THE BITTER TRUTH: SIN AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. (Homily for February 1, 2016. Monday of the 4th Week in Ordinary Time.)

Bible Study:  2 Samuel 15, 13 to 30; 16, 5 to 13. And Mark 5, 1 to 20.

Good morning my dear people of God. Happy New Week and Happy New Month to you all. It is the second month of the year and if you can read this, it means you are alive and that is enough reason to just be happy and give thanks to God Almighty. This week our readings shall be presenting us with some very hard and bitter truths some of which might be too difficult to swallow and some of which might move us to tears.

Sir Isaac Newton’s third law of motion states that: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This law is so true that it can be applied to every aspect of life. Today we read about how David found himself running for his own dear life. He was running not from some great enemy from another kingdom but from his own son, Absalom. This is David who was considered to be the greatest king that ever reigned, everything was going on well for him until he sinned.

Here comes the bitter truth for today: Every sin carries with it an equal and opposite punishment. By the very fact that David took what belonged to another man, that which was his own was taken away from him. I was shocked when I read the full story of how Absalom his own son, dealt with David to the point that what David did in secret, Absalom did in the open view of all Israel.

We must bear in mind that by avoiding sin, we are not doing God a favour! God has told us to avoid sin because he loves us and knows what is best for us. So if we decide to give in sin, we must be prepared for the consequences. One may then ask: “Where does mercy come in?” “Can’t I just go for confession and get pardon.” Woe to us if we hide under the guise of confession to commit sin.

Come to think of it, did David beg for pardon? Didn’t he put on sackcloth and rubbed ashes upon his head? Did he not fast for three days without eating any food? But did all that prevent what we read in today’s reading? We just have to face the truth. Yes, God is merciful and we can always go for confession but as Chinua Achebe would say: “The man who brings home ant infested firewood should not complain when lizards start to visit.”

Another bitter truth surfaces in our Gospel passage this morning: That we humans prefer money to God! We would rather loose Jesus than lose our wealth and investments. After Jesus cured legion, the demoniac, the evil spirits rushed into the herd of swine and all two thousands of them rushed into the seas and drowned. The people came around and instead of them to rejoice that the man had been set free, they considered the huge economic loss and BEGGED JESUS TO LEAVE THEIR TOWN.

How often do we drive Jesus away from our business arena?

If you were to choose between all the wealth you have and Jesus, which would you go for? If religion demands losing all you have, how many of us will still be Christians? How often do our prayers centre around increment in wealth thereby making money our ultimate concern and God our wealth provider or ATM machine. You know we don’t value the ATM machine, instead it is the money it produces we value. The truth is that God is saying to us, you must love me and value me more than every other thing in existence and this is the very first commandment.

Let us Pray:

Lord Jesus, impart in me an hatred for sin and a deeper love of you. Amen.

God bless you. Good morning. Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. Happy New Month. I wish you a Fabulous February.

SWALLOWING THE BITTER PILL OF TRUTH IN GOD’S WORD. (Homily for January 31, 2016. Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time. Year C.)

Bible Study:  Jeremiah 1, 4 to 5 and 17 to 19. 1^st Corinthians 12, 31 to 13, 13. And Luke 4, 21 to 30.

 

The saying that truth is bitter comes alive powerfully in our liturgy today. If you recall, last Sunday, we noted that the word of God is living, alive and active sharper than any two edged sword able to pierce the division between bones and marrow. The reason why God’s word is a sharp sword is because it is TRUTH. And there are two ways we humans react to the truth, we either become weakened by it (moved to tears) or we resist it and fight against the person who is telling us the truth.

Last Sunday, we read about how the Prophet Ezra gathered the people of Israel and read the Bible to them from morning till about noon, and when the people heard it, they were moved to tears. They cried because they acknowledged their sins upon being confronted with the Truth of God’s words just like David was reduced to tears when Nathan confronted him with his wicked act of adultery and murder. Today, we see the opposite reaction, Jesus comes to his hometown and confronts his own people with TRUTH and behold they were filled with wrath and wanted to send him to an early grave.

