It All Begins From The Family

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily on the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Year C

St. Gerard Majella Church

Baton Rouge, LA, USA

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Christmas is one of the special times for families to get together for special meals, enjoy each other’s company, relax together, make jokes together and have fun. As we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, it is most fitting that during this family time, we reflect on the Holy Family of Nazareth- Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The Holy Family is put before us by the Church as a model for our families. When we call the family of the Lord “The Holy Family” it does not mean that they did not have problems like every other family. Just as every family has to face problems and overcome them, so also the Holy Family had to face theirs. For those who are in doubt of whether they really had problems and for those who have forgotten of the numerous problems they faced, let us enlighten or refresh ourselves:

• The conception (or the pregnancy) of Mary through the Holy Spirit was tough for Joseph and Mary. They were concerned about whether people would believe that Mary’s pregnancy was by the power of the Most High? 

- Do not believe for a split second that Mary was untouched when Joseph was planning to divorce her secretly before the intervention of the angel of God in a dream.

- Jesus’ birth did not take place in a hospital or even in a human home. It rather took place in an animal’s habitat. This must have inconvenienced both Mary and Joseph a lot.

• When Jesus was born, Herod tried to kill him. The family had to flee to Egypt as refugees. A man or a woman of little faith could have questioned the message of the angel and even given up. 
• Remember the disappearance of Jesus after the Holy Family went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. He was only twelve years old. Mary and Joseph experienced anxiety as they searched for him for three days. Their grief was so deep that when Mary found Jesus at the Temple, she asked him: “Son, why have you done this to us?” 
• When Jesus started his public ministry, he was constantly away from home and it must have taken its toll on Mary. Simeon had prophesied in the Temple that a sword of sorrow would pierce her soul. In the Gospel of Luke 7:34, Jesus was described as a useless person, as someone who is of no use to the community: “Behold a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners.” This public definition and description of Jesus must have caused some grief to Jesus and Mary. The saddest moment of all came when Mary watched her only Son die a shameful death on the cross. Watching her Son killed as a common criminal, killed in the midst of other robbers must have broken her heart.

But in all these problems, the Holy Family triumphed and remained together as they faced their daily problems. You may be asking what kept them together leading to a glorious triumph. The answer is LOVE. What should hold our families together in times of difficulty is love and forgiveness. It is love that triumphs in the end. The love that binds up the family should lead to honest talking, dialogue and reconciliation. Parents should love their children and children should love their parents.

The greatest threat facing our families today is that we don’t spend enough time together. We don’t pray together. Most parents don’t know what their children are doing. And sometimes children too don’t understand why their parents don’t make themselves available to them. We are too busy to even hear the cry of our sick child, or sick spouse. We are too busy to take care of our elderly parents. Our society today is burdened with confusion and chaos because our children, like plants, have been without tending. In his address to Irish families, Pope John Paul II said, “Dear fathers and mothers believe in your vocation, that beautiful vocation of marriage and parenthood which God has given to you. Believe that God is with you…do not think that anything you will do in life is more important than to be a good Christian father and mother. …do not listen to those who tell you that working at a secular job, succeeding in a secular profession is more important than the vocation of giving life and caring for this life as mother (and father). The future of the Church, the future of humanity depends in great part on parents and on the family life that they build in their homes. “

Looking at the human families today, I have identified five reasons why parents fail in the raising of their children:

1. Failure in Family Devotion: The Holy Father, Pope John Paul II called the family “The Domestic Church”. It is the domestic Church because it is where children learn to love God, learn to love their neighbor and respect others. The greatest school a child can attend is the family altar.
2. Failure to Give Enough Attention: When parents neglect and fail to supervise their kids, they expose them to the corrupting influences of the society. Parents must know what their children are doing. As long as they live under your roof, you must know where they have gone. It is disheartening that most homes today are merely boarding houses or dormitories. Children merely pass the night there, while receiving their training outside from wrong sources. There is rush for wealth and thirst for sophistication. We get money. We make money but end up loosing the reason we labor and work so hard.
3. Failure to Lay Good Example: Many parents fail today because their lifestyles contradict what they teach and instruct their kids. If you do not want your kids to tell lies, why do you tell lies and equally encourage them to tell lies to visitors when they come? 
   If you do not want your kids to be tale-bearers, why do you always gossip and backbite? If you do not want them to be disrespectful, why do you slander and despise others? If you want them to be neat and organized, why are you dirty, rough, unkempt, and even in house-keeping? What of parents who argue, quarrel and fight before their children? In Church and in school, they are taught that fighting is wrong, that every disagreement should be settled amicably, while misunderstanding should be resolved in the spirit of love and forgiveness. But at home, papa and mama openly quarrel, abuse themselves and fight every other day before them.
4. Failure to Give Balanced Education: Every child needs informal and formal education. Parents should not leave their responsibility into the hands of the teachers at school. No teacher can train or educate your children better than you. It is not enough to send your children to school; you must give them the domestic training. They must learn how to clean the house, wash their clothes, and how to cook.
5. Failure to Reprimand: It is most unfortunate that our society has become such that children are no longer corrected for fear of being accused of child abuse. But the Book of Proverbs 13:24 says “He who spares his rod hates his son; but he that loves him chastises him at times” 

Beloved in Christ, it all begins from the family. And may the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph help us in our struggle to shape our families like theirs.  Amen.

