OUR LADY, QUEEN OF NIGERIA. (Homily for October 1, 2016. Saturday of the 26th Week in Ordinary Time.)

Bible Study:  Isaiah 11, 1 to 10. Ephesians 2, 13 to 22 and Matthew 2, 13 to 23.

Happy Independence Day fellow Nigerians. We thank God Almighty for bringing us all alive to see yet another birthday of our dear country. Whether we like it or not, as long as we remain Nigerians, we must celebrate what we are and what we have. Of course, as a nation, we are not perfect but I doubt if there is any country in the world where all its citizens are perfectly happy and satisfied with the state of affairs.

We like to compare ourselves with richer countries in the developed world but the truth is that there is no country without its own unique problems. In today’s Gospel passage, Joseph is warned in a dream to take the child Jesus with its mother and flee from the country of Israel to another country, Egypt. Why did God send his angel to tell Joseph to run abroad overnight? Israel as a country like Nigeria had serious problems at that time thereby making Israel unsafe for the baby Jesus.

And what was the problem? Those in power forgot their purpose and wanted to kill the child Jesus by all means just to remain in power. Isn’t that similar to what is happening in our dear nation wherein people are ready to rig, loot and commit all kinds of atrocities to remain in power? Don’t we have leaders who are in power simply for their own selfish interests? God knew Israel was like this, yet he chose that country as the birth place for his son Jesus Christ. Moreover as at the time Jesus was born, Isreal was not even an independent nation, it was a Roman colony. As bad as things were, Jesus Christ carried out his ministry in that same country and the world as a whole today is a different place because of what Jesus did in Israel two thousand years ago.

What does this teach us? That as bad as Nigeria may appear in our own eyes now, God can still do something in us, with us and for us such that a Nigerian can change the entire world. God does not have to make things perfect in other to work, he knows how to write perfectly on crooked lines. The prophet Isaiah today speaks of a child to be born from the stump of Jesse, a perfect child from an imperfect lineage! That same stump of Jesse produced people like Solomon, it produced kings who misbehaved, kings who worshipped idols, it produced people who did evil things. God knows how to bring perfection from imperfect situations and circumstances.

Dear friends, as we celebrate our independence today as a country, today is also an opportunity to remain ourselves of our dual citizenship; the fact that we are not just Nigerians but Christians as well. And as St. Paul would tell us in our second reading today, because Christ died on the cross, he has broken the dividing wall that separated nations. “You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.” Our celebration today should not make us think of ourselves as separate from the world, it should also remind us that we are united with others as citizens of heaven.

Nigeria as a country is under the patronage of our Mother Mary. Hence, on a day like this, we celebrate our Mary as the Queen of Nigeria, thanking her for her intercession so far that has kept this country despite our challenges and we also call upon her to continue to intercede on our behalf. We pray that just as she agreed to wake up in the middle of the night to take the child Jesus with her and make the arduous journey to cross the border and enter Egypt, she may be willing always to inconvenience herself for the sake our dear nation that good things may come our way.

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, we thank you for the gift of Nigeria as a nation. Use us mightily even as we are make the world a better place. Amen.

Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless you. Happy Independence day.

Fr. Abu

IS GOD UNHAPPY WITH ME? (Homily for September 30, 2016. Friday of the 26th Week in Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Jerome, priest and doctor of the church.)

Bible Study:  Job 38, 1 to 21 and 40, 3 to 5. Luke 10, 13 to 16.

In today’s first reading, God responds to Job after all his ranting. In fact, at the end, Job realized his nothingness. Job thought he knew God very well and he had him all figured out. Job thought that for a good person, there could no such thing as suffering and even when his friends tried to make him feel guilty saying his calamity was as a result of his sinfulness, Job refused to admit of any faults in the matter. Job felt something might have gone wrong with God to have allowed him suffer this much despite his innocence.

Today, God asks Job certain questions to make him understand that no matter how much he tried, there is just no way he could figure God out. The response of Job is similar to the response of the greatest intellectuals who have ever tried to fully comprehend God. He said: “Behold I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on mouth.” Recall, even the Angelic Doctor himself, St. Thomas Aquinas said: “Everything I have written is rubbish.”

There is a way to question God that we would only end up incurring his anger because as humans, we are too limited and our knowledge is totally incapable of figuring God out or putting him in a box so to say. We can’t even understand ourselves completely, yet we are just one out of the millions of creatures made by God. How then do we expect to understand God? How can we define the limits of his power? How can we say this is what God can do and what he cannot do? Could it be that by our questioning, we make him angry with us?