We have strong feelings when we discover that someone has lied to us or deceived us. Isn’t it? How do you feel when you know the truth already and somebody is lying to you vigorously, even swearing with his head? We want the truth, even the unpleasant and painful truth. As much as we pride ourselves with love for the truth, most times by our actions, we are practically not ready for it. This explains why we find it so difficult to read the Bible on our own. We rather prefer to hear people preach to us picking out certain juicy verses from the Bible out of context which in the end only makes us feel good about ourselves and remain stuck in sin.

For instance, looking at our first reading today, I am pretty sure we may have heard over and over again the verse which states: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” But in all honesty, how many of us have also heard the other verse which states “Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them.”? Say the truth, aren’t you seeing for the first time that in that same chapter of Jeremiah which has been quoted over and over again, God is saying “They will fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you…”?

How many of us have taken out time on our own to read the whole Bible cover to cover? Only very few of us! Why? TRUTH IS BITTER, and like a bitter herb, we would rather prefer not to take it and remain in our sickness than to be cured once and for all. We still find it difficult to read God’s words not because we do not have the time but because we cannot withstand the truth. We like the easy path, the sweet road, the side of milk and sugar and even when we know that the Kingdom of God involves carrying a cross and following the narrow path of difficulty, we like to believe that somehow somehow, we can make it through the broad street.

What was the truth that made the people so uncomfortable and wanted to kill Jesus? As Jesus was speaking, they started wondering how those gracious words managed to come out of his lips. They soon realised that for him to be talking like this, there was an element of Divinity in him, the truth that God was in their midst started dawning on them but for the mere fact that they knew Jesus very well and watched him grow, they couldn’t swallow this heavy pill of truth. So rather than being moved to tears, they sharply resisted it, they started murmuring: “Is this not Joseph’s son?”

It is easy to condemn Jesus’ listeners for not accepting the truth but how about if we turn to ourselves now. “Do I recognise God in my fellow human being?” “Am I able to see beyond flesh and blood, beyond tribe and colour, beyond language and ethnicity and see God in the people around me?” Before you answer “yes”, consider what St. Paul is saying in our second reading. If we are able to see God in people, then love would be our ultimate goal and concern. We do not love as we should because we do not see God in people.

And when we use the word “love,” it is far from that which St. Paul is describing to us today. We only love when it suits us, when we stand to gain something or when the going is smooth. The moment we are offended or hurt, we instantly snap out of love yet St. Paul is saying, “Love does not rejoice in wrong and Love never ends.” If you have “loved” someone before and you no longer love that person again, then take it from me that you never really loved in the first place. You thought you loved, but you were just into yourself. To love is see God in the person and then, there is no room for carnal desires and all that sinfulness that masquerade under the name of love.

Jesus, knowing that his listeners couldn’t withstand the truth that God could take human flesh, he said: “No prophet is acceptable in his own country.” As if this was not enough, Jesus went ahead to drop another SOLID TRUTH; that all humans regardless of race, colour, tribe or nationality are loved equally by God and stand the chance of enjoying his favour as long as they have FAITH. This was the truth contained indirectly in the two examples cited by Jesus. Both the widow of Zarephath who fed Elijah with the last morsel of flour she had and Naaman who agreed to bath in the river Jordan were not Jews yet because their actions were spurred by faith, they received miraculous favours. But then, to the audience of Jesus, this was too much insult! They couldn’t hold take the truth so they rushed him out the synagogue to the brow of the hill intending to throw him down. Thank God, Jesus was smart, he slipped through their midst and escaped for his dear life.  

If these people could not accept the truth, how about you and I sitting here today? Have we accepted the truth? Are we going to be moved with tears for our sins of discrimination, segregation, ethnic favouritism, son of the soil mentality and hatred over others for not belonging to our group, or are we going to walk out of this church today further hardening our hearts to love? Are we going to throw Jesus down the hill by failing to represent his name by our sinful actions or are we going to allow our readings today open our heart to true love which does not discriminate?

