Homily for the Eleventh in Ordinary Time, Year A

                 Understanding the Mission of the Church 

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Eleventh in Ordinary Time, Year A

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, June 14, 2026

Over a thousand years ago, the Roman Empire controlled the entire Mediterranean world. All power and wealth were held by the Roman elites and their cronies. Below them were vast numbers of poor, landless peasants burdened by heavy taxes. Anyone who opposed the regime was severely punished, often by crucifixion. This was the world in which Jesus lived. As a child, he saw hundreds of people crucified along the road between Capernaum and Nazareth. Jesus knew how desperate, exhausted, and frustrated the people were. He knew of man’s inhumanity to man and understood poverty, injustice, resentment, and rage. 

During his public ministry, Jesus saw the same anguished faces come to him. What did he do? Complain about it? Shout about it? Offer empty apologies with no action, as many of us do? In today’s Gospel (Matthew 9:36-38, 10:1-8), the evangelist writes, “At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.” Sheep are not wise animals. Without help, without shepherds, they will always wander away, get lost, die, and become easy prey for wolves or other wild animals. Who are these sheep? Look in the mirror. But the good news is that the Lord did not scorn the sheep, nor was he satisfied with their condition. Instead, his heart was moved with pity toward them, and he acted. It’s not enough to merely feel pity; it must lead to action.

What does Jesus do? He makes three moves. One, he recognizes the pastoral problem of the day: “The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few.” Two, he enjoins his disciples to pray: “So ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” Before you embark on any project—big, medium, or small—pray first. Prayer must always come first, not be a last resort. Please do not see prayer as a backup plan when all your resources are exhausted and plans fail. In any situation, prayer should be the first thing we do. In this case, we are invited to pray and ask the master of the harvest to send more laborers into his harvest. Every Wednesday at Mass here at St. Bridget, we fulfill Jesus’ desire. We pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. But prayer is never a substitute for action. Prayer does not merely pass the buck to God to exonerate oneself from responsibility. After Jesus prayed and asked his disciples to pray, he made the third move. He acted by answering the very prayer he had told them to pray. Sometimes, we are the answer to the prayers we make. Jesus summons twelve of his sheep, twelve of his disciples, and turns them into shepherds. This is the turning point of this Gospel. He calls the twelve, commissions them, and authorizes them to go out and do the following: proclaim the gospel, cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, and drive out demons. 

The Church is essentially missionary. In a September 19, 2013, interview with America magazine, Pope Francis said, “I see the church as a field hospital after battle.” Every member of the Church is in this hospital. I am there; you are there as well. In various degrees, we are all sick. What was the first assignment Jesus gave to the Twelve? He said, “As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” Why is preaching the gospel the first assignment? It is because the most serious sickness is a lack of knowledge of God. If you go around today and ask people what they think is the worst sickness, you would hear things like cancer, mental health issues, dementia, stroke, heart disease, kidney failure, diabetes, etc. As deeply harmful as those diseases are, none is the worst. The worst disease is not knowing, loving, and serving God. Period! So, preachers of Verbum Dei are to confront this disease head-on by speaking about God, who is the ground of all reality. We all preach either the Gospel or the anti-Gospel, either by words or, more powerfully, by our deeds. Let’s not forget that the Gospel that converted the hardhearted Roman Empire was not only beautiful words but also amazing deeds of love. You can argue with words, but not with good deeds. The lives of the saints provide the most powerful and irrefutable arguments. 