In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus does not pretend out his anger at all. He is viciously angry with the persons who received miracles from him but refused to repent from their sins. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.” Luke 10, 13.

If we receive answers to our prayers and God blesses us with these material things of life and we still refuse to change our ways, we still live in grievous sin, all we end up achieving is the anger of God. Haven’t we simply turned God to our errand boy when we seek miracles from him and yet refuse to live our lives according to his commandments? Is God angry with me?

Let us pray: Lord, give us grace to live authentic Christian lives. Amen

May Saint Jerome who while as a priest serving as secretary to Pope Damasus began the task of translating the Bible into Latin intercede for us. Amen. May his life and writings continue to inspire our Scripture scholars who try to understand God through his word daily. Amen

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

Fr. Abu

YOU SHALL SEE GREATER THINGS THAN THIS. (Homily for September 29, 2016. Feast of Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.)

Bible Study:  Daniel 7, 9 to 14. And John 1, 47 to 51.

The existence of angels is a fact not easily comprehended by human reasoning. Angels form part of what St. Paul talks about when he said: “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.” 1st Corinthians 2, 9.

Though the Bible speaks about angels in many instances, there are only three whose names were specifically mentioned in the Bible and that is why we refer to them as the Archangels.

In the book of Jude 1, verse 9, we read: But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, disputed about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a reviling judgment upon him, but said: “The Lord rebuke you.”

Michael is again mentioned in the book of Revelations as waging war against the devil. “Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world -- he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” Revelation 12, 7 to 9.

Even as far back as the Old Testament, Michael is mentioned as a warring prince who fights on behalf of God’s children. Daniel 10, 12 to 13 reads: “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your mind to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, so I left him there with the prince of the kingdom of Persia.”

In the book of Tobit, we encounter the Archangel Raphael as a travel companion, a healer and a demon-destroyer.  Tobit 3, verse 17 reads: “And Raphael was sent to heal the two of them: to scale away the white films of Tobit's eyes; to give Sarah the daughter of Raguel in marriage to Tobias the son of Tobit, and to bind Asmodeus the evil demon, because Tobias was entitled to possess her.”

Archangel Gabriel plays the role of the messenger of good news by bringing the message of the Annunciation to Mary in Luke 1, 26 to 28 we read: “In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Hail, O favoured one, the Lord is with you!” He was also the angel that announced to Zechariah that at his old age, he would have a child. (Luke 1, verse 19 and following).

The power and working of the Angels is a testimony to the greatness of God and the fact with him, nothing is impossible. As we read in the Gospel passage, Jesus said to Nathanael, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” This statement shocked Nathanael, it revealed to him the power of God and he was converted instantly. Angels also reveal to us the power of God at work in the midst of men. They represent a dimension of reality that reason alone cannot grasp. Just as Nathanael couldn’t understand how Jesus was able to see him under the fig tree, we cannot fully understand how the angels work but we know that they are real.

Let us pray:

Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God commits me here, ever this day be at my side to light and guard, to rule and guide me. Amen.

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

Fr. Abu

WHO CALLS WHO? (Homily for September 28, 2016. Wednesday of the 26th Week in Ordinary Time.)

Bible Study:  Job 9, 1 to 12 and 14 to 16 and Luke 9, 57 to 62.

In our Gospel passage this morning, we are presented with three different cases of vocation.

First, a man came to Jesus himself to declare his intention to follow him. “I will follow you wherever you go.” This is the classic case of a person who is calling God. Having looked at life, he reached the conclusion that by following God, he will have the best of all that life has to offer. Jesus knowing his heart knew that this man had a materialistic conception of ministry so his response was “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.” In other words, Jesus was saying to him, “If you want to follow me, you must take the vow of poverty! And live it out. The work of God is not a comfortable job or some sort of career!”

Then comes the second case. It was Jesus himself who said to this man: “Follow me.” This second case is clearly an example of what happens when it is God himself that is calling a person to ministry. Oftentimes, it happens like a shock and one’s immediate response is to give a thousand and one excuses why one considers himself unworthy to say yes. Virtually all the biblical characters who were called gave excuses. Gideon said he was too small, Moses said he stammered, Jeremiah said he was only a youth, Isaiah said he had unclean lips and so on and so on. This man in today’s Gospel passage begged for permission to go and bury his father first, but Jesus said: “Leave the dead to bury their own dead.” When it is really God that is calling a person, there is nothing that can stop the mission, not even death. Like Jonah, they may try to run away from God, but God has a way of making them return. To the world, such persons may appear most unqualified for the ministry but God’s choice is God’s choice. Paul was a murderer but he was still God’s choice.