Finally, my dear brothers and sisters, like Jeremiah, we all are called today to be prophets. And what makes us prophets? It is nothing other than our ability to accept the truth by reading the Bible, to love the truth by putting the Bible into practice and to tell the truth by the way we live. We are called to be people of truth by word and by example. True religion is not about coming to church, it is about serving God in spirit and in truth. And we must remember that truth is bitter. People do not like the truth. So as prophets that we all are, when we speak the truth by our words or when our actions proclaim the truth, we must be prepared for war! Yes, we must be prepared for hatred. We must get ready for a fight.

God assures us through Jeremiah, people will fight hard to pull us down, they will try all means to shut our mouth and make us compromise to evil. They will try to blackmail us into falsehood but we must remember what God says, “Do not be dismayed by them lest I dismay you before them.” Do not fear those who kill the body but can do nothing more. One musician sang, “If you stand for the truth, you will always stand alone.” Yes, truth is bitter but it is the only way out. Keep living in the truth, keep speaking the truth, let them fight you as hard as they can, don’t worry, they will never prevail against you for I AM WITH YOU SAYS THE LORD TO DELIVER YOU.

Let us Pray:

Lord Jesus, even though truth is bitter, may its bitterness cleanse me of my sins and open my heart to love you above all else and my neighbour as myself. Amen.

God bless you. Good morning. Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. Happy Sunday.

REPENTANCE IS SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS. (Homily for January 30, 2016. Saturday of the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time.)

Bible Study:  2 Samuel 12, 1 to 7 and 10 to 17. And Mark 4, 35 to 41.

To live in sin is to be blind, deaf and dumb. A blind man’s eyes may be open just like that of everyone but the difference is that all he sees is darkness, he is able to make sense of objects and images that reflect upon his eyes. When David got involved with another man’s wife, he was acting in blindness. It took the power of Nathan’s storytelling skill to open his eyes to his crime.

Hear how David reacted to the character of story: “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die; and he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity.” Unknown to David, he was simply passing a judgement on himself. Come to think of it, if the prophet Nathan had not come to see him, David would have quietly congratulated himself for his smartness in taking another man’s wife and stylishly killing her husband.

From the above, it is clear that it is possible for us to be blind without knowing it. It is also possible to be dumb, unable to speak the truth like Nathan did. It takes a truly spiritual person to be bold enough to confront one in such a highly placed position with the truth. Growth in in the Spirit comes with a certain degree of fearlessness and a commitment to what is right regardless of power, wealth or position.

Of all the sins, we humans tend to struggle with, there is none is pervasive as the sin of sexual immorality. It seems like the major sin of both the old the young, it is the one sin that pulls down kingdoms and brings mighty men and women to their kneels. This is because of all other sins, it is one that affects the whole of the human body and to overcome it, we must be conscious that we are more than mere flesh.

St. Paul admonishes us in 1^st Corinthians 6, 18 to 20 saying: “Shun immorality. Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body; but the immoral man sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” Furthermore, Proverbs 5, 15 to 20 contains good advice for us. “Drink water from your own cistern…” You may read it the rest on your own.

Inability so see ourselves as Spirit beings, temples of the Holy Spirit amounts to blindness. Repentance opens our eyes and makes us see the truth clearly and live it out. The whole world may call it blue but only those whose eyes are really open will call it by its real colour. Just as the whole disciples of Jesus had course for panicking because of the “storms” they saw, Jesus alone woke up and saw “opportunity.” He simply commanded the wind and it obeyed. He asked them: “Why are you afraid?” In the same way, Jesus is asking us today, “Why are you blind?” “Can’t you see your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit?”

As we come to the end of our reflections this week, it is my prayer that God may grant us the grace to be truly repentant and to say permanent good-byes to any sin in our life just as St. Paul did when God arrested him on the road to Damascus. We began our week with St. Paul’s conversion and we are ending with David’s realization of sin. Both St. Paul and David become our reference points for total conversion and repentance.

Let us Pray:

Lord Jesus, thank you for opening my eyes today once blinded like St. Paul on his way to persecute Christians. Help me to reject sin and to live entirely for you alone. Amen.

God bless you. Good morning. Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. Happy Weekend

REPENTANCE: SOWING THE RIGHT SEED AND GROWING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. (Homily for January 29, 2016. Third Friday in Ordinary Time.)