The other four deeds Jesus instructs his disciples to do are: cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, and drive out demons. These are supernatural deeds that most of us lack the power or authority to perform. In the Bible, Jesus cured the sick, raised the dead, cleansed lepers, and drove out demons. Throughout the Church’s history, many of the saints did the same. Today, we still have charismatic people in the Church who do the same. But in the spirit of St. Augustine, permit me to offer a meditation on these four assignments Jesus gives the Church. Jesus said, “Cure the sick.” Who are they? All of us. We are sick physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. We have a few churchmen and women who have the gift of miraculously healing the sick. Doctors and nurses do it professionally. But again, the deepest and most important miracle happens at the spiritual level. It happens when our sins are forgiven by God after going to confession. It happens when, after many years of refusing to forgive someone, we realize, by the preaching of the gospel, that we have been drinking poison, expecting it to kill someone else. You are cured of your spiritual sickness after many years of wanting to control your life, make your own laws (autonomy), and live by your own rules, you finally allow God to take over and do with you whatever he wills. You are healed of your sickness when your habitual sin, which doesn’t allow you to have a steady relationship with God, is conquered. You are healed spiritually when, after many years of suffering addiction to food, licit and illicit drugs, alcohol, pornography, masturbation, sex, watching television, and playing video games, you finally scream, “I am free.” 

Jesus also said, “Raise the dead.” He raised the dead physically—the twelve-year-old girl, the only son of the widow of Nain, and his friend Lazarus. Who is being raised from the dead today? All of us! In Christian theology, being raised from the dead spiritually refers to spiritual rebirth. To Nicodemus, Jesus said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again.” So baptism is the beginning of our being raised from death, the death of sin and separation from God. Jesus also said, “Cleanse lepers.” Who are these lepers? All of us! In the Bible, leprosy is always a symbol of sin. It compromises us, weakens us, and eventually kills us. But with our sins forgiven, we are cleansed spiritually just as a leper is cleansed physically. Finally, Jesus also said, “Drive out demons.” Some people are genuinely possessed by demonic spirits. Every diocese has exorcists, priests trained to go into the battlefield with Satan, defeat him by prayer and the use of the Church’s sacraments and sacramentals, and set captives free. But there are other subtle demons that hold many people captive—the demon of spiritual blindness, the demon that promotes naturalism and secularism. We also have the demons of pride, greed, lust, and envy. We have demons of spreading gossip and lies, and of causing division in society and within the Church. To accomplish the task given to us, the Lord enjoins us to do two things: pray and preach. Ask the Master of the harvest and proclaim the arrival of God’s Kingdom. Since the sick are all of us, since the dead are all of us, since the lepers are all of us, since we are in some degree possessed of something, we must stay within this Church, this field hospital, just to stand a chance of being ready to be ushered into the Kingdom of heaven that is at hand. 

God bless you!

Homily on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Year A

                       Why Do We Need The Eucharist? 

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Year A

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, June 7, 2026

Today, we celebrate the gift of Jesus himself. We celebrate his presence under the appearances of Bread and Wine. In today’s Gospel, Jesus makes the most outrageous and controversial statement in the entire Bible, saying, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.” I tell you, this teaching led most of his disciples to walk away from him. And after more than two thousand years, those words still drive many away from Jesus. Some leave physically by dissociating from Christ and his Church; others leave spiritually. Although they still come to Mass, they don't believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist and don't adore Jesus there. 

But why do we need the Eucharist? Life is a journey, a long journey. As we make our way through it, we need nourishment and sustenance. Just as the manna sustained the ancient Israelites as they left Egypt, the land of their captivity, for the Promised Land, the Eucharist is given to us to sustain us. Why was the manna given? After the Israelites escaped from Egypt and began heading to the Promised Land, they spent 40 years wandering in the desert. While in the desert, they faced many hardships, including hunger and thirst. Their situation grew so dire that they longed for the “flesh pots of Egypt,” the more luxurious life they had in Egypt. As they complained and lamented to Moses, their leader, the Lord sent them a mysterious substance, manna, bread from heaven. This strange bread sustained them on their long journey through the desert. What is the Eucharist? The same thing! It is food for the long journey. Like ancient Israel, we are on a long journey, a journey away from sin, through the difficulties, obstacles, and dangers of this life, to fulfillment in heaven. What do we need? We need sustenance and spiritual food. We need the manna, the bread from heaven, the Eucharist. 

