This is the Reign of God!

This is the Reign of God!

Fr. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara CSsR

Homily of the First Sunday of Lent, Year B

Holy Names Catholic Church

Memphis, TN 38107, USA

March 1, 2009

To live a sinful life is to be unfaithful to God, and to be unfaithful to God is to refuse to be loved by God. Whenever people refuse to be loved by God they suffer painful consequences, not because God is punishing them, but because their refusal to be loved by God is itself a punishment which they have brought upon themselves. Whenever people refuse to be loved by God they experience untold poverty- sometimes spiritual other times physical, another time psychological, and in some cases all at the same time. They suffer all these not because God has abandoned them, or rejected them. It is not because God thinks of them no more. Their refusal to be loved by the One who alone is good, who is Goodness himself, and who is Love is itself enough punishment which they have brought upon themselves.

Brethren, this is the season of Lent. This season, as you all know is a season of grace. Grace means God’s free gift to us. It is God’s benevolence. It means God’s compassion on humanity. It also means God’s favor and forgiveness. Today being the First Sunday of Lent, Jesus who had just emerged victorious after being tempted by the devil proclaims “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” Having dealt a heavy blow to the bragging, despicable, ugly creature (the Devil) the Lord emerged victoriously with a powerful message “This is the time of fulfillment.” Before now, the devil was, as it were, holding sway. He seemed to be in control. He was doing whatever he wanted. He had thought that no one could resist his offer. But Jesus, the Lion of the tribe of Judah knocked him out. The Lord disgraced him. He tempted Jesus with comfort, inviting him to provide bread for himself from the stones. The devil tempted Jesus with easy success, urging him to throw himself down from the temple and everybody would admire him. The devil tempted Jesus with power. He offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth if Jesus would give Himself over to him. But Jesus resisted all his enticements and suggestions. And soon after that, he proclaimed, “The time of fulfillment is here now”. The time of the enemy’s reign is over. The kingdom of darkness is over. The Lord seems to be saying: It is indeed possible to resist the wandering Beast of wickedness. “The kingdom of God” is here now. And if you must enter into it, then, you must reject the suggestion of the devil and follow me; you must reject the old way and follow the new way. You must “Repent and believe in the gospel.” Brethren, that Gospel is Jesus Christ; that New Way is Jesus Christ. If you must enter the kingdom of God, you must repent from following the old way dictated by the devil, and embrace the New Way of life offered to you by the Son of Man, Jesus Christ.

Dearest beloved, we all are tempted. We are all among the wild beasts like Jesus was in the wilderness. But this is a message you must take to the Bank, Jesus will be with you as you strive to wrestle with the same kinds of temptations that he endured. Being a Catholic Christian means living the life of Jesus Christ. As we go through this Lent, the Church invites every one of us to live with Jesus in his desert experience, to undergo trials with him and to come out of the desert at the end, ready to share a time of fulfillment with him in the kingdom of God.
Remember, the “Kingdom of God” is here!

May the Blessed Virgin Mary, our Mother of Perpetual Help, intercede for us as we walk into the Kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy and in the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Homily on Ash Wednesday

 Homily on Ash Wednesday 

Fr. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara CSsR 

Holy Names Catholic Church Memphis, Tennessee, USA February, 25th 2009

When I was growing up, Ash Wednesday was my least favorite. In fact, I did not like Ash Wednesday and the entire season of Lent. I did not like the season because of the impression I got at that time. As a young boy, I liked the joyful celebrations of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. But during the season of Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday, Christians, especially Catholics walk around looking like they just had a hook warm treatment. As a young boy, I had seen Catholics who think that laughing during Lent was not proper. They therefore spend the 40 days of Lent feeling really bad about their sins. The only issues they talk about are death, the nothingness of life and how miserable we all are. These Christians move around looking gloomy and prohibiting laughter and smile. Because of their attitude, I disliked Ash Wednesday and the entire period of Lent. I had even thought that some people should petition the Pope so that he can erase this season from the Church’s calendar. I had thought that it is time we showed the world that we are not a gloomy bunch of folks who manage to take the fun out of everything. This was the way I felt for sometime about Ash Wednesday and Lent until I started to read and study more about Ash Wednesday. I began to see what I never saw then, and I began to feel differently about it. 