Bible Study:  2 Samuel 11, 1 to 10 and 13 to 17. And Mark 4, 26 to 34.

As we continue our reflections this week on the theme of repentance, today’s readings drive home the point that VIRTUE JUST LIKE VICE IS NOT AUTOMATIC. We do not suddenly fall into sin neither do we suddenly become spiritual giants in seconds. Repentance does not happen within a flash of light, and at the same time, one does not fall into sin just like that. There is always a process of seed sowing, watering, waiting, deliberation and growth before the final output.

In our Gospel passage this morning, Jesus compares the kingdom of God to a seed which a man scatters on the ground. While he goes to sleep, he does not how the seeds grow but he notices a gradual development, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain and finally the harvest. The spiritual life is pretty much the same. The progression from habitual sins to virtue takes a definite process.

Repentance begins by sowing the right seeds in your life. That is, allowing God’s words enter your heart daily, then you meditate on those words by constantly repeating them in your psyche. Gradually, you start putting them into practice, your vocabulary itself changes, you begin to form new habits and with continuous progress in a positive direction, you soon become what God’s words demand of you.

The kingdom of God is like a grain of mustard seed. Your beginning might seem small and you may even get discouraged at first wondering if you will ever be able to put sin behind you but that word of God which you allow into your spirit everyday has the potential to make you into Saint. It becomes the biggest of the shrubs.

Just as virtue grows, vice also takes a gradual development. In our first reading, we encounter an idle king taking a walk along the roof of his palace. From idleness to lust, from lust to adultery, from adultery to murder. Sin progresses! Ordinarily, one may say being idle is okay but can you see what idleness leads to? Almost all the sins we commit can be traceable to our quest for entertainment or our attempt to deal with boredom.

Repentance would begin when you start thinking seriously about moderating or censoring your channels of entertainment. Just think about the lyrical content of modern day music, films and even television shows. Satan quietly plants seeds of immorality and indecency in our hearts when our minds are less busy and unconsciously we begin to crave for sin. As much as we cannot completely avoid moments of rest and relaxation, we must be on guard and remain spiritually conscious.

Consider the fact that it was only after Jesus had completed his fasting for forty days and forty nights that Satan tempted him with turning stones to bread. Those moments we let down our guard, when we feel we have given God his due, those moments we want to just relax and have fun are moments we encounter our greatest temptations! If the process of having fun begins to involve sin, then the fun itself is no longer funny because we would only end up crying and regretting at the later on.

To be spiritually alive is to be able to distinguish entertainment or relaxation from temptation! Repentance demands that we grow in the right direction, that we consistently carry our little acts of holiness till they become building blocks of character. The reason why certain sins are hard for you to quit is because they have become engraved into your character and the only way out is the same way in. That is, continuous rejection of evil, continuous working in the opposite direction or as Jesus puts it, planting the right seeds. Like a child learning how to walk, you must celebrate every victory over temptation, you must begin afresh and never give up in the direction of the narrow path till you re-build your character again.

Let us Pray:

Lord Jesus, teach me to avoid those little sins and to see them instead as bad seeds preventing me from living in your light. Nurture your word in me every day that I may grow tall and strong in spirit. Amen.

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

REPENTANCE IS LIVING A LIFE OF INTEGRITY. (Homily for January 28, 2016. Memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas.)

Bible Study:  2 Samuel 7, 18 to 29. And Mark 4, 21 to 25.

The words of Jesus Christ in today’s Gospel passage are words that cut deep into the heart. Basically Jesus is saying: “there is nothing hidden that will not be exposed somehow, someday.” The truth is that the greatest obstacle many Christians face in their attempt to break free from sinfulness is the lure of secrecy.

I once read a story about a very holy man. One day he was visited by a lady who wanted to tempt him to sin. She said to him: “Just do this favour for me and I bet you will go to confession after and God will not hold the sin against you.” He responded by saying, “Fine, no problem but I will show you where you can do it.” The lady was excited as the man held her hands tenderly and took her for a walk. When they got to a very busy market, with people all over the place, the man said to her: “Ok, you may go ahead now, right here.” She ran away as fast as her legs could carry her.

