Homily Sunday Week
3 Year C- Fr. Michael Ufok Udoekpo
·
Nehemiah 8:2-4a,
5-6,8-10;
·
Ps 19;8-10,15;
·
1 Cor 12:12-30
·
Luke 1:1-4;4:14-21
Our Shared Mission of Evangelization
By our water of
Baptism each of us: priest, religious lay faithful, men, women and children are
called to participate in the mission of Christ, spreading the Gospel. It’s a
Gospel mission of love that produces goodness, as well as good taste for
Scriptures, truth, love, authentic leadership, peace, forgiveness, moral
teaching, nation building, unity in diversity and sowing of the Gospel of life.
Of course it is a Gospel foreshadowed by the Story of God’s relationship with
Israel in the OT, including what we have just heard from the text of Nehemiah
today.
Nehemiah was not a
priest, but a lay man. Like the priest, Ezra he was commissioned by the Persian
king to return to rebuild Jerusalem socially, politically, religiously,
economically, spiritually and scripturally. As a layman, Nehemiah was called to
serve God at a time when the Israelite was resurfacing from their traumatic
years in exile. As a people exile had left them confused, subdued, oppressed
without their Davidic king and sense of national pride and security. Nehemiah
stepped up to the scene. Even though a civil administrator he supported the
priests with great zeal and demonstrates evangelizing and priestly qualities in
every step on the way.
Besides devoting
his time for God in prayer and showing good example in his leadership styles,
he had great love and passion for the Holy Scriptures. He sees in Scriptures at
means for evangelization and nation rebuilding. Nehemiah’s mission was not only
to reconstruct the broken physical fences of the city of Judah, but to
revitalize a spiritual nation.
On this mission
with Nehemiah were Ezra and the Levites. They organized an outdoor, crusade and
revivals, -- for public reading, teaching, and interpretation of the Bible.
In their Bible
Class were people, men, women, children from different homes and section of
Jerusalem, yet, they were single-minded. They had the common but not a divided
desire to hear the word of God (Neh 8:1-2). Their unity took precedence over
every other thing else. Unlike the Corinthian Community and in the second
reading (I Cor 12:12-30) or modern day Christians, often divided in many
issues, Nehemiah’s people were also very attentive and enthusiastic. They were
responsive, submissive and teachable. The all said, “Amen, Amen.”
Hearing the word
of God many of them began to weep. It exposes their brokenness, despair and
faithlessness. Scripture exposes our sins and renews our friendship with God.
Scriptures not only exposes our ignorant and selfishness, it widens our
horizons. Hearing the word of God, Nehemiah’s students were encouraged to go
back a share their bread with the poor. So Scripture opens our eyes to the
needs and talents of others. It also guaranteed a replenish of our resources
“Do not be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the Lord must be your strength”
Nehemiah told the people.
Similarly we heard
in today’s Gospel how Christ came to Nazareth, where he had grown up and went
into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. There he read from the Scroll of Prophet
Isaiah 61, which was handed over to Him:
“The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the
blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to
Lord….today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing,” Christ
concluded.
Yes, for
Christ, the poor, the needy, the blind, the oppressed must be helped
and alleviated. For Christ scriptures must be read, taught and
actualized even in a divided audience of our time . Saint Paul after
his Damascus experience in Acts of the Apostles 9, inherited this same mission
of sharing the Gospel with everyone, Jews and Gentiles, with the weak and the
strong. In the Second reading 1 Corinthian
12, 12ff, it was a divided church with all kinds of moral issues and abuse of
spiritual gifts that Paul reaches out to.
Like Nehemiah,
Paul uses the familiar metaphor the” body” to remind his church, that, just as
the nose would not say I don’t need the ear, the teeth, the lungs,
the eyes, or the entire head, the church community must learn from the
unity of the human body. All parts of the body are important just as all
section of the Church, Priest, Religious, lay men and women, the youth,
children.
We all have a
mission to share with one another especially in our challenging times of
pluralism, and conflicts among religious groups, terrorism, and Islamic
militancy, threats of nuclear bombs, remnants of apartheid and drug
trafficking, human rights abuse, discrimination of all kinds, and
racism still raising ugly heads here and there. We all have a mission to share
from our various locations of services , occupations, homes and families.
Vatican II
Council recognizes this as well when she states in the Apostolicam
actuositatem, Decree on the Apostolate of the Lay people that,
“The church was
founded so that by spreading Christ’s kingdom throughout the world to the glory
of God the Father, every man and woman may share in the saving work of redemption,
and so that through them the entire world may be truly directed towards Christ.
Every activity of the mystical body, with this in view, goes by the name of
apostolate, which the church exercises through all its members, though in
various ways… In the organism of the living body no part is passive… same is
true in the body of Christ which is the Church, ‘when each part is working
properly, promotes the body’s growth’ (Eph 4:16)."