The third case is a mixture of the above two. Here is a person who really wants to follow. He is the one calling God but unlike the first case, God accepts his call. There are some persons who were not God’s choice from the beginning but because they happen to get close enough, God decides to accept them as well. The characteristic of such persons is that they always have two minds! It is like they want to eat their cake and have it at the same time. God is not rejecting them but because they are the ones calling God, they feel they should also taste what the world has to offer. “I will follow you Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at home.” Jesus did not write him off as he did to the first person, he simply tells him to CHOOSE ONE. “No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

The funny thing is that regardless of which category, these three persons still make it into the priesthood and religious life or become pastors so to say. The first group consider the ministry as an opportunity to enrich themselves and they live a bourgeoisie life. They are not only rich, they openly display their wealth as signs of God’s power and superiority. Their means of evangelization is wealth.

The second group which are fewest in number are very genuine. They actually give it all to the ministry. These persons may have had a past but one can see how changed they are and how sincere they spread the kingdom of God.

The third group are more in number, they are neither hot nor cold, their loyalty is divided between God’s work and their family members; they could even become active in politics and other social engagements that are not entirely in line with ministry. They really want to please God and give him their all but they also want to please the people. Amongst this third group contains a growing number of priests and sisters who resign from ministry eventually.

So my dear, it is important to find out who is calling who? A sincere answer to this question can solve a lot of problems.

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, give me a sincere heart and a deeper love of you. Amen. We also pray for a successful election in Edo State today that God will keep us all safe and alive. Amen.

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

Fr. Abu

HOW TO REACT IN CRISIS: LESSONS FROM JOB AND JESUS CHRIST. (Homily for September 27, 2016. Tuesday of the 26th Week in Ordinary Time.)

Bible Study:  Job 3, 1 to 23 and Luke 9, 51 to 56.

One common denominator in today’s readings is the fact that their central character (Job and Jesus) are in the middle of a crisis situation. Job has just received very sad news about the death of his children as well as the loss of his property. He has every reason to be angry. Jesus sent messengers to prepare ahead of him but the Samaritans would not receive him. He too has every reason to be angry.

But what did Job do? He turned his anger to himself. Rather than curse God and blame him for his situation or blame someone else, Job blames himself. He cursed the day he was born as if to say if he had not been born, all this would not have happened. He was indirectly saying he is the one responsible for his crisis. He is not looking for anybody to hold responsible neither is he making enemies for himself over his situation.

When we are in crisis, we can learn from Job to turn to ourselves and look inwards rather than castigate and blame others. Even though we try to convince ourselves of our innocence, it is better to retrace our own steps than to start creating real and imagined enemies for ourselves.

Now, looking at Jesus’ reaction to his rejection by the Samaritans, we see that he rebuked James and John for suggesting that he should call down fire from heaven to burn that town to ashes. He didn’t even utter a single word in annoyance. He simply asked them to go to another town.

Of course, when we intend good for people only for them to throw our good at our faces, we have every reason to be angry. However, Jesus teaches us today that in such situations, the best thing to do is to simply walk away. Like James and John, the average human reaction to rejection is to call down fire but really, it makes no sense to destroy the same people that you wanted to help all because they rejected the help.

If you really wanted to help them in the first place, you would be betraying your goodness when you now turn around to destroy them with the fire of your anger. At times, the best thing to do for a person you love is to walk away when your love is rejected. Fighting the same person you once love calls to question if you ever loved at all because love has no end. 1^st Corinthians 13, verse 8.

It can be very painful when you are rejected. No human being loves to be rejected. It can be damaging to our self-esteem because we love to think ourselves as better than others. And when we are rejected, our natural thinking is to assume that those who rejected us are not giving credit to our worth or that they are telling us they are better than us. The Pain of rejection can at times be worse than even physical injury and like a wound, it hurts from deep inside affecting us psychologically and emotionally.

Whether we like it or not, we all are going to experience one form of rejection or another as long as we live in a world where freedom of choice exists for people. So rather than avoid rejection at all costs and become people pleasers (which is worse), we just need to prepare ourselves ahead for rejection and find ways to heal ourselves when it happens.

