August 04, 2019: Homily for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary time Year (C)

Readings: Eccl. 21:2; 2:21-23; Col 3:1-5, 9-11; Lk 12:13-21

How much is Enough for the Rich?

The readings of today address the rich and those who pursue wealth as their only reason to exist on earth. Vanity of vanities, all things are vanity. A vain person is excessively proud in his/her admiration of his/her own appearance or achievements. Vanity means the quality of being worthless or futile. The Preacher, in the first reading, wants us to reflect on futility, uselessness, pointlessness, and fruitlessness of life and the pursuit of wealth. Our labor would be fruitless if our only purpose of existence is to amass wealth for ourselves alone. “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?” (Mk. 8:36). No matter how rich we may be and how contented our achievements may make us feel, a day will come when we leave it all to others.

The second reading offers us a solution to a life of vanity. It exhorts us to set our hearts on the next life where we hope to behold the beatific vision of God. “If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ. When Christ your life appears then you too will appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:1-4). We may be whatever we want and achieve whatever we dream but we must not lose sight of the reason for our existence. The Penny Catechism reminds us that we were created to know, love and serve God in this world so as to be happy with him in the next. Therefore, we must put to death, immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and greed. We must stop lying and be sincere and honest in our dealings with one another.

In the Gospel Jesus addresses inordinate greed and lust after material things that has blinded many people and turned them into narcissistic, arrogant, selfish, haughty, conceited, self-important, opinionated, egotistic and superior; admirable only by themselves and their cronies, despicable and intolerable to others. They only think of themselves and everything is about them.  “I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!” And Christ warns: “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions”. How much is enough for the rich of this world? Why can’t they read the signs of the time and learn from the wisdom of Job: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there” (Job 1:21). How have you used your wealth to store up riches for yourselves so that you may be rich in what matters to God? Christ admonishes: Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroys, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven where neither moth nor decay destroy, not thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be” (Mt. 6:19-21). To do this properly and admirably, you must share what you have with those who have not. You are only a steward of your wealth. In giving to others, you give to God and your treasures are stored up for you in heaven.

These readings affirm that we brought nothing into this world and we will take nothing out of it. “Those who trust in their wealth and boast of the vastness of their riches should know that no man buys his own ransom or pays a price to God for his life. He cannot buy life without end, nor avoid coming to the grave. He knows that wise men and fools must both perish and must leave their wealth to others” (Ps. 49).

There is a story that captures the essence of today’s readings: Alexander the Great was the emperor of ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He led may military campaigns and created one of the largest empires ever, stretching from Greek to India. He did this all while he was about 30 years old.  While on his death bed he thought of the vast empire he has built, each and every spoils of war he captured and the might of his military machine. He went into depression, realizing nothing was worth it even after an extremely successful life he could not avoid death. He wanted to see his mother for the last time before he departed, but he knew he would not be able to do it and would soon pass away. So he called his loyal Generals and made three last wishes before dying. I have three last wishes, please carry them out, for soon I will depart. My first wish is that my doctors, should alone carry my coffin. My second wish is that the path towards my grave shall be strewn with gold, silver and all the precious possessions in my treasury, while my body is being brought to be buried. My third and last wish is that both my hands shall be kept dangling out of my coffin.

The Generals who were startled by the three wishes, asked Alexander about the strange wishes. Alexander told them, I want my doctors to carry my coffin to let all know that no doctor can cure anybody. They are powerless, cannot save a person from death. The strewn gold, silver and other precious stones on the way to the graveyard, to let the people know that though I spent all my life accumulating riches, not even a grain of gold will come with me when I leave this world. It is a sheer waste of time, energy, and peace of mind when one yearns to be rich. Having my hands dangling out of the coffin, I want people to know that I came empty handed into this world and likewise will go empty handed from this world.

Alexander wanted to teach the rest of the world that earthly possessions are not worth it, and one must not crave for them. We came empty handed and will die empty handed. What else can I say! In his riches, man lacks wisdom, he is like the beasts that are destroyed. “If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God”. May we be wise with how we use material things so that God may welcome us into his dwelling when we pass from this life to next. Amen.

July 28, 2019: Homily for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time of Year C

