things.

Why did Jesus instruct His disciples not to go on mission with those material needs? The first reason was to help his disciples to stay focused on their mission to preach, heal and correct errors. Jesus knew the power and influence of materialism, and that any person trapped by the love of material things will surely lose focus on his mission. The second reason was to make the disciples fully dependent on Him as they carry out their service among the people. Every missionary draws his strength and directive from the Lord of the mission, Jesus Christ, rather than from material things. We know that whoever places a higher value on material things will prioritize them over his mission, and will do everything possible to obtain them, including doing things that contradict his mission.

Dear friends, today’s gospel is calling us to disconnect ourselves from anything that can divert our attention from Jesus and the mission he gave us, it invites us to detach ourselves from anything that could prevent us from speaking the truth, denouncing evil, and correcting others. It could be material wealth; it could be friends or attitudes. It rather encourages us to only go with the staff, our symbol of authority and support with which we can wage war against errors in the society and pull back those who are going astray; and our sandals to protect us from being contaminated by the dirt in the society, by the wrong which we are fighting against.  

The first reading showed us how love for material things can undermine the mission given to us by God. Amaziah was a priest in Northern Israel, a city where the people suffered from social injustice. God commissioned him to preach against social injustice and liberate the people. However, Amaziah’s love for material things diverted his attention from his mission. Instead of preaching against evil in the city, Amaziah got himself entangled with the rich who oppressed the people and then used his position to consolidate the evil status quo in the city. Amaziah traded his voice for material gains; he valued material things over his mission and his God.

It was because of the failure of Amaziah and other prophets in their prophetic and priestly mission in Northern Israel that God chose Amos from Southern Israel, made him a prophet and sent him to prophesy in Northern Israel. As we saw in the first reading, Amaziah confronted Amos and ordered him to leave northern Israel so that Amos will not shut the source of their material benefits. Dear friends, attachment to material things or inordinate love for material things can destroy our relationship with God, it can make us choose evil over good, it can make us choose the devil over God, it can close our mouth from saying the truth, , it can darken our minds and our conscience to the point that we will no longer see evil where there is evil, it can make us to compromise our good values, it can make us abandon the Church and our relationship with God in pursuit of material gains. We have seen the number of people that come to Church these days. Most people prioritize their businesses and farms over their relationship with God.

In the second reading, St Paul reminded us that God chose us for His mission in Christ before the foundation of the world and that He has already blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places to ensure the success of our mission. Therefore, becoming attached to material things will not help our mission; rather, it will expose us to contamination from the same errors we are meant to correct. Thus, to have authority over unclean spirits and correct errors as Jesus mandated us, St Paul urges us to be blameless and holy, so that we can show superiority over the mundane mentalities of this world and errors in the society.

Peace be with you.  

Fr Isaac Chima