The best cure for rejection is to make excuses for the people who reject you. Right there on the cross, Jesus said: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing.” Luke 23, verse 34. When humanity as a whole rejected Christ on the cross, Jesus did not respond with anger, he didn’t become depressed at our ingratitude, he simply made excuses for us all. When people reject you, it does not mean you are worthless, it simply means they are ignorant of your worth. Excuse them and move on.

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, give me wisdom to handle rejection like you did rather than emit fire on others and give me the grace to look inwards like Job rather than look for who to blame. Amen.

Saint Vincent de Paul, patron of those who help the poor; pray for us.

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

Fr. Abu

RECEIVING THE KINGDOM OF GOD LIKE A CHILD. (Homily for September 26, 2016. Monday of the 26th Week in Ordinary Time.)

Bible Study:  Job 1, 6 to 22 and Luke 9, 46 to 50.

The story of Job in the bible is one story that raises a lot of questions. Not only does it challenge our traditional understanding of God as incapable of evil, it also gives the impression that Satan is part of God’s cabinet. How can God give permission to Satan to torment Job? If you take this question too far, you might reach the conclusion that God is responsible for the evil in the world which again, is impossible. Quite confusing. Isn’t it?

However, our Gospel passage gives us a lot of light. The disciples of Jesus are arguing about who is the greatest and Jesus shocks them by bringing a child before them. The best way to approach God is with a childlike attitude; an attitude that BELIEVES without questioning; an attitude that is very humble and does not try to prove everything; an attitude that accepts reality even when it’s questions have not been answered.

Job did not have the privilege of attending the meeting where his matter was discussed. Little did he know that his unfortunate circumstances were not coincidental. Job had no idea that he was simply being tested. Yet, he passed the test. We are told: “In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.” Job’s success came from his childlike attitude; his willingness to accept things as they are.

The world is not perfect. There are so many things that are not just right. There is too much inequality and injustice in the world. Just like Job, we too are not privileged to see the big picture, our knowledge is so limited, we do not know if we are being tested. So, if we begin to question everything, we could end up becoming mere philosophers and even our faith in a good God who is all-knowing, all-powerful and all-loving might be lost in the process. We just need to learn the childlike attitude of Job to accept things as they are: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I shall return…”

Today we celebrate the memorial of Saints Cosmas and Damian. Cosmas and Damian were twin brothers, born in Arabia, who had become eminent for their skill in the science of medicine. Being Christians, they were filled with the spirit of charity and never took money for their services. At Egaea in Cilicia, where they lived, they enjoyed the highest esteem of the people. When the persecution under Diocletian broke out, their very prominence rendered them marked objects of persecution. Being apprehended by order of Lysias, governor of Cilicia, they underwent various torments about the year 283. They are patron saints of pharmacists.

So when next you pray for a sick person, remember to invoke Saints Cosmas and Damian.

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, in moments of trials and difficulty, help me to remain firm in faith like Job. Amen.

Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless you. Happy New Week.

Fr. Abu

WHERE ARE YOUR LEFTOVERS? (Homily for September 26, 2016. Twenty Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time.)

Bible Study:  Amos 6, 1 to 7. 1^st Timothy 6, 11 to 16 and Luke 16, 19 to 31.

 

If there is verse of Scripture that summarizes our readings for last Sunday, it would be: “Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal habitations.” Luke 16, 9. You remember the story of the dishonest steward who upon knowing he would be removed from service decided to call his master’s debtors to reduce their debts? He made friends for himself by letting go of the money that should have come to him and his master praised him for his prudence.

Today’s readings basically continue from where last Sunday’s readings stop. In fact, the best way to understand today’s readings is to consider them as explanations of the points contained in that of last Sunday. In our Gospel passage, Jesus gives a parable of Lazarus and the Rich to explain what he meant by us making friends with unrighteous mammon so that when it fails, we would be welcome into eternal habitations. The rich man unlike the dishonest steward last Sunday failed to make friends to poor Lazarus with his wealth and when it failed him eventually, he was denied entrance to heaven.

Amos in today’s readings continues his denunciation of the wealthy. And it must be understood that Amos is not against riches which by themselves are considered to be signs of God’s blessings, rather, Amos is particularly against those who become rich through dubious means, those who sell the poor for a pair of silver and the needy for a pair of sandals; those who cheat and deal deceitfully with the balances. His condemnation is for those who have so much even to waste but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph; those who have no concern for the poor.