Dear friends, why is it that we are afraid of what people think or say about us but we are not afraid of God who alone has the power to destroy both body and soul in hell?

To be truly repentant is to become a person of integrity; a person whose sense of right and wrong is not dependent on whether or not people are watching or aware; a person who does what is right regardless of place, time, circumstances or situation. You are not fully repentant if you still believe that certain things are “okay” as long as nobody is seeing you or that nobody will ever get to know.

The word secret is meaningless because nothing is ever hidden forever. It is just a matter of time. When you sincerely tell yourself this truth, your actions become modelled according to the principle of “no-secrets” and you would find the strength to continue doing only what is right even when no one else is watching. Just as a lamp when turned on cannot be hidden, know that by virtue of being a Christian, there is nothing you do that is hidden. You keep shining always, you either emanate goodness or evil. You either show good example or bad example. You continue to shine even when you think no one is aware of what you are doing.

If at all, you have any secrets, let it be that when those secrets are exposed, you will be proud of their contents. In his letter to Timothy St. Paul advises us: “The sins of some men are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them. In the same way, good deeds are obvious, and even those that are not cannot be hidden.” 1^st Timothy 5, 24 to 25.  Life is less stressful when we are not worried about what others are thinking about us or afraid of getting exposed someday. Some years ago, a person like Bill Cosby was considered as a national hero by many but today, the things he did supposedly in secret have become his ruin.

St. Thomas Aquinas whose feast we celebrate today can best be described as one of the greatest minds that ever lived. You cannot study theology without an encounter with St. Thomas Aquinas. His closeness to God and personal devotion coupled with his rich intellectual prowess made of him a monk, a teacher and a thinker. He is the patron saint of catholic schools, colleges and students.

Let us Pray:

Lord Jesus, give me the grace of true repentance that I may serve you in integrity no matter the circumstance, time, place or situation I find myself. Amen.

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

REPENTANCE IS CREATING AND NURTURING THE RIGHT SOIL. (Homily for January 27, 2016. Third Wednesday in Ordinary Time, Yr. C.)

Bible Study:  2 Samuel 7, 4 to 17. And Mark 4, 1 to 20.

When we look around our environment, we cannot but notice how the Bible seems to come alive, so much so that a little reflection on how plants grow immediately brings out certain deep truths about life. In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus not only gives a parable about planting and growing seeds, he also explains the meaning of the parable.

Now, there is only one farmer and the seed sown is the same type of seed but there are different harvests. Why? The soils where these seeds were sown are different. These soils represent the nature of our hearts.

In his explanation, Jesus tells us that some people have rocky hearts, they are like rocky soils; they receive seed with joy but have no roots. These are people who are always excited in church, they dance like there is no tomorrow, they are the first to rush out for altar calls, they give testimonies at the slightest instances, they are so emotional but their faith evaporates as fast as their emotions change. They cannot withstand trial. For them, if God doesn’t answer today today, then he probably won’t answer tomorrow.

Some people have thorny hearts, they are like soils with thorns in them. They really love God and they want to serve God but it happens that they also want to be like everybody else. They want what people want, the delight of riches, fancy clothes, nice car, bumper bank account…, just name it; beautiful spouse, bouncing children, respect in the community, pleasure at every instance, the list is endless. They want too much of what the world has to offer so their love for the world chokes up their love for God. In fact, for these people, religion itself is reduced to a quest for these material things rather than a sincere quest to serve God. Unfortunately most Christians and even ministers today belong to this category. Religion has become a means to wealth, power and social status. As much as they attend church, they also swim every day in sin.

Then comes the category of people with a rich heart who are able to yield fruits with their life. These are people you come across with and you feel really inspired to serve God diligently. These are people who encourage you to step out of the crowd and grow in your spiritual life. These are people who talk the talk and walk the walk whose manner of life even in secret bears no contradiction with who they say they are. These are people who are truly repentant!

