Homily for January 6, 2018
“Who is it
that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
1 John 5:5.
To conquer
a thing is to gain superior power over it. To conquer is to rule and be in
charge rather than being a slave of something. To conquer is to put oneself in a
position where one can no longer be conditioned by that thing. To conquer
something is to become fearless of that thing and to control it instead of
letting it control you.
Today, St.
John gives us the secret of conquering world; i.e. how can be become victors
rather than victims of the vicissitudes that abound in our world. What is that
secret? It is FAITH. The man who believes that Jesus is the Son of God is the
one who has conquered the world.
Faith and
fear are like water and oil. Faith in God and in his Son Jesus makes us Masters
rather than slaves. When we place our trust completely in God, we can no longer
be threatened by hardships, disappointments or failures in life. It was for his
faith that Job refused to curse God and die when he was being put to test. No
wonder in Ephesians 6:6, Paul speaks of Faith as a shield with which we use to
quench the flaming arrows of the evil one.
As much as
Faith gives us power over the world, faithlessness comes with its damaging
consequences. St. John says: “He who does not believe God has made him a liar.”
1 John 5:10. No wonder those who do not believe in God are also convinced that
God does not exist, they tell themselves this lie just to give them a backing
for living in sin.
Recently in
Nigeria, a young man came on social media to say God does not exist. His name
is King TBlak. And guess what he does for a living? He produces and acts
pornography. He has made himself super rich beyond all measure because millions
of fellow Nigerians (most of whom claim to believe in God) view his videos and
click on his website every day.
Of course,
for a person to have the guts to act a pornographic movie, openly showing the
world his or her sinfulness, it is clear that he or she does not believe a
single line of the Bible. As John would say, such a person is a child of the
devil. No one who sincerely believes in God would treat his/her body as merchandise.
No one who believes that God exists would agree to appear in front of a camera
having sex with a person who is not his or her validly married wife or husband.
If we agree that God exists, we would remember that our bodies are temples of
the Holy Spirit.
On the
other hand, when we who say we believe in God go online to watch pornography,
we are real hypocrites! Yes, we also are children of the devil because we not
only partake in their sinfulness by viewing their videos (and of course,
masturbating along), we also make them very rich; we spend our money on them by
buying data and spend hours on these websites. On average a man like King TBlak
makes more than a million naira every single day.
If I really
believe in God and believe in what God has said, then I should never long for
such entertainment again. The only entertainment I should seek is to praise
God. For those of us Christians addicted to watching pornography, let this New
Year be our breakthrough! Let us face the fact that it is the devil we worship
each time we view pornography.
In our
Gospel passage today, Mark describes how John the Baptist came to identify
Jesus Christ. Just after his baptism, John saw the heavens open the Holy Spirit
descend upon Jesus in the form of a dove. He also heard the voice from heaven
saying: “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.” John the
Baptist saw and heard these things because he was attentive to the Holy Spirit.
There is no limit to what God can reveal to us when we allow space for the Holy
Spirit in our hearts.
Let us pray:
Lord Jesus, may my faith affect what I do even in secret. Amen
Happy
Weekend. Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God
bless you and Happy New Year. Saturday
before Epiphany. Bible Study: 1st John 5:5-13 and Mark 1:7-11.)
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