Homily (2) 23rd
Sunday of Year A: Fr. Michael U. Udoekpo
Readings: Ezekiel
33:7-9; Ps 95:1-2, 6-9’ Rom 13:8-10 and Matthew 18:15-20Regaining our Personal and Communal Hope
Today’s Psalm 95 “If
today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts,” invites us to worship the
Lord, the king of kings, the shepherd of Israel. It invites us to open our
ears, our hearts, mind and soul and continuously be loyal to God. It reminds us
what we learned in the past, and what we continue to learn today: the precepts
of the Lord, the Ten Commandants, the love of God and love of one’ neighbor, as well as the teachings of the Church. The entire Bible readings of today, allow us
to rise to our responsibilities, to regain our personal and communal hope, an increase our appetite for fraternal correction, and the desire
to meet God in a special way.
Israel’s experience in
the Babylonian exile of 587 BC was not a good one. It led to despair. Ezekiel
addresses such despair or hopelessness in the 1st reading: a sermon
of restoration, hope and reestablishment of the covenant, once broken by sin.
As a prophet of exile, Ezekiel is reappointed as God’s instrument, with a divine appellations “son of man” and as a “watchman” of Israel, emphasizing his humanity, and prophetic responsibilities. His duty is to courageously serve as an antidote to discouragement and despair. He is to bring fraternal correction to bear in the community. As a watchman, Ezekiel is commissioned to remind Israel that the sins of one’s past count for nothing when we repent and do what is right.
In Romans 13: 8-10,
Saint Paul, like Ezekiel, plays the same prophetic role of preaching remedies
to despair and discouragement. Paul re-articulate the 10 commandments we learned
in our catechisms classes, and Sunday schools. Those in the Book of Exodus and
of course in Deuteronomy “Shama Israel”, (Listen Israel). These laws are
wonderful. But for Paul, love or charity to our neighbors fulfills them.
The same message reechoes
in the Gospel (Matt 18:15-20) where Jesus says, if your brother sins against
you, go and tell him his fault. If he refuses invites two other people to come
with you. But if he still refuses to listen bring the matter to the church, the
community of believers. For where two or three gathered in God’s name, God is
surely in their midst.
In all these, when we
put the messages of Ezekiel, Paul and that of Jesus together, one single theme
stands out, namely’ “being our brothers/sisters keeper,” watching out for
neighbors. In the case of Ezekiel, bringing them hope and support when
everybody seems to be hopeless and despair. In the case of Paul, truly no one who
loves his neighbor would think of stealing his neighbor’s property, abusing his
children or wife, since “Love does no evil to the neighbor.” What stands out in
the Gospel also is that, we be a watchman or a watchwoman to our neighbors in
our prayers and counseling. Those pieces of advice we gently and compassionately give to our grandchildren,
children, friends, partners, colleagues, spouses count. They go a long way to
help. You never know! We are call to love and to watch our neighbors back,
speak well about our neighbors, whether they are there or not.
Today, we live in a very
troubling time. A time of uncertainties, of poverty, widening gap between the poor
and the rich . Nobody knows what the terrorists might do next. Nobody knows how
far that earthquake might go. Nobody knows hundred percent, how far the wars
going on in different parts of the world might extend. We are yet to control recent outbreak of epidemics and diseases including AIDs and EBOLA. We still have gun
violent, police brutalities, cultural and racial crises in our world. In all
these, we have every reason to listen to God’s voice and pray for our nations and
world at large, our civil leaders and ecclesiastical leader. Like Ezekiel, Paul and Christ, we have every reason
to be our brothers and sister keepers, to constantly pray, advice, and watch
out for one another; Regaining our personal and communal hope!
