Homily 13th Sunday of the Year C: Michael Ufok Udoekpo
Readings: 1 Kings 19:16b, 19-21; PS 16:1-2,5-11; Gal 5:1,13-18 and Luke
9:51-62
Proceeding on the Journey of Faith
This past weekend, I hosted a group of priests from my native diocese of Ikot Ekpene for a three day annual retreat. Many of them left their distance places and in the midst of flight delays etc., finally flew/travelled with deep faith and determination to Sacred Heart School of Theology, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Our relationship with God is a journey of faith that requires free will
response , resoluteness and determination. This is also translated in how we
listen to God, his precepts including our response and relationship with our
neighbors.
In the first reading of today Elisha left everything and followed the
Prophet Elijah in his mission of love, care for the poor, the sick and the
widows. Elijah was also a proponent for worship of God alone. To accompany
Elijah on this mission, Elisha left everything including his oxen, father and
mother- total abandonment.
We see this total abandonment in Christ's mission. His mission was not only
to baptize, to help, to cure diseases, but also to love everyone and to do the will of God his
Father. He was not interested in riches, nor and power. He made this known to the Satan who tempted him after his baptism, earlier on in Luke chapter 4. We also see Jesus' selflessness in his response to his Mother at Cana in Galilee, in John 2. Jesus says to Mary, "Woman my time has not yet come." After the Passover commemoration Jesus stayed back in the Temple to do his Father's will, preaching and dialoging with rabbis in the synagogue. A mystery that Mary and Joseph continuously wrestled with. On top of everything, Jesus leaves his mother and his biological family and went to the Cross of Calvary, in Jerusalem. In the Lukan Gospel of
today (Luke 9:51-62) even though Christ is freely and resolutely determine to
journey to this Jerusalem, are his disciple willing to journey with him? Or must
they go back to bury their parents and say farewell to them first?
In some contexts neither of these excuses: burying the dead or saying hello
to ones' family is wrong. I think what matters is serving God
responsibly, imitating him, and being volitionally dedicated to him in our
various settings and contexts, through the service of our neighbors and
communities. These excuses may also serve as a reminder to us that it is much
better to avoid inventing reasons to justify lack of charity, firmness in faith
or adequate response to the needy and the plight of the poor or refusal
to willingly participate in the dialogue for the healing of brokenness, selfishness, subjectivism and
disunity facing various segments of our society today.
St. Paul puts it well in the Second Reading in his address to the Galatian
church(Gal 5:1, 13-18) "For freedom Christ set us free, so stand firm and do not
submit again to yoke of slavery. For you were call for freedom ...but do not use
this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh (things that takes us away from
God, evil), rather, serve one another through love. For the whole law is
fulfilled in one statement, namely, you shall love your neighbor as
yourself."
God and all that he stands for, is this love, Deus Caritas est! The
Psalmist rightly calls him " our inheritance"( Ps 16:5a). May we willingly
follow him in our daily works. And may he show us the path of life as
we journey responsibly with faith, freedom in Christ, resoluteness and determination to follow God's will, not ours.
