Homily- Thursday
of the 23rd Week in Ord. Time Yr B. Fr. Udoekpo, Michael
v 1 Cor 8:1b-7, 11-13
v Ps 139: 1b-3, 13-14ab, 23-24
v Luke 6:27-38
Each of us is created
in God’s image ( Gen 1:26-28; Ps 8; ), and chosen before the foundation of
the world ( Eph 1:4ff), to serve, worship, adore, imitate, love him and our
neighbors as we would love ourselves, and as God would mercifully and graciously
loved us. By nature, this loving God is
merciful, gracious, generous, truthful, universal, approachable, available,
kind and full of steadfastness (Exod 34:6-7, Ps 85; Ps 103, Micah 7:18ff). As
his image, we are special, moral, spiritual, sexual, social, relational, and in
fact, called to imitate. And to allow his nature to influence us and guide our
going and coming. This seems to be part of what has been communicated to us in
today’s Bible passages.
In the Gospel reading
(Luke 6:27-38) Jesus invites his disciples and all of us to imitate God and
him, by being merciful as our heavenly father his. He reminds us to love our
enemies and avoid spite and retaliation”: to the person who strikes you on one
cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak,
do not withhold even your tunic.” As difficult as this may sound to human ears,
Jesus went on to say, “give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who
takes what is yours do not demand back. Do to others as you would love them do
onto you. For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you’...Forgive
and you would be forgiven…”
There are many
other examples of God’s merciful and forgiving nature throughout scripture, but
Jesus self-giving life on the cross is a good example (during the Passion Week).
Another one is his washing of his disciples’ feet in John 13, the calling of
Matthew the tax collector (Matt 9:9-19), his sharing of a cup of cold water
with the Samaritan woman( John 4) and in his parable of the lost coin and of
the prodigal son( Luke 15).
Christ’s high moral effects must be our guide
to our behaviors that must certainly affect others positively in the community
of God’s people, and not the type Saint challenges in today’s first reading ( 1
Cor 8:1b-7,11-13).
In addition to
Paul’s preaching against boasting, spiritual infancy, immaturity and division
in the Corinthian community, Paul challenged them to refrain from arrogance and
empty Hellenistic knowledge, which is of course foolishness before God. They
must also stop eating food sacrificed to idols. Such bad examples would,
according to Paul, mislead others in the community and cause them to sin (I Cor
8: 11-13).
These readings,
the Gospel and Paul’s first Letter to the Corinthian today, invite us to
rethink not only how far we have allowed God’s forgiving nature to touch our
lives and how we treat others when they offend us, but to reassess how
exemplary we are to others in our faith communities, by what and how we eat,
wear, speak, drink, dance, smoke and conduct ourselves before others, young and
old, male and female’ especially by also rejecting all forms of idolatries in
our world today!
Going by the
delights of Pope Francis, the readings even challenge us further to reconsider how we
treat even the mother planets and perhaps to also take to heart and memory today's alleluia verse 1 John 4:12 that says “If we love one another, God remains (meneo, abides,) in
us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.”
May God’s love, compassion,
kindness, forgiveness, availability, approachability, universality,
inclusiveness, and mercy affect us, and be “brought to perfection” in us, so
that our lives may touch others positively in God’s assembly and in the society
at large.
Reflection Question
1.
Who is God for us? And how often do
we allow his nature to affect us or be brought to perfection in us?
2.
If we all, humans, are God’s
children through his act of mercy or love to us Christ, how often do you see
God re-creating us in the image of his Son, Jesus Christ?
3.
How often are we conscious of the
fact that our behaviors our idolatry, may affect others in the community and in
the society?
4.
Do we forgive others as God would
have forgiven us?