As we continue our reflections on repentance this week, today’s readings give us an added dimension of what repentance means. To repent is to change the type of soil you have. You may have a rocky soil, you repent today but tomorrow morning, you are back to sin again, the word of God dies too quickly in you. You may have a thorny heart, you really want to repent but you feel if you stop this particular sin or sins, you will just die, you want to repent but you cannot afford to lose your friends, you cannot stand being called a “spirikoko” or  “virgin-mary” and so on, you want to repent but your eyes are still on the money or pleasure you stand to get by disobeying God’s commandments.

Jesus is saying: “change the soil and you get the result.” True repentance is taking out the thorns and breaking away the rocks. Just in front of my parish house, our gardener planted some very beautiful sun flowers. I am always inspired looking at these flowers because I know quite well that just beneath the surface of these plants is a hard concrete floor. The original plan of the house did not make provision for plants in that spot but for so many months I noticed how the gardener worked night and day, he imported red sand and poured it on the concrete, then he applied manure on the sand and kept watering it every morning till he got results.

I believe this is what Christianity is about. It is consistently working on yourself, consistently rejecting sin, consistently bringing in the right soil, consistently applying God’s word as manure for your heart, consistently applying the water of devotion and prayer, till you become a saint.

David expressed his desire to build God a house and this pleased God so much that he showered him with so much blessings. David was not a perfect man but his heart represents the rich soil, he wanted permanence for God’s house.

Do you want permanence for your acts of virtue? What structures can you put in place in your life or what needs to change to sustain your repentance?

Let us Pray:

Lord Jesus, create in me a pure heart, a heart rich enough to keep me in your light as your beloved child. Amen.

Saint Angela Merici, Pray for us.

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

REPENTANCE: FANNING YOUR GOODNESS INTO FLAMES. (Homily for January 26, 2016. Memorial of Saints Timothy and Titus.)

Bible Study: 2^nd Timothy 1, 1 to 8. And Luke 10, 1 to 9.

The feast of the conversion of St. Paul yesterday gives a background to our reflections this week. From our readings yesterday, we saw that for God our past does not matter. The moment we decide to turn around and have a change of heart, he sees us as completely different persons.

Today the same St. Paul who has now become a great apostle and mentor is writing to Timothy who was like a son to him. He says to Timothy “Fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”

Repentance is not about turning from your old ways, it is being able to tell yourself you are a light and a salt to the earth. Repentance requires that you believe in yourself, that you no longer see yourself as good-for-nothing. Repentance is focusing on your goodness and your spiritual gifts and by focusing on your bright sides, you fan them into flames, that is, you develop and increase your spiritual capacities.

To be living in sin is to like being possessed of a demon. One does things he or she does not really want to do knowing fully well they are not right but finds it difficult to avoid. The day a person repents, it is like being cured of a demonic possession. Jesus gave a parable in Matthew 12, 43 to 45: “When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. Then it says, 'I will return to the person I came from.' So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and clean. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before.”

If after repenting, you do not become possessed with goodness, if you do not fan into flames your spirituality and fill your heart with godliness, if all you do is to leave your heart empty and clean, there is a likelihood that you would return again to your former sins.

In our Gospel passage this morning, Jesus appoints seventy two persons and entrusted to them the ministry of spreading the message. They are to carry no purse, no haversack, no sandals. This means, they were to rely not on any material thing but on God alone. Like Timothy and Titus, we too are called to be part of this mission by constantly emptying ourselves of the love of worldly goods.

Let us Pray:

Lord Jesus, give me the grace of total repentance and a deeper trust in you. Amen.

Saints Timothy and Titus, pray for us.

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

REPENTANCE: YOUR PAST DOES NOT MATTER. (Homily for January 25, 2016. Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.)

Bible Study: Acts 22, 3 to 16. And Mark 16, 15 to 18.

This story has been told several times and I consider it quite fitting to today’s reflection. It is the story of Thomas Edison, the inventor of the Electric bulb. When Edison’s team had fabricated that first light bulb, Edison turned and surveyed each of his co-workers as if he was sizing each of them up. After surveying them all, Edison handed the light bulb to a young boy who was helping in the lab, entrusting him with the very delicate task of carrying the first light bulb ever produced upstairs and placing it gently into a vacuum machine.