 Ash Wednesday reminds us that life is a precious gift from God that we should cherish. It also reminds us that one day we must give up this life. As busy people, busy with the affairs of this world, we need to be reminded from time to time that we come from dust and one day we will return to dust. But that is not the end of the story. Ash Wednesday also comes each year to remind us that Easter is coming. “Lent” itself means “Spring”- that is, that time of the year after a long winter when new life begins to burst forth everywhere. Ash Wednesday begins with gloom and doom, but it ends with a mighty, world-shaking BOOM! It comes not just to remind us about our being miserable sinners in constant need of repentance, even though we are. But it seeks to prepare us anew to receive in our hearts the wonderful grace and forgiveness of God offered in Christ. 

As a boy living in maternal home with my grandmother, I remember trying to help my grandmother carry heavy buckets of water to her house from a stream. I had put a pole across my shoulders and put a bucket on each end of the pole. The house was a good distance away from the stream; and the first time I tried this, I just could not make it. The buckets were too heavy for me. And I have never forgotten my maternal uncle coming out, taking the pole and placing it on his strong shoulders and carry them for me. I felt good getting rid of those heavy buckets. Now Ash Wednesday and Lent come along to remind us to look at our shoulders for the heavy burdens we may be carrying there- guilt, sin, unforgiving spirit, bitterness against another, hatred etc. and allow Jesus Christ take them onto his shoulders. This calls for joyful mood. There is no reason to be gloomy, is it? 

 During this awesome Sacrifice of the Mass, we will all receive a mark of ashes on our foreheads. The priests will make a vertical line on our foreheads. Fr. Maurice and I will make an “I” on our foreheads which stands for us, the sinful self, that part of us that wants to rebel against God that hurts our relationships with God and others. But that is not the only mark we will receive. That “I” on our foreheads will be crossed meaning there will be another horizontal mark. At the end, what we will see on our foreheads will be a cross! It means the sinful self is crossed out. The ashes made in the form of a cross remind us of the cross of Christ by which our sins and the sins of the whole world are canceled out. Is this not a great reason for rejoicing? Ash Wednesday reminds us that we belong to a world of sin and death, but we are not abandoned here. The very sign of the cross on our foreheads, though made with ashes to remind us of our sins, reminds us also of that same sign made in water on our foreheads when we were baptized. It is a sign of ownership. When you pick up a book and see someone’s name inside it, you know that it belongs to that person. When we and others see the sign of the cross on our foreheads, it is a reminder that we do not ultimately belong to a world of death and sin, but to a gracious and loving God who is our Father. 

Ash Wednesday is here again! It comes each year. I don’t know about you, but I need it. I want my sins to be taken away from me. The weight of it is weighing me down. After all, I belong to God through Jesus my Lord.

“I AM DOING SOMETHING NEW”
Fr. Marcel Emeka Okwara CSsR
Homily on the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Holy Names Catholic Church, Memphis, Tennessee, USA
February 22nd, 2009

History is the story of a people. It is the story of their struggles, journeys, ups and downs, successes and failures, victories and defeats, their rise and fall. History is also the story of our own life- our past and present; it is the story of where we were, and where we are presently. Some events and experiences in our history sometimes make us shudder or cringe. What we have been through in the past or what we are going through right now, sometimes lead to tears. We remember them with regrets; we remember them with pain and bitterness. Sometimes we hide and cry out our eyes. Human nature being what it is, we hardly remember the fun experiences we have had in the past. All that occupies our minds are the painful events and experiences of the past. We hardly remember the blessings we had enjoyed, no matter how little; we forgot the good friends we have had and the wonderful friendship and relationship we had with them. We fail to remember that the sole reason why those trials and tribulations did not totally obliterate us is simply because God was there carrying us in the hollow of his hands. If it were not God, we would have crumbled like the Jericho Wall, we would have melted like wax; we would have disappeared like a cube of sugar thrown into a cup of water; we would have vanished away like a smoke. But God was there and continues to be there!