Sisters and brothers, we need it, not symbolically, but really! The Eucharist is the spiritual food for the spiritual life. We need it as we make our way to heaven. The earliest description of baptism is “the gate or door to the spiritual life.” In confirmation, this spiritual life is intensified. But what will ultimately sustain the life of Christ in us? The Eucharist! If you receive the life of Christ in baptism but never feed that life, and you stay away from the Eucharist, the source and summit of the Christian life, what will happen? The life of Christ in you will wither. It will fade. So we need the Eucharist to sustain the spiritual life, the life of Christ, which we receive at baptism. 

Why do we need the Eucharist? In the Lord’s Prayer, we say, “Give us this day, our daily bread.” The translation of “daily bread” from Greek into English was poor. In Greek, the phrase is “ton arton ton epiousion.” Epiousios means “super-substantial.” What is super-substantial bread? Obviously, not ordinary bread with symbolic meaning. Not at all! It is bread that has come from heaven. It is not of this earth. Earthly bread cannot truly sustain us on this long journey. If you want to be christified, you need the super-substantial bread. 

We need the Eucharist to protect us from the real enemy and the enemies of humanity—Satan and his agents. In the Old Testament, God asked the Israelites to build the Ark of the Covenant. What was placed in that most sacred vessel? Remnants of the Ten Commandments. We know that when Moses came down from the mountain after receiving the Commandments, he found the Israelites worshipping man-made gods. In anger, he threw the Commandments to the ground, shattering them. The broken pieces of the Commandments were then placed inside the Ark. What else is in it? The staff of Aaron. Aaron was the first priest of Israel. The third thing placed in the Ark of the Covenant is manna. They took some of the manna God provided and put it in the Ark to remind them of the bread from heaven. Mark the word, “remind.” At the Last Supper, Jesus said to his Apostles, “Do this in remembrance of me,” meaning, do not forget what I have done here. And guess what? Before the Ark was lost, it was the center of Israelite life. No matter who was fighting Israel in a war, as long as the Ark was with them, they won. The Ark became a protective shield for them. In every Catholic Church and chapel, we have something that looks like the Ark of the Covenant. Inside that box-like object we call the Tabernacle, we have the Bread from heaven. In fact, what makes every one of our churches and chapels holy is not that we pray there, sing there, and gather there. It is because Jesus is really present there. That’s why we call it “Domus Dei,” house of God. In the Catholic Church, the real presence of Jesus resides. 

Why do we need the Eucharist? In John 15:4, Jesus says, “Remain in me, as I remain in you.” In verse 15, he says, “I am the vine, and you are the branches.” How can we remain in Christ? As branches, what helps us stay connected to the vine? First, baptism and active membership in the Church. Second, obedience to God’s word. Third, prayer. Fourth, partaking in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the most concrete reality that binds us to Christ. It is the means by which we are Christified. 

God bless you!

Homily on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Why Do We Need The Eucharist

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Year A

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, June 7, 2026

Today, we celebrate the gift of Jesus himself. We celebrate his presence under the appearances of Bread and Wine. In today’s Gospel, Jesus makes the most outrageous and controversial statement in the entire Bible, saying, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.” I tell you, this teaching led most of his disciples to walk away from him. And after more than two thousand years, those words still drive many away from Jesus. Some leave physically by dissociating from Christ and his Church; others leave spiritually. Although they still come to Mass, they don't believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist and don't adore Jesus there. 