Great Love For Great Sinners

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily on the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)

St. Gerard Majella Church

Baton Rouge, LA, USA

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

The book of Genesis 3:6 says: "The woman saw how beautiful the tree was and how good its fruits would be to eat, and she thought how wonderful it would be to become wise. She took some of the fruits and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, and he also ate it." This is a caution to those who are easily swept and carried away by the beauty of material things. Now, as soon as they ate the fruit, they realized they were naked. That's what sin does to us; it strips us naked, naked of our innocence. It strips the garment of righteousness we received when we were baptized. It renders us defenseless and vulnerable to the attacks of the Devil. Now in the evening of that day, God came to fellowship with Adam and Eve. When they heard God walking in the garden, they hid themselves out of fear and shame. But God who never avoids any of us even when we run away from him called them out: "Where are you?" Adam responded: "I heard you in the garden; I was afraid and hid from you because I was naked."

So, when God asked Adam and Eve who told them they were naked, they started making excuses. Just like us who hardly admit our failures, they started shifting blames. Adam passed the buck: "The woman you put here with me gave me the fruits and I ate it." Then God turned to Eve and asked, "Eve, why did you do this?" Again, Eve refused to own up her sin, instead blamed the snake: "The snake tricked me into eating it." Well, the snake cannot talk; it couldn't exonerate itself or blamed someone else. So, it was cursed by God. 

In the dialogue between God and our First Parents, none of them accepted it was their fault. None said: "Lord, it is my fault, I messed up; I have sinned, please forgive me." It was at this point, so to say, that Jesus entered the stage. I want to believe that Jesus may have said to the Father: "Father, allow me to go and crush the head of the serpent. Allow me to go and show them how much we love them. Allow me to go and dwell among them. Allow me to go and take their sins upon me. I want to reveal you to them. I want to reveal us to them. They are yet to experience us in a profound way. We are still far away from them. I want to migrate into their neighborhood and establish our Kingdom there. If I cannot go down there, we cannot possibly blame them for listening to the Evil One. We need to make our home with them."

With this, Jesus came to earth. He took the name Immanuel which means, "God is with us." It's no longer a God who calls from heaven. It's no longer a God who visits occasionally in the cool of the evening. It's no longer a God who is far away and relates with us from a distance. It's God who moves into our neighborhood. He is the New Sheriff in town, but he does not come to arrest us, rather to arrest the Evil One. He does not hide in the corner of the highway of our lives, he comes to live and dwell among us. He rides with us as we drive to work, to the church, to the grocery store, to our homes, and everywhere. He does not come to accuse and charge us to court, rather to right the wrong in our lives and in the world. Through Jesus God comes to save us. Isaiah 35: 4 says: "Say to those who are discouraged, ‘be strong and don't be afraid! Your God is coming, he is coming with vengeance, with divine retribution, he is coming to save you."

Through Jesus, God teaches the most beautiful message: "God is love." He teaches the most excellent, the most hopeful and the most consoling message: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him will not die but will have everlasting life" (John 3:16). 

Dearest beloved, today is Christmas! Today we celebrate John 3:16. Today we celebrate the joy of the world. Today we celebrate the overtaking of darkness by the Light. Today we celebrate the greatest demonstration of love and the greatest miracle ever to occur in human history. The Creator becomes a creature. Divinity assumes humanity. The Master becomes a servant. Jesus Christ is born! As we celebrate his birth today, let's also remember to let him be born again, this time, not in the manger, but in our hearts. 

A Call To Be Generous With Our Time

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year C

St. Gerard Majella Church

Baton Rouge, LA, USA

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Beloved in Christ Jesus, Christmas is almost here! All shopping malls are crowded by people trying to make a last minute shopping. The streets are all decorated with beautiful Christmas trees and lights. Many homes are looking very nice and smelling better too. Christmas songs/carols are being sung on radio and TV. People are happy; children are excited. People are having Christmas party and having rare fun. The whole environment is seriously charged. Even atheists know that something is happening. They know that this season is quite different from others. Christmas is a season of the beloved. It is the most pleasant of all the seasons. 