Readings: Gen 18:20-32; Col 2:12-14; Lk 11:1-13

Jesus Prayed, the More Reason You Too Should Pray

In my second Philosophy while studying for the priesthood, I worked as a seminarian in a parish in my home diocese of Calabar. It was customary for seminarians to stay with a family within the mission church during their tour. I was given accommodation with the catechist - Patrick. I returned from church one evening, exhausted, and went to bed at about 9:00 pm. The village had a lot of insects: mosquitoes and bugs. Thank God we were warned in the seminary to always have a mosquito net during apostolic work. My net was neatly put in place as I rested comfortably in bed for the night. At about 1:00 am, there was a knock at Patrick’s door. A man from outside called out begging Helen, the catechist’s wife, who had a convenient shop, to kindly sell him mosquito coil (when lit the smoke repelled mosquitos). Patrick shouted from inside that he and his family were in bed, that the man should come back in the morning. But the man would not hear of it. He knocked, begged louder and louder, that his kids were unable to sleep due to mosquitos. This went on for a good while. I was wide awake now, but restrained myself from interceding for the man, partly because I wanted to see what the catechist would do. The man outside would not go away, he persisted and insisted, he knocked, pleaded, and begged. Finally, Helen got up, took some coils, unlocked the door and shove them into the man’s hands and told him to go with the money till the following day. Then there was peace.  The story is similar to the parable told by Jesus in today’s Gospel about the need to persevere in prayer and not lose heart. Jesus Christ himself was a man of prayer. The Gospels relate instances of Him praying. He prayed so much that his disciples asked him to teach them how to pray.

The 16^th chapter of my book, ‘Life’s Lessons’ looked at ‘Why Christ Prayed’. I used my life experience to explain why I think Christ prayed. In prayer Christ called home to check on his Father, to know how he was doing. To tell God his father about his mission on earth and the difficulties he encountered. He talked to God about the many sick people he met wherever he went; he told him about the devil who worked hard to undermine him. He needed his father’s advice on how to counter and overthrow the devil. I think Christ discussed with his father about the problems he had with people on earth, the ‘holier than thou’ who made life difficult for him: the scribes and the Pharisees who wanted to kill him; Herod who ridiculed him and those who called him names and said that he used the power of beelzebud to drive out the devil. He was worried about the hatred, the hypocrisy, the lack of love, the unforgiving people he had to deal with. He was bothered about the backstabbing, the gossip, the betrayal, and the disloyalty that confronted him daily. Or maybe he just wanted to tell his father about his day, his joys and sadness, about his new friends, those who were assisting him in his mission. He talked to him about the crowds, the disciples, his apostles and their characters, personalities, and temperaments. He talked about the women in his life and mission. He must have talked at length about his mother, Mary. Sure, he mentioned Mary Magdalene and how committed she was to his cause. Oh, Christ prayed every day, prayed hard and spent long hours in prayer. Sometimes he spent the whole night, other times he would go up the mountain or at day break he would go to a deserted place and prayed in solitude.

In my opinion, prayer made it possible for Christ to focus on the work of his father. Prayer helped him not to be rash in his judgement and decision making. Because he prayed he was able to see everyone as a son and daughter of God, therefore, his brothers and sisters. Since everyone is created in the image and likeness of his father, he was able to see them as members of his family.

If Christ who is both God and man prayed so hard, the more reason why we too should spend a good deal of time in prayer. Prayer is to a Christian what water is to fish. How can we possibly survive without prayer! Today Christ taught his disciples to keep their prayer simple and short. God knows what we need, hence, we should ask for his kingdom to be established here on earth.

There are many types of prayer to choose from depending on our particular need. We may say prayer of intercession as Abraham did in the first reading today. We say this prayer when praying for others. We also ask others to intercede for us as when we invoke the saints to pray for us. In the prayer of thanksgiving we express our gratitude to God for blessings received. We are encouraged to offer thanks to God for the gift of life. Our greatest act of thanksgiving is at the celebration of the Mass – the eucharist which is “the source and summit of the Christian life”. Other forms of prayer are: adoration, contrition, supplication, meditation and contemplation.  Our prayer is efficacious and is of utmost necessity for overcoming our enemies. Like Christ, the saints were people of prayer. They too spent their whole life in prayer, not only during the day but at nights as well. Prayer is a must for everyone. A Christian who does not pray knows nothing about God and his love for humanity. According to John Vianney, The Cure D’Ars, “We will watch ourselves and all the motions of our hearts in vain, in vain we will avoid temptation if we do not pray; if we do not have continual recourse to prayer, all our other ways will be of no use at all to us and we shall be overcome. We can see plainly that in the world there are a great many occasions when we cannot run away; for example, a child cannot run away from the society of his parents because of their bad example. But he can pray and his prayer, will sustain him.” 

If we pray as Christ did, we may begin to experience life differently; see people differently and love as God loves us. We may begin to forgive people from our hearts as we want God to forgive us. In praying the ‘Our Father’ we are praying to a loving God, who cares for us and seeks what is best for us. No matter what we go through in life, our Father knows it all and wants us to tell him about it. But most of all, in praying may we never forget to ask for the one thing that is dearest to God’s heart, the gift of the Holy Spirit. For “The Spirit too helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in speech. He who searches hearts knows what the Spirit means, for the Spirit intercedes for the saints as God himself wills” (Rom. 8:26-27). Pray always, pray perseveringly, pray insistently, pray and do not give up and the God who sees your heart and knows your needs will open the door for you and give you all you need abundantly. He will turn your mourning into joy and fill you with the blessings of your youth. May the Spirit pray for us and in us now and always. Amen.