But why do we need the Eucharist? Among other reasons, I will give you four. First, life is a journey. On this journey, we need nourishment, sustenance, and refreshment. No other food can offer us all of these, but the Body of Christ. Ordinary bread sustains our ordinary natural life by giving us the vegetable life of wheat. Jesus knows the brunt of this life's journey. He lived it himself, so he journeys with us and offers himself to us as our nourishment and support. In the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Eucharist is best understood as spiritual food. He said that just as Baptism is the birth of spiritual life and Confirmation the growth in spiritual life, so the Eucharist is “alimentum,” food for the spiritual life. Just as food is essential for physical life, so this FOOD is required for the life of the soul, spiritual life. It is the spiritual life that sustains the physical. A healthy and strong spiritual life keeps the physical body fired up, joyful, and ready to go on life's journey. The spiritual life we are talking about here is made strong and healthy only by the spiritual food—the Eucharistic Jesus. A basic law of science is the law of cause and effect: the effect cannot exceed the cause; nothing can give what it does not have. Thus, stones cannot give life, but bread can—it has what is needed to nourish life. And Christ can give eternal life, supernatural life, divine life, to both souls and bodies because he has it. This is why we insist that Jesus is divine. He is God. If he is just a man, even a perfect man, he can only give human life, which is temporal, mortal, and comes to an end. But if he is divine, he can give divine life, which is immortal and eternal. There are two Greek words for “life.” One is “bios,” which means natural, mortal life. The other is “Zoe,” which means supernatural, eternal life. Zoe is the word that Jesus uses in his Eucharistic discourse. So, when we receive the Eucharist, our “bios” changes into “Zoe.” The reason the Eucharist gives us eternal life is that it gives us Christ himself, and only Christ can give eternal life. Jesus says, “The one who feeds on me will have life (that is, eternal life) because of me.” That life is really in us because it is really in him. As the saying goes, “You are what you eat.”

Why do we need the Eucharist? Second, life can be exhausting. Today, many people have hit a dead end. They can’t move forward or even go back. For such people, the future is scary and evil, and going backward is twice as scary and bad. They become trapped, tired, and worn out. If there is any movement at all, it is toward the darkest place. Such people will need a clinical assessment from a doctor. They will need the support of family members, friends, colleagues, and church members (if they are churchgoers). After all of the above, what they need most urgently is alimentum spirituale—spiritual food for the life of the soul.  

Why do we need the Eucharist? Third, the Eucharist is the means by which we are Christified in body and soul, mind and heart. Through our regular contact with the Reality of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist, our lowly body is Christified and prepared for heaven. The Eucharist joins us directly to Christ and unites us with all other believers to form one spiritual body. We receive the Holy Eucharist to be spiritually nourished, to be united directly with Christ, and to be bonded as a community in His love. Receiving it feeds the soul just as physical food feeds the body. It is the heavenly food that enables us to participate in the love between the Father and the Son. In the Eucharist, the sacrifice of Christ Jesus is made fully present, and it is the fullest expression of the love of the Father and the Son for the human race. In the Eucharist, the believer encounters the Jesus of Nazareth who suffered, was crucified, died, and rose. In his homily on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi in 2001, Pope John Paul II asserts that, “Christ who died and rose for us is really present in the Holy Eucharist. In the consecrated Bread and Wine, the same Jesus of the Gospel remains with us whom the disciples met and followed, whom they saw crucified and risen, whose wounds Thomas touched, exclaiming prostrate in adoration: “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28).

Why do we need the Eucharist? Four, Jesus says he is the living bread from heaven. We all believe that heaven is the final place of rest for those who loved and served God. In the Eucharist, the Church triumphant (saints in heaven) and the Church militant (saints on earth) participate in and share a meal together. In the Eucharist, the marriage of heaven and earth is celebrated over and over again. In the Eucharist, the communion of the inhabitants of heaven and the inhabitants of earth continues unbroken. The Eucharist is called “Panis Angelorum” (the Bread of Angels). Angels are God’s messengers. Throughout the Bible, angels are depicted as a body of spiritual beings who serve as intermediaries between God and human beings. Although God has “made humanity a little less than angels” (Psalm 8:6), angels are created beings, just as human beings. Their nourishment, refreshment, and sustenance is the Bread of Life. So it should be with us as well. For the great St. Pope John Paul II, “We are nourished with this bread to become authentic witnesses of the Gospel. We need this bread to grow in love, the necessary means for us to recognize the face of Christ in the faces of our brothers and sisters” (Homily of John Paul II on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, Thursday 14, June 2001).

God bless you!

Homily on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Year A

Why Does God Reveal Himself? 

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Year A

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, May 31, 2026

Some describe the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity as one of the most dreaded Sundays for priests and deacons. They call it the preacher’s nightmare. Some priests jokingly say it is the only day a priest is allowed to preach heresy. By the way, I do not subscribe to those statements. The Trinity is not that complicated.