In today’s Gospel (Luke 1:39-45), we read of the meeting between Mary and Elizabeth, which is often referred to as the visitation. But something more is going on than just one expectant mother visiting another. Both of these women were called and chosen by God to play important roles in the salvation of humanity. Both women are pregnant. Mary carries the unborn Jesus in her womb; Elizabeth carries the unborn John the Baptist, the one who will announce the coming of Christ.  Both of these women’s lives have been touched in different ways by the Holy Spirit. And they are vitally important to God becoming Immanuel, to God being with us, to God dwelling among us as One who is truly like us. 

But the meeting of two mothers is also the meeting of their two sons- Jesus and John the Baptist. When Mary greets Elizabeth, the child in Elizabeth’s womb leaps for great joy. In this meeting, the Greatest of all (Jesus) meets a great prophet (John the Baptist). In the encounter between the two women, God greets a human being. In this encounter, the last prophet of the Old Testament meets the New Testament and the one the Old Testament spoke about.

But the visitation event is more than a nice story. It is also an invitation for us to deepen our faith and trust in God’s love and promise. It is a call to care, to share and to love. The story of the visitation calls us to be generous with our time and to fellowship more with one another. When Mary was told by the Angel that Elizabeth, who was called barren is pregnant with a child, she did not sit back. The Gospel says “She set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.” How many of our church members have we bothered to visit or to call in this ending year of 2012? When we hear that a church member is sick, do we bother to call him/her? Do we keep the sick in our prayers? When a parishioner does not attend Mass again, do we try to find out why? Mary and Elizabeth were unique in what God asked of them. Each of us too has a unique role to play in the salvation of all. Let’s remember always that Jesus is not going to be born again as a little child in a manger, but he needs to continually be born again in our lives, in our hearts, in our families, in our church, in our society and in our world. 

“What should we do?”

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Third Sunday of Advent, Year C

St. Gerard Majella Church

Baton Rouge, LA

Sunday, December 16, 2012

There were two friends, Chris and Joe who got together to start a business. With time, the business thrived and prospered, and both of them became rich. One day a Christian preacher came to their village to preach and Chris gave his life to Jesus Christ. Thereafter he persuaded Joe to accept Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior, but Joe refused. Confused by his friend’s refusal, Chris asked, “But why won’t you Joe?” “See Chris,” said Joe. “If I give my life to Jesus Christ as you did, we would become less rich because both of us would not be able to cheat anymore.”

Joe understands that accepting the message of Jesus and giving one’s life to him means a radical change in both personal and professional behavior. Following Jesus implies turning the page of past life and walking in the commands of the Lord. Many people who identify themselves as Christians do not seem to get it. A Gallup poll conducted some years ago in the USA saw there was little difference in moral behavior between church-goers and none church-goers. Many people who call themselves Christians think that they can add Christ to their lives without subtracting sin. To such Christians, accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior implies a change of beliefs and not necessarily a change of lifestyle and behavior. If you have not heard it, I have heard it severally from preachers who say, “Believe only in Jesus and you will be saved. Faith alone is what is needed to be saved and not good works.”

But in today’s Gospel taken from Luke 3:10-18, John the Baptist tells us that such Christians are wrong. After going round the whole region of the Jordan preaching: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Let every valley be filled, and every mountains and hills be made low, straighten up the crooked way and make rough roads smooth, so that all flesh shall see the salvation of God,” people came to him and asked, “What should we do?” To the crowds of people, John the Baptist said to them, “Whoever has two coats should share with the person who has none. And whoever has food should do likewise.” To tax collectors who came to him, John said, “Stop collecting more than what is prescribed.” To soldiers he said, “Do not practice extortion, do not falsely accuse anyone, and be satisfied with your wages.”

Beloved in Christ Jesus, accepting the Gospel of Jesus Christ demands a change of one’s personal conduct. It requires a change of behavior. It implies a change of thinking and acting. When the rich young man came to Jesus as is recorded in Matthew 19:16 and asked, “Teacher, what good must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus, like John the Baptist also gave him a do and not-to-do list: “You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 19:18-19). And even when the rich man said, “I have kept all these from my youth,” Jesus gave him a more difficult to-do list: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

Accepting the Gospel of Jesus means a radical change of behavior. The individual becomes a person who loves to share, rather than a person who loves to accumulate. The person becomes a person who live uprightly. Accepting the Gospel of Jesus implies doing something good, virtuous and noble. It requires a change of belief too. But belief alone is not enough! Good deeds or good works are also required to be a disciple of Jesus. They are required to make heaven. Good deeds are testimonies of good faith. They are the good fruits of good faith. When the rich young man asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” the first thing Jesus said to him wasn’t “Just believe in me.” Rather, he gave him a list of do’s and don’ts. It was later that he told the young man, “Come, follow me.” 

