GOD’S MERCY IS FROM AGE TO AGE EVEN THINGS ARE DIFFICULT. (Homily for Saturday of the 3RD Week in Advent, Year C.)


Bible Study: Judges 13, 2 to 25. And Luke 1, 5 to 25.


In the course of my four-year study of theology, one of the greatest lessons I learnt is that God is beyond what we can fully understand, that is, we can never fully predict God or put him in a straight-jacket, we can only tell what he has done, we can never know what is capable of doing or what he cannot do. So when I thought my study of theology will help me know God better, it only made me realise the depth of my ignorance so what books or intellectual activity cannot fathom, I simply look forward to the divine inspiration for answers.

Today’s readings when approached from surface value, honestly raise a lot of questions: “If God knew that he wanted to make a great man Samson, why did he first ensure that his parents would remain childless for so many years? And in the case of Zechariah and Elizabeth, why did God allow them to bear shame and ridicule by being childless for so long before he decided to give them John the Baptist? Can you imagine how Zachariah, being a priest must have prayed for many people while his own prayer remained unanswered for so long? Couldn’t this be the reason for his doubt in the power of God such that even when the angel visited him in the temple, he still could afford to question God?

Dear friends, the Gospel truth is that God is a merciful God. He does not allow his children to suffer for nothing, he is not a sadist who takes pleasure in seeing his children go through pain. God is merciful even when it seems as though he is quiet and uninterested in us. God’s mercy remains with us even when our prayers are not answered and it seems all we get are opposite results. God’s mercy is there even when others now make us a laughing stock or begin to describe us with our problem. Elizabeth’s nick name was “the barren woman.” Angel Gabriel described her to Mary as “the one who people call barren.”

God is still merciful even when it seems as if we are dying in silence, even when we think God is merciless by allowing us suffer so much, his gentle gaze remains ever upon us and when we are completely down to nothing, when we have nothing else to look up to, when we have completely lost all hope in ourselves or in our abilities, God comes in, God is a specialist in raising up greatness from nothingness. Even the first man Adam was made from ordinary dust. God knows how to turn ashes into gold, he knows how to raise up dry bones and put flesh in them.

At times, we could get provoked with God as to why he allows certain seemingly negative things happen to us, at times, it seems as if it has become too much for us to bear and we begin to seek for alternative solutions. We gradually give up in prayer and even when we say we are praying, our minds are really not there anymore and we are not expecting anything to happen as a result of our prayers. We may even be inside the church but deep down within us, we are calculating what next to do, who to meet and where we would go for quicker solutions. Dear friends, we must remember that prayers are most powerful precisely when it seems as if they have become useless. Just listen to the words of Angel Gabriel to Zachariah: “Do not be afraid, Zachariah, for your prayer is heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son…”

We need to go beyond our present challenges and see the Gentle gaze of God just looking at us from above with love and mercy like a father looking at his little baby as he tries to arrange a puzzle game. Once we are assured of God’s mercy, the question we should be asking is not “Why must we suffer at all if God really loves us?” but “What is God in his love for us trying to teach us with this suffering?”

God allowed the women in our readings today to suffer the ridicule of barrenness in other to make them realise the extent of his greatness and power. God likes to act with that which the world considers useless, the stone rejected by the builder, that which the world considers impossible so that it can be clear to us that it is not by our power or intelligence, it is not because of anything we possess physically, and we dare not ascribe any glory to ourselves or our abilities. At the end, the parents of Samson as well as the parents of John the Baptist could see that it was not because of what they possessed physically that produced the children they bore.


Let us Pray:
Lord Jesus, strengthen me when things are most difficult that I may never give up trusting in your love and Mercy. Amen.


Good morning. Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. Happy weekend.

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