Now, if you ask Catholics what the central mystery of the Christian faith is, many would say it is the Eucharist, after all, it is the Source and Summit of the Christian life. Others will say it is the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Some will say it is his atonement on the cross. Some will say it is the Incarnation. As vitally important as all of these are, the Church teaches that the Trinity is the central mystery of our faith. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the “hierarchy of the truths of faith” (CCC 234). Yet for many of us, when the Trinity is mentioned, we don’t know what to do with it. Some people even treat it as bad mathematics. They argue: if there are three persons—Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit in the Trinity, it cannot be one God but three Gods. The doctrine of the Trinity is the belief that God is one in being and three in person. It is not a contradiction or bad mathematics, as some have suggested. If I were to say that the Trinity is one in being and three in being, that would be a contradiction. What is the difference between a being and a person? A being is what makes you what you are. A person is the quality that makes you who you are. What kind of being am I? I am a human being. But who am I? I am Father Marcel Okwara. What I am is a human being; that is my being. Who I am is Marcel; that is my person. The two are not the same thing. All of us share the same being and nature. We are all human beings. But none of you essentially shares the same kind of person I am. We are all different persons. The great St. Augustine explained the Trinity as one God in three distinct persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—who share the exact same divine nature. While they share the exact same divine nature (one in being), they function as three unique identities (three in person).

Why is the Trinity the most fundamental truth in Christianity, upon which all other truths of the faith rest? The Trinity is not about what God has done in human history, such as creation, the Incarnation, the institution of the Eucharist, atonement on the cross on Good Friday, the Resurrection, etc., but about who God is in himself. Consider how we entered the Church and how we live our devotional life as Catholics. What formula were you baptized in? The Trinitarian formula: “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Where did we get this baptismal formula? On the Mount of Ascension, Jesus speaks to his disciples, saying, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” So, at the beginning of our lives as Christians, we were baptized in the name of the Trinity. Whenever you enter a church and dip your fingers into the holy water, what else do you do? You make the sign of the cross. And that sign is also the sign of the Trinity. So, from the sacramental and devotional dimensions, you are already drawn into the Trinity.

What can we learn from the Holy Trinity? The true and living God is unknown. The Athenians were right to erect an altar and dedicate it to the “Unknown God.” At a certain time and place, this unknown God revealed himself to Abraham. Centuries later, he revealed himself again to Moses. Not only did he reveal himself to Moses, but he also revealed his name. In our first reading (Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9), God revealed his attributes: merciful, gracious, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and faithful. Now, what does God want? Why does he reveal himself to his puny creature, the human race? God wants a relationship. Among other reasons, the chief reason you reveal yourself to a stranger is to relate to that person more deeply. God wants to relate to us; he wants to be in a relationship with us. That’s why he constantly reveals himself. But God’s subsistence, fullness, or greatness does not rest on this relationship; it is rather ours. Our relationship with God makes us fully alive; we become greater, and our existence becomes more meaningful and purposeful. The true God reveals himself to the human race for the sake of the human race. So, the first lesson from the Trinity is relationship: first with God, and second with the people of God for the sake of God. For this reason, make an effort to know your brothers and sisters in the faith. Do not be in a hurry to leave after Mass. Greet the priest, hang out, and introduce yourself to someone you do not know. Do not always stand and talk to people who already know you. Identify someone you don’t know, approach the person, and initiate a conversation. I know that this is not always easy or comfortable, but it is possible. The God we serve has shown us how to reach out. If you are truly into him, you will do likewise. Become like the God we worship. 

Pentecost Sunday Reflection

Before Jesus ascended to heaven, his disciples asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). That’s a direct question. But if you are familiar with the Gospels, you know that Jesus rarely answers them directly. According to biblical scholars, Jesus was asked over 180 questions in the Gospels, but he gave direct answers to only a handful. Yet to this question, he gave a direct answer, even though it clearly wasn’t what his disciples expected. What did he say? “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:7-8). 