The dangerous tendency among us Christians today is the constant and stronger emphasis on belief/faith alone at the expense of moral behavior. For John and Jesus, change of behavior comes first before change of belief. The Gospel of Matthew 3:2 tells us that John the Baptist started his ministry with the message: “Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand!” The same Gospel of Matthew 4:17 also tells us that after his baptism, Jesus started his Galilean ministry with the message: “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” To repent is to turn away from selfishness to a Godly behavior. To repent is to stop doing something bad. To repent is to begin to do something good and upright. To repent is to abandon bad deeds and embrace good deeds. These good deeds must precede and accompany belief. Good works give life to faith. 

As we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, let us resolve today to set aside everything that will hinder the birth of the Lord in our lives, hearts, homes and families. The best preparation we can make for the birth of our Savior is to repent, share our goods and resources in the spirit of the season and the Gospel.

Look Deep, There Must Be Something to Give Up

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Second Sunday of Advent, Year C

Our Mother of Sorrows Catholic Church

Biloxi, MS

Sunday, December 9, 2012

To live a religious, pious and holy life depends mainly on our willingness and readiness to give ourselves to God. It’s not on the willingness of God to give himself to us because he has already given himself to us. God is already for us. What is needed is our willingness to be for him. What is urgently needed is a strong belief in the possibility to be for him and to give our lives as a living sacrifice to him. Repentance and conversion is a process and the first step of giving ourselves to God. It is the crucial beginning of saying yes to God. It is a change of lifestyle and attitude and behavior that turns one’s attention away from God. For some people, this is impossible. But with God, it is possible.   

In today’s Gospel taken from Luke 3:1-6, St. Luke tells us that John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.... As John toured the region of Jordan, his message was: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”  After hearing John’s cry, many people were able to fill the valleys of their dark despair with the light of hope. With their  new found hope and faith they were able to move from the mountains of seeming impossibilities to the mountains of reassuring possibilities. Their lives which was once filled with crookedness were straightened out and made smooth.

We too have our own valleys, mountains and hills, and these come between us and God. They prevent us from saying yes to Jesus. There are people that won’t attend Mass because they don't feel like. Some stay away from Church because they feel that it's filled with hypocrites. Some walk away and stop coming to Mass because a certain change has occurred in their parish, and they feel they are loosing the control and ‘power’ they used to wield. Some allow their moods, feelings, and emotions to block the way of the Lord. Some refuse repentance and conversion toward a new attitude and a new version in life because it threatens their ungodly comfort.

The voice crying out in the desert is urging us to repent, to convert and to change. Repentance and conversion are conscious acts of our wills. They are free choices deliberately made to turn the page of sin, hate and unforgiveness. John travelled the entire region of the Jordan proclaiming: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. But how many of us really believe in getting prepared the way of the Lord and making his paths straight? How many of us really believe in confession, repentance, and conversion? Some even argue that they don't need to be converted, that they're on the way to salvation, and that forgiveness of sins is only for those who are sinful. Confession and forgiveness of sins? “Oh, I don’t need them!” some will say. 

But too many of such people will look at the world and conclude that it’s in a bad shape: “Oh, this is a terrible world! Oh, this is a wicked world!” they will say. But while saying that, they will claim that their personal lives are in good shape. Beloved in Christ, nothing is wrong with the world that God created, but something is wrong with the people who live in it. We, each of us is responsible in one way or the other for the wrong in the world- either by commission or omission. So, in this season of Advent, the voice crying out in the desert calls us to repentance and conversion. Do not say, “I don’t think need it.” Everyone of us needs it. There must be something in our lives that we need to give up and abandon! Think! Reflect! Meditate! You will find something you need to let go so that you and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

Homily on the Solemnity of Christ the King

"My Kingdom Is Not Of This World"

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara CSsR

Homily on the Solemnity of Christ the King

St. Gerard Majella Church, Baton Rouge, LA

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Today is Christ the King Sunday. Today, we celebrate Christ Jesus as our King. Today, we celebrate Jesus, the Shepherd of our souls. We celebrate Jesus, the King of our life. Today, we come to the end of this liturgical year. As usual, we look to the future, the ultimate future when Jesus will return in glory for the final judgement. In today's Gospel reading Pilate asks Jesus if he is a King. And Jesus , as John portrays him, did not answer the question in a straight forward way. He is like the royalty who pretends to be someone else. Although Jesus did not claim to be a King when he was questioned by Pilate, but he did admit that he has a kingdom, but his Kingdom is not of this earth. Pilate was very frustrated with Jesus because he can’t get a direct answer from him, but what he got from Jesus is the truth. In fact, Jesus says the reason he was born into the world was to testify to the truth. Finally Pilate says outrightly: You are a King, then! 

It seems that Jesus wants each of us, on our own, to come to the realization of his Kingship as Pilate did.. And if Jesus is King, and his kingdom is not of this world, then we have to release and loosen our firm and tight grip of this world. We have to keep our eyes away from this world. We have to take lightly the things of this world – all the material things that so interest us, and keep our eyes on the heavenly kingdom. If Jesus is our King and his Kingdom is not of this world, then we have to strive daily to store up our treasures and assets in his Kingdom where they would be safe. Is this not the reason why in Matthew 6:20, Jesus says, "Store up your treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal."

