Reflection/Homily: Fourth Sunday of Lent – Laetare Sunday, Year A (30 March 2014)

Reflection/Homily: Fourth Sunday of Lent – Laetare Sunday, Year A (30 March 2014)

Theme: Healing our Spiritual Blindness

Today is the fourth Sunday of Lent which the Church traditionally observes as Laetare Sunday. Laetare is the Latin word for rejoice. On this Sunday, the Church invites her members to rejoice as we get to the middle of the Lenten season and so, gradually approaching Easter. We have to rejoice because of the great hope that awaits us at Easter. This year, the fact that most Churches celebrate their mothering Sunday today, also gives us an additional reason to rejoice. The first reading (1 Sam. 16:1.6-7.10-13) also gives us another reason to rejoice. This reason is the fact that God does not judge us based on our physical appearances as men do, but that He judges our hearts. The heart here refers to the inner chamber of a person where one interacts with God. This was the lesson Samuel learnt when God asked him to anoint David as King instead of his elder brothers who had better physical qualities. The Good News is that God is not interested in our outward appearances but in our internal disposition towards Him. If our disposition is good, He might also improve on our physical appearances.

Reflection/Homily: Third (3rd) Sunday of Lent Year A (23 March 2014)

Reflection/Homily: Third (3rd) Sunday of Lent Year A (23 March 2014)

Theme: Christ is The Source of Living Water

The first reading (Exodus 17:3-7) narrates to us the story of how thirsty the Israelites were in the desert on their way to the Promised Land. Despite their lack of trust in God, God intervened in their situation by asking Moses to strike the rock with his rod and out of this rock came fresh water for the Israelites to drink. Perhaps we may have experienced similar forms of divine interventions in our lives especially at our moments of despair. The reading assures us that though God may seem not to be interested in our predicaments, He is always there to rescue us and that is why we should continue to trust in Him who can never disappoint us. All we need to do is to obey His commands just as Moses did. Today, in our journey to the new Promised Land (heaven), like the Israelites, we also experience thirst in various forms. We may be thirsty of healing, salvation, employment, financial breakthrough, etc and these problems may have led us to murmur against God. In the midst of these difficulties, we can always approach Christ represented by the ministers of the Gospel who are also representatives of Moses. Through the exercise of their ministry, God comes to our aid. Christ is that rock from which the blessings of God flow like water. He is the source of the living water which quenches our spiritual and physical thirst.

Reflection/Homily: Second (2nd) Sunday of Lent Year A (16 March 2014)

Reflection/Homily: Second (2^nd) Sunday of Lent Year A (16 March 2014)

Theme: The Journey of Faith

During my first apostolic work as a senior seminarian, I was sent to a parish in my diocese. This parish was located in the hinterland and I was informed that there was no power supply and mobile telecommunication service (network) there. I was used to regular power supply and I imagined how I could neither charge my mobile phone nor have access to the internet for six weeks. Worst still, then, I was not used to spending a long period of time outside my home or seminary. I wondered how comfortable I would be in a strange environment especially among people of a different culture and dialect. Within the apostolate, I discovered that the grace of God was always at my disposal and it enabled me enjoy the circumstances under which I worked. Perhaps, you may have had a similar experience leaving your home for a strange land either as a result of marriage or educational pursuit or in search of greener pasture. We know there are always lots of anxieties involved in leaving a familiar place for an unfamiliar place.

Reflection/Homily: First (1st) Sunday of Lent Year A (9 March 2014)

Reflection/Homily: First (1^st) Sunday of Lent Year A (9 March 2014)

Theme: Dealing with Temptations

There was this little boy who ran to his parish priest in one area of Igbo Land (Nigeria) and said to him, ‘onwunwa na anwam (literally translated temptation is tempting me). The priest wondered what the little boy meant by that and the boy went on to explain how he bought five pigeons to train, four became ill and died simultaneously while the last one flew away. According to the boy, he could not understand why God would allow such a thing happen to him after all the selfless services he renders to God in the Church. Today, we still find many Christians who have the same mind frame like this poor boy. For them, temptation is the worst thing that can happen to them. In fact, they cannot understand why God would allow evil to befall them in the name of temptation or why they should have the desire to do evil. They think that by prayer and good works, they grow above the possibility of being tempted. But we have to understand the exact meaning of temptation before we can conclude we are being tempted.

Reflection/Homily: Ash Wednesday (5th March 2014)

Reflection/Homily: Ash Wednesday (5th March 2014)

It was not long ago that it was announced in a parish that the diocesan bishop would be coming to the parish on a pastoral visit. This great event of the bishop’s visit held once in four years due to the large size of the diocese was marked with a great preparation. There were renovations within the Church premises, decorations, clean ups, etc just to prepare for the great event of the bishop’s visit. This is an indication that most often, important and remarkable things do not just happen without serious preparations. For an ordination and profession to take place there must have been a period of formation, for graduation, a period of scholarly involvements, serious academic struggles and scholarship, for marriage, a period of courtship and even for Christmas, a period of advent.