Across the centuries, people have been captivated by the question of when the Kingdom of God will arrive. Why? For some, it is the time when human suffering will finally be addressed. For others, it will be the fulfillment of the promise of eternal peace, justice, and the restoration of a broken world. Some simply want to know so they can be ready. We also have people driven by cosmic curiosity; you can call this group “spiritual busy-bodies.” Like the disciples, we are all interested in knowing when God's ultimate promise will be realized. When will that be? Jesus says, ‘Don’t worry about that. Don’t be overly concerned about when this and that kingdom will be realized. Rather, be concerned about receiving power when the Holy Spirit comes. Be concerned about being empowered and equipped to continue the Lord’s work on earth. Be concerned about cooperating with the Spirit and doing God’s work in the world.’ Don’t worry about when this or that will happen. That’s up to God. People are fixated on the end times. Please, don’t be. Rather, focus on the task of building God’s Kingdom. Having been equipped by the Holy Spirit, you can do something, either here or elsewhere. Use your gifts of time, talent, and treasure to build God’s Kingdom here in St. Bridget. Look at the lives of the saints throughout the ages. The saints in our tradition come from different backgrounds, experiences, styles, and personalities. But what do they have in common? In the course of their lives, they all discerned and said, “This is what the Holy Spirit wants me to do right now.” They were not particularly concerned about the definitive end of the world. Francis of Assisi was inspired to rebuild the Church. Thomas Aquinas was inspired to think through the mystery of the faith, and he spent his life doing so. Mother Teresa of Calcutta believed she received a specific and direct calling from Jesus to feed and care for the poor, as did Mary Jo Copeland. This is also true for you. The Holy Spirit has something for you to do. Discern what that is and get on with it. 

I will close with this. In describing the coming of the Holy Spirit, St. Luke, the author of the Acts of the Apostles, writes: “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different languages, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.” The languages spoken by the early Christians were heard and understood by thousands of Jewish pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Festival of Weeks (Shavuot in Hebrew). As we celebrate Pentecost, what is that one language that can be spoken by all, heard by all, and understood by all? That language can be understood by those who talk and those who don’t. It can be understood by those who hear and those who don’t. It can be understood by those who see and those who don’t. It can be understood by all God’s people everywhere. On many occasions, you don’t even have to say a word. You just have to show it. It is the language of love. Some of us are more fluent in English; others are more fluent in Spanish, French, Igbo, or even signed language. But the language that everyone can speak, hear, and understand is the language of love. What is love? It is to will the good of others and to act on it. I tell you, when you speak this language, even the deaf can hear it. When you speak this language, the blind will see it, and the mute can understand it. 

God bless you!

Fr. Marcel E. Okwara, CSsR

Homily on the Solemnity of Pentecost, Year A

Connecting The Lord’s Ascension To Pentecost

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily on the Solemnity of Pentecost, Year A

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, May 24, 2026

After his resurrection, Jesus existed in two dimensions. Sometimes he appeared to his disciples looking very much like an ordinary figure in our world. In one of the post-resurrection accounts, he says to his disciples, “Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have” (Luke 24:39). While they were joyful at seeing him, he asked, “Have you anything here to eat?” (Luke 24:41b), and he ate in their presence. Other times, he appeared as someone from another dimension. We see this when he appeared among his disciples, even though the doors were locked (John 20:19). When two of his disciples were walking to Emmaus, he joined them, but they did not recognize him until the breaking of the bread. What do all these descriptions mean? They tell us that, though the Risen Christ was still in this world, he is no longer completely of it. To put it blithely, he existed between the borders of this earthly dimension and the transcendent dimension we call heaven. The Ascension, therefore, was the day when Jesus stopped appearing, one day as an ordinary person in our world and another day in his super-glorified body from another dimension. It is the day that Jesus definitively moved into the higher dimension. 