The lessons and fruits of this shared
mission from the time of Nehemiah, Christ and Paul, down to us, where ever
we may be privileged to serve in any capacity, civilly or religiously are:
selflessness, search and promotion of common good, renunciation of sins,
rejection of bad habits, contentment, and unity in diversity, peace and joy.
Reflection Questions:
1.
In light of today’s Scriptures in what forms do we participate in spreading
the Gospel?
2.
Do we encourage others to do the
same?
3.
How often do we listen attentively to the word of God and act and live
promptly by its spirit, the spirit of the Gospel?
Homily [2] Third Sunday of Ordinary Time
Year C: Fr. Michael Ufok Udoekpo
·
Neh 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10;
·
1 Cor 12:12-30
·
Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21
God’s Words are Spirit and Life to Everyone
(- In this Year of Mercy!).
“Your Words Lord Are Spirit and Life (Verba
tua, Domine, Spiritus et vita sunt!). Let us say that together: “Your
Words Lord, are Spirit and Life”! What a beautiful, deep and spiritual
response to our Psalm today, in fact, taken from John’s Gospel chapter 6, verse
63c! Think of it again. What Word? The Word that we have just heard.
Scriptures, the Scrolls, the “Law and the Prophets” that we read, live, preach
and listen carefully to, at every liturgy- at worship. The Word of God, Verbum
Domini! The Word of love! The Word of unity! The Word of forgiveness! The
Word of Christ! The teachings of Christ! The Word of peace! Divine
words—holy and encouraging. These words give us strength to raise our families,
to carry on our respective missions, our projects, our journeys, our studies,
our vocations, our priesthood, our religious life! It is ever alive- the
word of God, the values of Christ!
As the Jewish—men, women and children were
returning from exile, that humiliating experience, to rebuild their homeland,
their faith and dignity, their unity, their oneness, Ezra the priests, in
company of a lay gentleman known as, Nehemiah brought this word of God, the
Torah, the word of life, to the people. Ezra and Nehemiah read and taught the
entire community these words of life. Those who listened to them were no longer
the same. They were a changed people- filled with joy, strength and life- “Your
words Lord, are Spirit and Life! (John 6:63c).
When Saint Paul, an apostle to the Gentiles
encountered a broken, promiscuous and divided Gentile- Corinthian community,
during his pastoral ministry and preaching- the word of God was Paul’s
effective instrument. With the word of God, the Gospel, Paul reminded the
community that just as all parts of our bodies must work together to sustain
the living body- members of Christ, the church, the baptized, Jews, Greeks and
Gentiles must see themselves as brothers and sisters in Christ- and use their
talents for the common good. Paul spoke words of love and unity to this divided
Corinthian community! God’s words spoken through Paul, brought them spirit, and
renewed their life.—“Your words Lord, are Spirit and Life!
In the Gospel of today Christ begins his
public ministry ( Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21) by invoking, in Nazareth, his home town,
the spirit of the Lord, the energy of the Lord, that Scripture offers us on
every journey that we would want to embark upon: Quoting Isaiah 61, in the synagogue
of his home town, Nazareth, Jesus says,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because
he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to bring
liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the
oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”
What a mission, that Christ set to accomplish! Christ
knew he came from the Father, who sent him on a mission. He can only accomplish
so much to the blind, to the poor, to those in prison, to those in captivity-
with his father behind him! It takes the spirit of the Lord to leave our
luxurious home to visit with the poor and with the prisoners! It takes the
spirit of the Lord to be humble to forgive those who have offended us, to be
kind and to be prayerful or to accept our situation with faith, hope and love!
Each of us in our various life situations today- no
matter how bad, or good, it may seems, how divided and broken we may seem to
be, sometimes; can relate to the once exiled community of Ezra-Nehemiah,
who has been restored to joy, strength, happiness and life in today’s
first reading. We can relate to divided, boastful Corinthian community of
today’s 2nd reading. Our talents, with the grace of God, can be
channeled towards the common good!
In fact, as it
were in the Life of Christ, each of us can only stay focus, we can only
attempt to do so much good, ----be good leaders, good teachers, good
children, loving parents; fulfilling our spiritual and corporal works of mercy(-in
this Year Mercy) and other times, political seasons,- visiting the sick, the
blind, those in prison; praying for the oppressed, protecting the unborn,
forgiving those who may have offended us, accepting those born in cultures
outside our own, and reaching out to the poor, the marginalized by being
attentive listening, preachers and doers of the Word of God, which are
spirit and life. May we all once again say together---Your words, Lord, are
Spirit and Life.”
Reflection Questions:
1.
In light of today’s Scriptures in what forms do we participate in spreading
the Gospel?
2.
Do we encourage others to do the
same?
3.
How often do we listen attentively to the word of God and act and live
promptly by its spirit, the spirit of the Gospel?