Dear friends in Christ, the question for me today and for every one of us is: “Where are my leftovers?” We are told that the rich man wore purple clothes and fine linen and feasted sumptuously every day. This was Jesus’ way of highlighting the rich man’s excesses and wastefulness. It is one thing to be properly dressed, it is another thing to wear the most expensive type of dressing in the world. Again, it is one thing to have three square meals a day but a different thing altogether to throw a party every single day.

Rather than go for designer dresses which are so expensive simply because I can afford it, why can’t I go for cheaper ones that can still cover my body so that what is left-over I can use it to buy clothes for those who have nothing to wear? Rather than cook a single pot of soup with Fifty thousand naira, why don’t I cook the one of ten thousand and use the remaining forty thousand to help some poor people who have not eaten for the past two weeks? As a girl for instance, why do I need to wear human hair attachment that can buy a plot of land when I can simply plait it and use the money to help the poor?

Dear friends, we do not like to think of ourselves as rich but the truth is that if we all examine our conscience, we would come to realize that oftentimes, we have more than enough even to waste. And it is based on that extra or excess that we often throw away that God will judge us. Yes, God will judge us because we had more than what we needed but closed our eyes to those who lacked. God will be angry with us because even though we see Lazarus in front of our gates every day, we pretend as though he doesn’t exist.

Name ten rich persons you know. Then, name ten extremely poor persons you know. Now which set of names was easier to come by? Judge for yourself! I bet some of us cannot even name up to ten! In the past one year, what have you done for these extremely poor persons you know? When last did you invite one of them to have a decent meal with you?

Lazarus desired to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table but no one gave him anything. Instead, the rich man’s overfed dogs came and liked his sores. We treat people nicely only when we have something to gain from them but when we know they are of no benefit to us, we drive them away or treat them like flies.

Once upon a time, I saw a short video clip. A trader had a shop and every morning, there was this destitute beggar who used the entrance of the shop as his bedroom. So each morning, the trader would pour water on this beggar’s body just to drive him away but the beggar would still come back the following night to sleep there. One day, the trader opened his shop but did not see the beggar there anymore. Since he was already used to pouring water on his body every morning, he was worried as to what may have happened to the beggar. So he decided to look up the CCTV camera. What he saw brought him to tears. He discovered that all this while, he was maltreating the beggar and never for once did he give him anything to eat, yet, the beggar was helping him fight off a group of armed robbers who were always coming at night to try to steal from the shop. He then noticed that the previous night, the robbers so fought the beggar that they stabbed him to death and that was the reason why the beggar was not there as usual that morning. What a pity!

Dear friends, once you can meet your basic needs, what is left extra is not really yours; it belongs to the poor who cannot afford it. The amount of food that some of us waste on a daily basis is enough to feed an entire village. Don’t be like this rich man, share with the poor. Use your money to win friends among the poor and heaven will be sure for you.

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, help me to recognize you in the poor and not turn a cold heart. Amen.

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

Fr. Abu

THE SHORTNESS OF LIFE. (Homily for September 24, 2016. Saturday of the 25th Week in Ordinary Time.)

Bible Study:  Ecclesiastes 11, 9 to 12, 8 and Luke 9, 43 to 45.

From the vanity of life, we moved to the rhythm of life and now we proceed to another important bit of wisdom which is the shortness of life. Today, the author of the book of Ecclesiastes tells us: “Remember your creator while you are still young,” meaning, you are not going to remain young for so long.

Life is in stages but then, it is moves very fast. The worst mistake any person can make is to assume that there is time and if at all there is anything worth procrastinating, it shouldn’t be God.

Even today, I still come across many youths who make this same mistake; youths who engage in all sorts of immoral activities just for the “fun” of it in the name of: ABEEEGEEE, IT’S MY TIME JARRE. We believe there is time to change yet we forget that habits do not die easily. The only thing you are sure of is today and if you fail to repent now, there is no guarantee that tomorrow will ever come.

Just this week, we buried a priest who was barely two years in the priesthood. My dear youths, all we have is today. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. If we don’t remember God now, we will never remember him again. Consider how King Solomon started, see what happened to him in the name of “enjoying life.” Learn from him and be wise!

Jesus is not carried away by those singing his praises. He is not puffed up with pride over the fact that people were marvelled at his sayings. He even warns his disciples not to allow their praise-singing enter their heads because these same people will soon be the ones to shout “Crucify him, Crucify him.”

Dear friends, don’t be carried away by your facial beauty, your figure eight shape or the fact that you are full of energy. Don’t be carried away by the praises people are showering on you. This is the time to prepare for old age. If you don’t get serious with God now, it might be too late!