Having left behind this ordinary dimension of space and time and ascended to the highest dimension we call heaven, what follows? He sends us the Holy Spirit. Through his Spirit, we experience the Risen Lord. Jesus, who roamed the hills of Galilee and could relate to a small group of people, can, after his ascension, relate to all people in the world. He can now be the Lord of all space and time. He is now directing the work of his Church. If he had not ascended and sent the Spirit, he could not be governing the Church as he does. In the Acts of the Apostles, we hear that before he ascended to heaven, his disciples asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). From the beginning of his public ministry, Jesus spoke about the Kingdom of God, which he himself embodied. So the disciples’ question was a fair one. Now that Jesus had risen from the dead, they wondered whether this was the moment of the restoration of the Israelite kingdom. What is Jesus’ response to their question? The Lord does not always give a direct answer to a question, but in this instance, he did. He says, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:7-8). 

As I already said, throughout his public ministry, Jesus spoke about the coming of the Kingdom. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus says, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.” But what is the Kingdom? It is the definitive coming together of heaven and earth, when God’s way of ordering things is fully realized here, and this world is drawn up into the higher dimension. But when will that definitively come? It is not for the disciples to worry about, nor for us. Rather than worrying about that, Jesus tells them they will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes, meaning they will be equipped and empowered to continue his work on earth. Don’t worry about when this and that will happen. That’s up to God. Your worry should be about receiving the Holy Spirit and then cooperating with that Spirit to do the Lord's work in the world. I tell you, this message is true for them and true for us. People are fixated on the end time. Please, don’t be. Rather, focus on the fact that we have a task to build and expand God’s Kingdom. Having been equipped by the Holy Spirit, there is something you can do, either here or elsewhere. Use your gifts of time, talent, and treasure to build God’s Kingdom here in St. Bridget. Look at the lives of the saints throughout the ages. The saints in our tradition come from different backgrounds, experiences, styles, and personalities. But guess what they have in common? In the course of their lives, they all discerned and said, “This is what the Holy Spirit wants me to do right now.” They were not particularly concerned about the definitive end of the world. To Francis, Jesus said, “Rebuild my Church.” And Francis replied affirmatively. To Thomas Aquinas, the Lord inspired him to think through the mystery of the faith, and he spent his life doing so. Mother Teresa of Calcutta believed she received a specific and direct calling from Jesus to feed and care for the poor, as did Mary Jo Copeland. This is also true for you. The Holy Spirit has something for you to do. Discern what that is and get on with it. 

I will close with this. In describing the coming of the Holy Spirit, St. Luke, the author of the Acts of the Apostles, writes: “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different languages, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.” The languages spoken by the early Christians were heard and understood by thousands of Jewish pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Festival of Weeks (Shavuot in Hebrew). As we celebrate Pentecost, what is that one language that can be spoken by all, heard by all, and understood by all? That language can be understood by those who talk and those who don’t. It can be understood by those who hear and those who don’t. It can be understood by those who see and those who don’t. It can be understood by all God’s people everywhere. On many occasions, you don’t even have to say a word. You just have to show it. It is the language of love. Some of us are more fluent in English; others are more fluent in Spanish, French, Igbo, or even signed language. But the language that everyone can speak, hear, and understand is the language of love. What is love? It is to will the good of others and to do something about it. I tell you, when you speak this language, even the deaf can hear it. When you speak this language, the blind will see it, and the mute can understand it. 

God bless you!

Homily on the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

Why The Ascension Of Christ Is So Important

Reverend Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily on the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, Year A

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, May 17, 2026

When we speak of the Paschal Mystery of Christ, we refer to God’s plan of salvation, ultimately accomplished by Jesus Christ through four events in His life. These events are His Passion (His suffering and crucifixion), death, Resurrection, and Ascension. Yet sometimes, when we talk about the Paschal Mystery, we forget that the Ascension is part of it. In fact, the Ascension completes the Paschal Mystery of Christ. It began with Christ’s suffering and crucifixion, continued with His death and Resurrection, and is completed in His Ascension. In the Nicene Creed, the solemnity we celebrate today is reflected in this line: “For our sake he (Jesus) was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.” 

