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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