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, increase my wisdom to act fast that I may not miss salvation. Amen.

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

Fr. Abu

THE RHYTHM OF LIFE. (Homily for September 23, 2016. Friday of the 25th Week in Ordinary Time.)

Bible Study:  Ecclesiastes 3, 1 to 11 and Luke 9, 18 to 22.

Yesterday, our topic for reflection was the vanity of life, today, our topic is the rhythm of life. Yesterday we saw the emptiness of life, today we are looking at the fact that nothing lasts forever.

There is a time and a season for everything that happens. If it begins to rain this morning, it will not rain continuously for the next hundred days, the rain would stop and something else would take over.

Life happens in stages. There is morning time and then evening time, so also there is mourning time and rejoicing time. A time to plant in tears, but definitely a time to harvest with joy. NO MATTER WHAT YOU ARE GOING THROUGH IN LIFE TODAY, JUST KNOW THAT IT WILL NOT LAST FOREVER.

There is a saying I love so much: When you are climbing a ladder, remember those you met along the way because you might need them while coming down. Today’s richest persons will definitely not be tomorrow’s greatest. The tide will change. It is not always going to be your turn forever. Even those children who once sucked your breast milk will be the ones to feed you tomorrow at old age. Life is in stages and seasons!

Jesus tells his disciples today that he would be handed over to the elders and the chief priests, that he would suffer many things, be rejected and killed. He was preparing their minds for a hard season of life. But at the same time, he knew that the better days would come.

Jesus is not afraid to approach the cross because of his absolute confidence in the resurrection. This is the same confidence we should have when we go through tough times. Whatever it is I am suffering today, one day will come that I would get down on my knees and say: “God, I thank you for allowing me to suffer those years.”

On this day, we remember a great Saint, one who had his own share from the very sufferings of Christ while he was still alive, a stigmata, a holy man who had the rare gift of being at two places at the same time, a great priest who could tell even the sins you were hiding from him at the confessional. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina drew thousands of pilgrims from all over the world while he was alive and today he continues to inspire millions.

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, give me grace to understand the rhythm of life that I may not be carried away by pride or crushed down by depression over what I am going through now. Amen.

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

Fr. Abu

THE VANITY OF LIFE. (Homily for September 22, 2016. Thursday of the 25th Week in Ordinary Time.)

Bible Study:  Ecclesiastes 1, 2 to 11 and Luke 9, 7 to 9.

Today’s first reading takes our minds to that popular saying from the book of Ecclesiastes or Qoheleth: “Vanity of Vanities! All things are vanity! What profit has man from all the labour which he toils at under the sun?”

The word ‘vanity’ comes from the Hebrew word ‘hebel’ which means “breath” and is used metaphorically of anything transitory, frail, unsatisfying. When the author of the Ecclesiastes speaks of everything in the world as vanity, he indirectly says everything in this world is just like mere breath; that is, short-lived. Nothing in this world lasts forever or is capable of bringing us everlasting happiness.

I can’t forget how I told myself very many years ago that if only I could hold One hundred Naira in my hands, I would be the happiest person on earth. And back then, one hundred naira meant a lot to me as a pupil in primary four. But here I am today richer than one hundred naira but I state categorically that I am still not the happiest man on earth. What a pity!

Back then, hundred naira was like a big achievement to me. Today, I am struggling to raise funds to complete a Parish House in my new place of pastoral assignment. Tomorrow, it may be something bigger, but the fact remains that just as a hundred naira means nothing to me today, everything I achieve in this life would surely become vanity to me tomorrow.

When recently, I heard the last words of Steve Jobs, the C.E.O. of Apple which he ordered to be written down just before he passed away, I could not but see truth in the fact that we spend so much time and energy in this life acquiring what we do not really need; things that would not even matter to us on our death bed; vanity!

Herod is troubled in the Gospel passage because he heard about the fame of Jesus and some people were saying that he was John the Baptist risen to life. He regretted what he did to John the Baptist. The feeling of regret or better put, emptiness is what comes to us when we realize our past actions were mere acts of foolishness, especially those spurred by vain ambitions.

Could it be that I would one day get to the end of my life and look back at all these things I was craving for, all these things I worked so hard to acquire, all these things for which I made many heads roll and tell myself they were all vanity? What is the point committing a sin today just to get something that I would deeply regret tomorrow?

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, bless me with wisdom and open my eyes to see the emptiness of this life. Amen.

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

Fr. Abu