In today’s first Reading taken from the prophecy of Isaiah 43:18-19, God spoke through his Servant Isaiah “Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new.”

Brethren God is not asking us to forget history; he is not asking us to set on fire all history books especially those containing bitter experiences and events. God is not asking us to scorn the past and present events; he is not asking us to reject and ignore the experiences that may have shaped us. No! A nation (or a people or a person) that forgets its history, risks making the mistakes of the past all over again. We should remember the past; we should know our history, we should consider past events; but not with bitterness and anger. Whatever your experiences in the past may be, God says today, “Move on.” The Lord is saying, “I am doing something new here”. Move on with me! Forget the ugly events of the past; forget the time you were segregated; forget the time you were beaten for who you are; forget the ugly events in the history of America; forget the era of ignorance and denial. No nation is perfect. No nation has been perfect; and I there say, no nation would be perfect. We are moving towards perfection. If I were in Nigeria today, I would tell my people to forget the painful experiences of the civil war. I would tell them to put aside the things that led to that bloodshed; I would tell Nigerians to set aside ethnicism and tribalism and move on. If I were preaching in Liberia, I would tell Liberians to cast behind their back the painful experiences of their past. I would tell them to consider not their losses as a result of the gruesome civil war that lasted for years claiming lives and property. If I were in Burundi or Rwanda, I would tell the Hutu and the Tutsi to put aside the shameful effect of genocide and move on. If I were in Darfur, Bosnia, Cambodia, Iraq or El-Salvador, I would condemn the atrocities done to them, and still remind them of the need to move forward. Genocide is the worst crime and sin on earth. It is a reckless manifestation of lack of respect for human life; it is height and zenith of human beings’ inhumanity against their brothers and sisters. It is evil, unfortunately it happened, but we need to pick up the pieces of our life and move on.

Today God says, “I am doing something new.” God is doing something new in America. God is doing something new in the world. Through this global financial meltdown, God will make something new in our world. By the time he is through, we would emerge stronger, more prosperous, but more watchful and more prudent. By the time God is through with the new thing he is making, people will learn not to live beyond or above their means; ceaseless search for what is on vogue will reduce; the weakness of capitalism will be more revealed; the shortcomings of deregulation will be exposed; the lessons of risky speculation of the market will be learnt; the lessons of greed, reward for failure, and uncontrolled market will be learnt. God is doing something new! To those who had already lost their jobs, better jobs with better working conditions and better wage and entitlements may be the result of what God is doing. To those who have been working all their life, no rest, no relaxation, no recuperation, this might be a breather. It might also offer you the once in a while opportunity to go back to class and update your knowledge or to go into another field. Just as the nation needs economic stimulus, we all need intellectual stimulus too. I have seen people who are thanking God or are thankful that they lost their job when they did; because it afforded them an unprecedented opportunity to try something new which eventually made them more successful and more prosperous.

In today’s Gospel taken from Mark 2-1-12, the paralyzed man experienced something new from Jesus. He experienced newness in his life. He experienced the “something new’ that the Lord is doing. He experienced something new not because of his own faith, but for the faith of his friends. And this brings me to another issue I would like preach about.

In the Church family, we address each other as brothers and sisters, and that is what we really are. We are brothers and sisters because we have one Father and one Lord. We are brothers and sisters because we have one faith and one baptism. We are the family of God’s people. But guess what? We call ourselves brothers and sisters without being close to each other. We call ourselves brothers and sisters without knowing each other, and sometimes we can be so selfish and insensitive to even notice the needs of the other.