Our life on earth is also God's gift, but God's greatest Gift to us is Jesus. Today, God's Greatest Gift to us tells us that though he is a King, but his Kingship is not of this world. To qualify for this Kingdom, we must follow him daily. He is "the Way, the Truth and Life." He is the way to God and the way to the Kingdom; He is the Truth; and he came to bear testimony to the Truth. And he is our Life. The destiny of a child in the womb is the earth; but the earth is not the final destiny. Our final destiny is the Kingdom where Jesus reigns as King. While on this world, we are all students. We are studying and getting ready for exams and graduation. Our hope is to become graduates of heaven. While on earth we are in a market place. We are in a shopping mall, picking up several items and loading our carts to the brim. After shopping, we will approach the cashier, pay for what we bought and then head home. If we shop goodness, we will reap and celebrate goodness.  

Advent season begins next week. Beginning next week we begin to await the arrival of our King. He will come to us not like an authoritarian king, but as a humble babe. Those who receive him as their King, will be rewarded with his Kingdom. As we celebrate the end, we are also aware that Jesus is the beginning, and that beginning comes again for us next week, drawing us back into a cycle of birth and resurrection and returning in glory. Today we are celebrating the Kingship of Jesus, but the Gospel reading is not about the glory of kingship; it is rather about the crucifixion of Jesus. We are reminded of what the Lord has to endure in order to bring the Kingdom for us. Before we begin the next Advent season, let's think of what we can do to bring about the Kingdom of Jesus in our world. How can we bring peace to this world? How can we stop violence? How can we save lives? How can we bring the truth to the world? It starts with each of us. Remember, each of us is a little pencil in the hands of God; therefore, let us allow him to use each of us in the writing of the story of love. God 's plan for this world can only be realized through each of us. God has a dream! His dream is to see every single child of his be saved. And God's dream can be a reality through you and me. Consider this week what we can do to be God’s instrument of enlarging his Kingdom.

God bless you!

Give until it hurts!

Fr. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara CSsR

Homily for 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

St. Gerard Majella Church Church

Baton Rouge, LA

November 11, 2012

Today, the Church presents us the beautiful stories of two widows. One gave the only food she had to a prophet, Elijah. The other widow gave the only money she had so that sacrifice could be offered in the Temple and the bills of the Temple paid. We are presented with two remarkable stories of two women who gave everything they had for others. The widow of Zarephath gave the last food she had to Prophet Elijah, and because of her kindness, she never lacked food for the next one year even though there was famine in the land. The widow at the treasury gave her last coins and her offering was considered the greatest by Jesus Christ.

A lot of people who don’t even know much about the Bible would know what you are talking about if you mention the widow’s mite. Christians and non-Christians, Churchgoers and non-churchgoers know about the story of a poor widow in today’s Gospel reading from Mark 12: 41-44. It is a story of great sacrifice.

Jesus had gone to sit quietly opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. The treasury is the collection boxes where people throw in money for special purposes like the buying of corn or wine or oil for the sacrifices. They were contributions for the daily sacrifices and expenses of the Temple. Many people threw in quite considerable contributions. The Gospel says “Many rich people put in large sums.” Then a widow appeared. She is not just any widow; she is a poor wretched widow. She put in two mites- two small coins like two cents. But her offering caught the attention of Jesus. Jesus was watching as people put in their money. The rich, out of their surplus wealth made huge donations. But the poor widow, from her poverty, has given all she had, her whole livelihood. Jesus was so thrilled that he called his disciples and said “…this poor widow has put more in than all who have contributed to the treasury.”

The story of the widow at the treasury reminds us again what we already know about Christian discipleship- that God does not need money. He needs us. He wants us. This poor widow did not give God money; she gave herself entirely to God; she gave everything to God. She gave her entire self, her present and her future. She gave the only thing that stands between her and total dependence on the providence of God- two cents. Real giving has a certain recklessness in it. The widow could have kept one coin even though it would not have made much difference, but she gave everything she had. She did not reserve anything. Her action has a profound symbolic meaning. Think about it, this poor widow surrendered and tendered everything she had. What about us? The tragedy here is that there is some part of ourselves that we are yet to surrender and tender to Jesus; there is some part of our time, talent, and treasure that we are yet to surrender to Jesus; there is some part of our activities, some part of our lives which we haven’t yet given totally and entirely to Jesus Christ. There is something we are holding back. We are afraid to give them up because of the fear of the unknown. We don’t have a childlike faith that assures us that if we give them up, if we surrender to Jesus our entire live, our activities, our three Tees- time, talent and treasure that God will take care of us. We are not yet ready to make the final sacrifice and surrender. We are still giving excuses, not yet ready. But these two windows gave everything.