Needless to say, this bulb was very precious and the boy knew it. Step by step he cautiously watched his hands, obviously frightened of dropping such a priceless piece of work. But the boy was concentrating so hard on making sure that the bulb didn’t slip from his hands that he forgot to watch his feet. He tripped at the top of the stairs and dropped the bulb and it shattered.

Undeterred by the setback, Edison put his team back to work. Their effort to construct the second light bulb consumed an additional 24 hours. Exhausted from so much work and ready for a break, Edison was ready to have his bulb carried up the stairs again. He once again looked around and surveyed each of his co-workers to determine who would carry the bulb upstairs.

Everyone was shocked when Edison selected the young boy who had dropped it the first time. Edison knew that the boy was probably devastated by the first incident. He decided to give the boy another chance. This time the boy successfully completed his task.

Today we celebrate the fact that God looked around all the men living in the world and decided to give a second chance to the very man who was all out to destroy Christianity. The same man who went about from house to house dragging Christians to jail, the same man who supervised the stoning of the first Christian martyr, Stephen, the same man whose zeal for the destruction of Christians would put him on a missionary journey with letter of permission, became the greatest missionary to promote the Christian Faith. That is God for you.

The beauty of St. Paul’s conversion was that the moment he rose from his feet, he never went back to his former ways. From that day, he saw himself as a completely different person. According to St. Peter, if we repent, there should be no going back otherwise, we become worse for it. 2^nd Peter 2, 20 to 22 states: “For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment that was passed on to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, "The dog turns back to its own vomit," and, "The sow is washed only to wallow in the mud.”

May we never return to our vomits in Jesus Name! As some people would say, no matter how you wash a pig, it will look for mud again. My thinking is that the kind of washing a pig requires is not the washing of the outer skin but the washing of the heart, the washing of that which makes the pig love mud. This is what true repentance means. It means changing your heart, changing the things that give you joy, changing the things you love and desire even in secret. Repentance is changing the things that make you love to dance in the mud, changing your belief in yourself, it is telling yourself that you can do without sin, that you will not die if you let go of those past behaviours.

When Saul fell to the ground, he heard the voice of Christ saying: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Let us always remember that when we face persecution for the sake of our faith, Jesus Christ himself shares in our pain. We do not even need to cry because Jesus himself feels our sorrow. When we are dragged off, lied upon, insulted or given names, it is Jesus himself who is dragged, it is Jesus who is insulted. And he has said to us, “If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household! So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.” Matthew 10, 25 to 26.

On the other hand, just as Jesus feels our pain when we are persecuted, he also feels it when we who carry his name on our lips disappoint him by sin. He is always with us! We can never hide anything from him. Conscious of his presence in us, we would not only stay away from sin, we would make use of His Power working through us. As Jesus told us in today’s Gospel passage, “And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” Mark 16, 17 to 18.

As far as you repent today, your past does not matter anymore. Once you drop the old ways, do not go back again. Invite Jesus into your heart and believe in his presence with you always, believe you have the power to overcome sin, the power even to raise back to life those aspects that were dead as a result of bad habits.

Let us Pray:

Lord Jesus, give me the grace of total repentance today. Amen.

God bless you. Good morning. Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. Happy new week.

THE WORD OF GOD IS REAL, LIVING AND ACTIVE. (Homily for January 24, 2016. Third Sunday of Ordinary Time. Year C.)

Bible Study: Nehemiah 8, 2 to 10. 1^st Corinthians 12, 12 to 30. And Luke 1, 1 to 4 and 4, 14 to 21.

My dear brothers and sisters, in our first reading this morning, we see a prototype of our gathering here today. Just as Ezra stood on a wooden pulpit to read to a gathering of both men and women, so also the word of God has been read this morning to every one of us here WITHOUT DISCRIMINATION. As St. Paul tells us in the second reading, despite our unique differences, we all come as one body to hear the word of God. This word of God unlike what we hear on television daily is GOOD NEWS; news that releases us from satanic captivity, news that will opens our eyes blinded by sin, news that frees us from political and economic oppression, news that brings us God’s mercy and favour in life.

