Retelling the Story of Our Salvation.

Homily for April 15, 2017.


In the very beginning, God created the world. He spoke and it came to be. He created a perfect universe and put in the engines of life to be self-sustaining. After each work of creation, he said: “It is good.” Then finally, at the apex of his creation, he decided to create an image of himself again purely motivated by love.

God wanted man made in his own image to be the sole beneficiary of this beautiful universe he had just created so he blessed us: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.” God was so delighted with what he had done that he happily went to rest.

God’s love for humans as time went on become a concrete reality in the person of one man who particularly delighted him. Indeed, even today, we are the fulfilment of the promise God made to Abraham when he said his descendants will be as many as the sands in the seashore.

Nonetheless, before Abraham would get so much of God’s attention, God tested the extent of Abraham’s love for him by asking him to sacrifice his only son. And guess what? Abraham passed the test! In Abraham, humanity proved that it is capable of letting go of everything to love God.

Since Abraham passed the test, God created a whole new race from him and that group of people became the Israelites. As time went on, this people found themselves in a foreign land due to a famine and as the years went by, they became slaves.

God was not happy with this and one day he decided to rescue them from the land of slavery and oppression through mighty miracles, great signs and wonders. Before their very eyes, they saw their slave-riders; Pharaoh and the full force of his army perish in the sea and they sang with all their hearts.

They sang a song of love, a song of adoration and praise to God. But then, no sooner had they finished dancing and jubilation, they started doubting this love. They began to nag like newly-weds and even opted to return to slavery in Egypt.

They complained bitterly about water, then for food, and when they lost patience, they broke the heart of God by moulding for themselves a golden calf. Of course, when they faced the wrath of God, they repented but this would just be the beginning of a repeated pattern: sin – punishment – repentance: sin – punishment – repentance.  

We never learn from the mistakes of the past. God did not give up on them, he kept sending love letters through the prophets. For instance, Isaiah says: “For your Maker is your husband… For the LORD has called you like a wife … with everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the LORD, your Redeemer.” Isaiah 54, 5 to 8. 

But what happened? These words were thrown to the wind. Baruch says: “If you had walked in the way of God, you would be living in peace forever.“ Baruch 3:13-14. Even though we desire the peace, we keep still keep ignoring God’s ways.

At a time, God must have started wondering if our human hearts were still capable of loving him. So speaking through Ezekiel, God said: “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.” Ezekiel 36, 26 to 27.

For us to get this new heart, we needed first to get rid of the old. So God because of his infinite love for us decided to send us his only son, Jesus to be born and live like one of us so that by his death, we too may die to our old nature. And that by his resurrection, we may receive this new heart of flesh.

This is what St. Paul explains when he said: “Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin.” Romans 6, 4 to 7.

Tonight, we gather to celebrate our resurrection from the death of sin. We gather to rejoice at the fact that we have been liberated from the prison of sin, that we are no longer under the compulsion of sin.

Yes, the evidence of our capacity to become saints is the fact that Christ is no longer dead. The tomb is empty. Christ is alive!

Let us Pray: Lord Jesus, thank you for never giving up on me. Amen.

Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless you. (Holy Saturday Easter Vigil Mass. Bible Study: Gen.1:1-2:2, Gen.22:1-28, Ex.14:15-15:1, Isa.54:5-14, Isa.55:1-11, Bar.3:9-15, 32-4:4, Ez.36:16-28, Rom.6:3-11 and Luke24:1-12).


Fr. Abu. 

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