From these two widows, another lesson to learn is that real giving must be sacrificial. What matters here is not the amount of the gift, or the size of the gift. What matters is the sacrifice. Real giving must hurt. Profound generosity continues to give until it hurts. For many of us, the question is not whether we give; the question is whether our giving to God’s work is sacrificial at all. Some of us can afford to spend huge amount in restaurants; some of us can afford to spend our money in some unnecessary pleasures and entertainments. We can spend real money in jewelries, in clothes, in shoes, etc. but not in things that pertains to religion, not in offertory basket.

The stories of these two remarkable widows will only make more sense if we believe that what we do with our money shows what we have in our heart. If you want to find out what you really love, read your credit card bill. No wonder Jesus says in the Gospel of Luke 12: 34 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” The use of money, stewardship and material things was so important to Jesus that he called his disciples together to tell them about the widow’s gift. The main issue for Jesus was not how much she gave or what she gave. And recognizing the little donation of the widow does not mean that Jesus approves of the conditions that rendered the widow poor. It does not mean that Jesus approves poverty and deprivation. The Lord is saying that what we do with our money either grows our faith or deadens it. What we do with our money can deepen our spirituality or shatter it.

Now when we talk about gifts, some of us may claim that they don’t have enough of material gifts or personal gifts to give to Jesus Christ, but, if we put all that we have and are at our disposal, the Lord can do great things with them and with us. Every child of God has something to give. Every one of us here has something to give. The two widows gave everything they have. What about us?

“You are not far from the Kingdom of Heaven”

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara CSsR

Homily for the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

St. Gerard Majella Church

Baton Rouge, Louisiana 

November 4, 2012

Scribes in the time of Jesus were men specially trained in writing. Most of their duties involve writing legal documents, recording deeds, copying scriptures, and teaching people. Scribes specialized in the interpretation of the Jewish Law (Torah), and were sometimes regarded as “lawyers.” They were as influential as the Pharisees or the Sadducees. The Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles portray them as opponents of Jesus who sought to kill him and opponents of the early Christians. But there were some scribes who were neutral; some were even praised by Jesus. One of such scribes is in the Gospel we read today: Mark 12:28b-34) 

The name of this scribe is not mentioned in the gospel. Though he was a highly learned and educated man- he knew the Law; he wrote about the law; he interpreted and taught the law to others- yet, in the abundance and the immensity of his knowledge of the Law, he did not know the first, the primary and the most important law. To his credit, he was a humble man. So, in humility, he came to the Source of knowledge, the Lord of life himself. He was not one of those scribes who belittled and disregarded Jesus. He was not one of those scribes who considered themselves more knowledgeable, more superior and and intellectually more vast and depth than Jesus. When he came to Jesus, he was not afraid or ashamed to ask his question. He let it out: “Which is the first of all the commandments?”

Responding to his question, Jesus said: “...You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength..” And “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Speaking further, Jesus beautifully concludes with: “There is no other commandment greater than these.” Put differently, “There are several other commandments out there that we are required to keep, but none of those commandments is greater than the love of God and the love of neighbor.” 

Surprisingly, the scribe agreed with Jesus! I think this is the only recorded story where a scribe actually agreed with what Jesus said. Like I said before, scribes were opponents of the Lord; they never loved him; they were always looking for ways to trap him and kill him. But this particular scribe agreed with the teaching of Jesus when he said: “And ‘to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself” is worth more than burnt offerings and sacrifices.” The man’s answer was intelligently beautiful that Jesus praised him with the following words: “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

Sisters and brothers, you are not far from the kingdom of God if you genuinely love God and neighbor. You are not far from the kingdom of God if you honestly love God and God’s people. You are not far from the kingdom of God if you sincerely love God and the other. You are not far from the kingdom of God if your heart is pure. You are not far from the kingdom of God if you are forgiving and tolerant. You are not far from the kingdom of God if you are merciful. You are not far from the kingdom of God if you are accommodating and hospitable. You are not far from the kingdom of God if the foundation of your life is love- perfect love, sincere love, pure love, unrestricted love, love for God and love for everyone. But if you are none of these, begin today to walk closer to the kingdom by bowing and surrendering to love. This love cannot only be vertical, it must also be horizontal. In his encyclical titled “Deus Caritas Est” (“God is love”), Pope Benedict XVI wrote: “The love of God and love of neighbor have become one: in the least of the brethren we find Jesus, and in Jesus we find God.” The least of the brethren is not just the poor and the most vulnerable, it is also that individual you find difficult to love and to accept. 

Discipleship: What does it entail? 

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara CSsR

Homily for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

St. Gerard Majella Church

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

Sunday, September 16, 2012

In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us what it entails to be his disciples: “If anyone wishes to come after me, he (she) must deny himself (herself) and take up his (her) cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his (her) life will loose it, but whoever looses his (her) life for my sake will save it.”