The event described in today’s gospel, the healing of the paralyzed man happened in the house of Peter in Capernaum. From history and archaeology, we learn that Peter’s house became one of the first Christian house churches. So the gathering in his house today represents a gathering of worshippers. Huge crowd had come to listen to Jesus. The news of his arrival had spread like wildfire. Mind you, there was no CNN or MSNBC, or Fox cable networks then. Today’s gospel says “It became known that he was at home.” Soon after, huge crowds gathered around and there was no room, not even around the door. Each person there was seeking to obtain one favor or the other from Jesus. But in their desperation and quest for their personal needs, they became insensitive and uncaring to the need of someone who was even in greater need than themselves. When the four friends brought their paralyzed friend to be healed by Jesus, the people listening to Jesus were indifferent. They did not even care to move or create some space for the man to be taken to Jesus. For goodness sake, this man was paralyzed, but who cares? I, me and mine took over we, us, ours, he, and she. Selfishness and self-centeredness becloud their passion and compassion for the other. In their rush and struggle to get the attention of Jesus, they ignored the presence of the paralyzed man. But I am sure that after fellowshipping with Jesus they would pass by him and drop some quarter dollar coins or a dollar note and say, “God bless you, brother.”

But we thank God the four friends of the paralytic were resilient and resolute. They did not give up. If one way closes, another one will open; and a new door might not open unless there is a closure of the old. When the seemingly sole entrance to Jesus was blocked by the uncaring people who stood as they listened to Jesus, the faith-filled young men had to climb to the roof of the house. They realized that the needs of the disabled man should have the priority because his needs were greater. But the congregation, in their insensitivity impeded their plan of laying the deformed child of God before the Divine Physician. It is said that where there is a will there is a way and even if it means un-roofing and tearing open the house of Peter in order to bring this man to Jesus, they would do it. And that was exactly what they did.

The gospel said “When Jesus saw their faith…” -mind you, it was the faith of the caring four friends that Jesus saw, not that of the paralyzed man- he healed the paralyzed man, soul and body. The question here is this, who proved themselves brothers and sisters to the paralyzed man? The worshippers who call themselves brothers and sisters and when walking home after worship would drop some coins of quarter dollars with the greeting “God bless you, brother? No! It was the four men who proved themselves and acted as friends.

Brethren God has called us to be brothers and sisters to each other. He has called us to be true brothers and sisters to each other. But it might be more realistic for us to aim at first becoming friends with one another. Who are your friends in this church? Do you know what their needs are? Have you made any effort to help? A friend in need is a friend indeed. We should become friends first, before we call ourselves brothers and sisters in Christ.

When the paralyzed man was lowered from the roof of the house to the feet of Jesus, the Lord was amazed and so impressed at the faith of his friends. Looking at the sick man he said, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” To the Jews a sick person is a person with whom God was angry. The Jews integrally connected sin and suffering. If someone was suffering, he or she must have sinned. So forgiveness of sin brings about healing and cure. The paralyzed man may have sinned. His conscience may have consciously or unconsciously agreed that he was a sinner, and the thought of being a sinner may have brought the illness which he believed was the unavoidable consequences of sin. He thought that God was angry with him. Sometimes we have that same thought. There are times we feel or think that God is angry with us or that he has abandoned us. When we suffer so much, when sickness descends on some people, making it impossible for them to enjoy life, they think God has abandoned them. When earthquake happened in Turkey years back, many people their think God was punishing them for their sins. This paralyzed man may have had the same feeling. “God is angry with me” he may have reasoned. No wonder the first thing Jesus said to him as he set his eyes on him was “Child, God is not angry with you. It is all right.” It was like speaking to a frightened child in the dark. The burden of the wrath of God and the separation from God rolled from his heart, and that brought about the completion of his healing.

This story reassures us of the mercy of God. It teaches us of the power of his love and forgiveness. The first thing that Jesus says to any one that comes to him is “My child, God is not angry with you. Come home, do not be afraid.” Remember, we belong to God and God belongs to us. The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our stronghold (Psalm 46:4). God is ready, willing and able to give us a new beginning. He is always doing something new!

May the Mother of Perpetual Help pray for us!