Today, we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord. In our first reading, we hear, “he (Jesus) was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.” But now that Jesus has returned to the Father, what is he doing there? Jesus came to us, and we killed him, but through the power of God, he was raised. After forty days of appearing to his disciples, Jesus returned to the Father. Is his ascension a desertion? What is he doing at the Father’s right hand? The great St. Paul says he is at the right hand of God, interceding for us (Romans 8:34b). St. John says, “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous Judge.” So the Ascension of Jesus should give us endless hope. Why? Because our attorney, who will intercede for us before the Judge, the Father, is Jesus Christ himself. Imagine you were brought before an earthly court for a crime you committed. You are before a judge and the jury. You are wondering who will represent you, who will be your attorney and advocate. And here walks in Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of God. He sits beside you as your attorney. Once you see that, I tell you, you will rest easy. If the Author of life is the one who will make the case for you and plead for you to be declared righteous rather than condemned, you have nothing to fear. Jesus is our intercessor. There are passages in the New Testament that present him as the Supreme Intercessor for us with the Father. We Catholics also believe that the Blessed Mother Mary is our intercessor. At the wedding in Cana in Galilee, she interceded to her Son, Jesus Christ, on behalf of the newlywed couple, giving us that article of faith.

In his great sermon, St. John Chrysostom said, “Christ did not merely die for us; he now intercedes on our behalf as well.” Jesus ascends into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father to intercede for us. This means that his passion on Good Friday and his Ascension reveal the immensity of his love. On the cross, he dies for love of us, but his love doesn’t end there. He continues to love us now, as he sits at the right hand of the Father and intercedes for us out of great love. In the words of Pope Leo the Great, “Although he (Jesus) is seated at the right hand of the Father, he performs the sacrament of the atonement in the same flesh which he assumed from the Virgin Mary.” What is he saying? He is saying that, in the Ascension, Jesus takes the sacrifice he offered on Calvary and brings that offering of himself, which took place on Good Friday in time and space, into eternity. He enters the eternal now, the presence of the Father, and offers himself to the Father on our behalf, once and for all and for all time. 

The Ascension of Jesus is so essential that it teaches two very important truths: first, the incarnation does not end with Jesus’ death and resurrection. When Jesus rises from the dead on Easter Sunday, the body he has is the same body he had, given to him by his Mother Mary, which is why he still bears the wounds, though now in a glorified state. During his Ascension, he takes that same flesh, now glorified, into eternity and sits at the right hand of the Father bodily. Before the incarnation, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity is pure Spirit. He didn’t have a body. But in his incarnation, he assumes human nature. During his Ascension, he takes that human nature, now glorified flesh, into eternity. Therefore, the sacrifice he accomplished in the flesh on Good Friday is now perpetually offered to the Father for all eternity. This is why we refer to the Mass as a sacrifice. Although during Mass, Christ is not being re-sacrificed. There is only one sacrifice, and that is the sacrifice of Calvary. But that one sacrifice has been taken out of time into eternity. Therefore, every offering of the Eucharist is a participation in the one sacrifice of Christ, which he continues to offer to the Father for all time, in the heavenly sanctuary. So, in the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, the mystery of incarnation does not cease. The Eternal Word is still united with human nature, right now. Jesus still has his human body—his flesh and bones—though in a glorified and mysterious state, which is why he still bears the wounds. Secondly, it is not only that the incarnation doesn’t cease in Christ's Ascension; there is also a perpetual atonement. The atonement that is inaugurated and consummated on Calvary does not end in Ascension. In fact, in Ascension, Christ brings the atoning sacrifice into heaven. So, there is a perpetual atonement going on in heaven. In the first century AD, a sacrifice in the temple called “tamid,” meaning “the perpetual sacrifice,” was offered every morning and evening to God the Father as a renewal of the everlasting covenant. This perpetual sacrifice is still being done today. The great good news is that it is being done, not by any human being, but Christ Jesus himself. Does this mean even in heaven, Jesus is still suffering? Not at all! In heaven, the suffering ends. Jesus’ suffering ended when he died on Good Friday. He is not suffering, but he is still offering atonement in heaven. He is still offering himself to the Father in love for all eternity. 

God bless you!