But what does it mean to deny oneself? Let’s recall the denial of Peter. When Peter denied Jesus, he had said: “I do not know the man.” To deny oneself therefore is to say “I do not know myself.” To deny oneself is to migrate from self-centeredness to Christ-centeredness and to other-centeredness. To deny oneself is to say “It’s all about Jesus!” It is this kind of denial that prompted St. Paul to declare in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Jesus enjoins his disciples to take up their cross daily and follow him. To take up our cross means to be prepared to face and confront the difficulty associated with being loyal and obedient to Jesus. To take up our cross means being ready to endure the worst that people can do to us for the sake of being true to the Lord. It means being ready to refuse to be intimidated by those who persecute us because we belong to Jesus. It means saying no even when it is most difficult to say so to those who want us to betray him. Being true to Jesus will bring some rejection and castigation. Those who hate your simplicity, your honesty, your faithfulness and your tidy moral life will come to paint you bad. It is usually said “If you cannot beat them, join them.” But if you refuse to join the bandwagon, they will come after you. But refusing to join the bandwagon of immorality instead prefer the castigation and hatred is part of the cross.

“Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it…” God has given us life, not to horde it or to keep it for ourselves. We are given life to spend for others. Therefore the question is no longer “How much can I get”, but “How much can I give?” It is no longer “What is the safe thing to do? but “What is the right thing to do?”  If we are true to Jesus in time, he will be true to us in eternity. If we follow him in this life, in the next, he will count us among the elect. But if we disown him here on earth by the way we live, even when we confess him with our lips, he will disown us before the heavenly Father.

The good news is this: God will not let us carry a cross that is too heavy for us; and even the right weight of the cross we are allowed to carry has sufficient grace attached to it. In 2 Corinthians 12:9, Jesus says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Be Opened

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara CSsR

Homily for the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

St. Gerard Majella Church

September 9, 2012

In today’s Gospel taken from Mark 7: 31-37, Jesus healed a deaf man. As soon as Jesus came into the district of Decapolis, people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment. Jesus did something different in the process of restoring the hearing and speaking ability of the needy man. He took him away from the crowd, put his finger into the man’s ears, and with spittle, he touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven from where our help comes from, Jesus groaned and said to him “Ephphatha!” which means “Be opened!” The man’s ears opened immediately and his speech impediment was removed and he started speaking with ease.

Did you notice that Jesus did not say to the deaf man “Hear!” or “Speak?” Rather he used the expression “Be opened!” This is an indication of how we are to live. We are to open up ourselves to the Word of God. Psalm 119: 11 says: Your word I have hidden in my heart that I may not sin against you. And in verse 105 of the same Psalm 119, the Psalmist declares: Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. In the gospel of John 6: 63 Jesus says: The words I speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life. We are to open up to the Word of God- the Word that is a lamp to our feet; the word that is a light for our path; the words that are spirit and life; the words that strengthen us to avoid sinning against God. When we open up ourselves to God, when we open up ourselves to the Word of God, God enables us to open up ourselves to each other. We will be able to see Jesus not only in the Eucharist, but also in others. When we open up ourselves to the Word of God, our thoughts and hearts will be purified, and when our thoughts and hearts are purified, we will be able to see God in everybody. Matthew 5:8 says, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” If we stretch this famous beatitude of Jesus further, we will have the following: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God in everybody and in everyone.” 

I don’t think there is anybody in this Church that is deaf. Deafness is not a problem for most of us here. So today’s healing of the deaf man may not really interests some of us that much. But yet, Jesus used the expression “Be opened!” Our problem may not be physical deafness. But we may be too busy to hear Jesus. With our ears wide open and able to hear what is said far away, we still are not able to hear the sweet voice of our Lord. Because of this kind of deafness, we are not able to recognize him in the events of our life. 

We are so busy that life is slipping by at a very fast rate and we need to slow it down. We are so busy that we don’t even see or notice others. We don’t notice the teeming number of the not-haves in our society. As a nation, we seem to be deaf to the crying and mourning of those crying for a helping hand. We seem to have been deafened by the huge and massive wealth in the nation that we seem not to hear the voices of those who have not benefitted from this massive wealth. The unfounded fear of losing capitalism has deafened us and impaired our speech. We no longer speak the language of the Spirit which is love. Those who don’t speak the language of the Spirit- love, have speech impediment. They may be speaking clearly and hearing clearly, but as long as their speech is not the speech of the Spirit, they have speech impediment. If we don’t hear the voices of those on the margins of our society, we are deaf just like the man healed by Jesus today. We need to hear the healing voice of Jesus saying to us “Be opened!”