The word of God is powerful and we get to experience this power when we are moved to tears upon hearing what it contains. This is why at times, you come to church and it is like the readings or the homily is speaking directly to you. At times, you wonder who told the priest what is exactly happening to you. When Ezra read the word before the people, their eyes were filled with tears. They wept because they realised how far away they had transgressed from the ideals of God demands. Their weeping became their healing. They cried as prisoners would cry when released from jail. They cried as people do when they suddenly realise the truth and it dawns on them how foolish they were in the past.

When we hear God’s words, we are never the same persons anymore. No wonder, the book of Hebrews says: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Hebrews 4, 12. The Bible is fully alive and real; it is not just a written text, it is God himself. As John says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1,1.

The gathering of people in our first reading this morning were a people who had just returned from the exile and were trying to build up the pieces of their life again. Like these Israelites, we practically put ourselves in exile when we stop reading the Bible. That cold feet, that discouragement we feel each time we feel each time we pick up the Bible and push it aside as quickly as possible is a sign of our blindness, oppression and captivity. And to rebuild our lives, we must discover and find once again the Word of God.  

Do you want to live a truly happy and fulfilled life? Do you seek answers to life questions that bother you a lot? Have you, like the Israelites been insulted, abused, oppressed and denied of your rights and you feel like starting all over again? Then, the Bible is the answer.

Note that the Bible would not do much for you if all you do with it is to keep a copy beside your bed or on your desk. The Bible is not an I.D card, it is not a charm, neither is it a substitute for your pillow. The healing effect and power of the Bible comes from the actual reading, assimilation, meditating and practicing of the word of God. Like a meal in the freezer, unless we bring it out and warm it by daily study, it has no effect in us. Reading the Bible everyday will change your life forever. The Bible is so full of life that it is IMPOSSIBLE to read it without it changing something in you.

You can determine your future with the Bible. That is how powerful the Bible is. When Jesus stood to read, he found the passage of Scripture by the prophet Isaiah saying: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke 4, 18 to 19. These words from the Bible eventually came to define the life of Jesus on earth. Jesus did exactly what Isaiah wrote about. He preached, he brought about healing, he set captives free, he restored people’s sight and proclaimed release to a humanity held bound by Satanic oppression.

Jesus said to the people: “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” As we hear God’s word, it continues to be fulfilled every day in our lives. God himself already assured us: “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, SO SHALL MY WORD be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55, 10 to 11.

When we read the Bible, and live as it instructs, we not only receive healing and abundant life, we become exactly what the Bible says about us. We can only realise our full potentials as humans by reading the Bible. The Bible does not simply give us unrealizable ideals. It tells us the mind of God for us, the reason why are alive in the first place and how we ought to live so as to get the best out of life. The whole essence of hearing God’s word is to guide our day to day decisions in life. Our hearing must find practical application in our day to day lives as James tells us: “But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like.” James 1, 22 to 24.

The reason why we do not receive the healing, realise and recovery contained in God’s word is because we simply amuse ourselves with what we read. We just hear it and forget about it like people who perceive the aroma of food without actually tasting it. We basically deceive ourselves when after attending church service we refuse to allow God’s words penetrate our actions and decisions in life.

For instance, St. Paul admonishes us today not to see anyone as inferior or unnecessary to us but to accept everyone as parts of one body. But then, the moment we step out of the church, we look at the type of car a person is driving or the type of dress he or she is wearing, we begin to select who to talk to or who to assist and we look at certain people as good for nothing. By so doing, we become captives of material possession and blinded to the plights of others. We get locked up in our small world of “me, myself and I” where it always feels as though our problems are greater than that of anybody else. True healing will come to us when we allow these words of our second reading touch our hearts, when we are able to step out of our comfort zone and enter into the world of others especially those we think are not beneficial to us. We all need each other.

Let us allow God’s words touch us deeply, let us approach Scriptures as living words, let us seek God through his words and use the Bible as our ultimate guide and direction in life. As the Psalmist says: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalm 119 verse 105. 

Let us Pray:

Lord Jesus, may your word give me life and I promise never to forsake or abandon it. Teach me to read and put your word to practice that your promises may be fulfilled in me every day. Amen.

God bless you. Good morning. Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. Happy Sunday.