Sisters and brothers, Jesus healed the deaf man. Sometimes we can be deaf to life, to others and to Jesus. In 1 Kings 19, the story has it that prophet Elijah was in a cave, then he was told to go out and stand on the mountain before God. There was a hurricane but God was not in the hurricane. There was an earthquake but God was not in the earthquake. There was a fire but God was not in the fire. After the fire there was a gentle breeze. Immediately Elijah knew that God was in the gentle breeze so he went out to the entrance of the cave and covered his face. We need this gentle breeze in our life in order to hear Jesus speak to us. 

Before Jesus healed the deaf man in today’s gospel, he took him off by himself away from the crowd; he took him to a private place, looked up to heaven and then prayed for the man’s healing. We need to step aside sometimes in private with Jesus so that we can hear him speak to us. Let us open up ourselves so that we can hear the language of the Spirit, and that language is love. True love demands that we think of others especially those at the bottom of the ladder of life. 

Communion with Jesus: What does it mean?

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara CSsR

Homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

St. Gerard Majella Church

Baton Rouge, LA, USA

August 19, 2012

Today’s Gospel is a continuation of John, chapter 6. For the past four Sundays, we have been reading John, chapter 6, which is a Discourse on the Bread of Life. In today’s Gospel (John 6:51-58), Jesus says, I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. When some of those who heard Jesus speak those words started quarreling among themselves: How can this man give us his flesh to eat? the Lord insisted all the more: 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. The command to share in this food from heaven, the Bread of Angels, the precious Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, is indeed strong!

But what does it mean to share communion with Jesus in the Eucharist? Sharing communion with the Lord in the Eucharist is much more than simply the physical act of coming forward to receive the Eucharist at Mass. It is also meant to be a spiritual communion with Jesus, a profound desire to live in peace with him, a choice and a decision to live by his commands. To share communion with Jesus in the Eucharist is not only about coming forward at Mass and receiving his Body and Blood. When the Lord says, Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day, he wasn’t saying it was going to be an automatic thing, that as long as we receive his Sacred Body, we are automatically saved; that we don’t have to do anything else. Communion with Jesus in the Eucharist also entails becoming the body of Christ. We must become Christ in the world. When we receive the Body of Christ in the Eucharist, we must strive to become like the One we have received. This means that our hearts, our minds, eyes, hands,  and every part of us must experience, express and then communicate God and God’s love. We are to show love where there is hatred; to avoid judgement where there is injury; to speak peace where there is striving; to pray for sight where there is blindness; to be the light of Christ where there is darkness; to pray for millions in the world who are crying for healing and freedom; and to bear the cross patiently when we suffer, believing that if we die with Christ, we will also live with him (Romans 6:8) This is what communion with Jesus in the Eucharist is all about. 

Communion with Jesus Christ in the Eucharist means accepting the Lord as both our  life and our destiny. Communion with the Lord entails seeing him as the air that we breathe, the food we eat for everlasting life, the water we drink that quenches our thirst, the salt that gives our lives sufficient and amazing taste. It means taking Jesus as the cloth that covers and hides our ugliness caused by our sins. With this, we see Jesus as the cloth that gives us our dignity and respect, as the cloth that gives us amazing beauty and as the cologne and the perfume that gives us a sweet scent of glory and heavenliness. Communion with Jesus means seeing him as the house in which we find shelter and rest. In this house we are refreshed and protected against demonic bandits. 

Sisters and brothers, it bears repeating to say that communion with the Lord in the Eucharist involves accepting Jesus as our refreshment, our relaxation, our rest, our discussion, and our thought. It means keeping him at the center of everything we do and say. It means seeing him as the door and the gate we pass through daily. He is our everything. Through him we see God; through Jesus we hear God; through Jesus we touch God; through Jesus we perceive and feel God. Through Jesus we taste goodness, we taste God. Through Jesus we smell the glory of heaven and smell the sweet scent of God. Through Jesus we eat and dine with God. Through him we rest and sleep in God.  

Now, there are few other things I would like to point out in my message. They are still part of the Church’s teachings which we sometimes ignore or forget. Firstly, let us always remember the minimal one hour fast from food before we receive the Lord. The Church wants us to approach the Table of the Lord with our stomachs somewhat empty, so that physical hunger and emptiness will remind us that our true hunger is for God. We fast and hunger in order to know Jesus as our food, as the real food and the real drink. This kind of hunger is an attitude of life for the faithful Christian. We are not to fill up our lives with so many distractions and unnecessary things that we no longer desire Jesus or love him. Secondly, if we are not at peace with Jesus, if sin has separated us from him, the Lord asks that we repent and ask forgiveness of him before we receive his Body and Blood. He asks that we seek change in our lives, and if the sin is serious, that we confess it and seek reconciliation through the ministry of the Church. It is after that that we can come forward to share communion with him. Thirdly, as soon as the Sacred Host is received either by hand or on the tongue, it must be consumed immediately. No one should ever walk away from the priest or the Eucharist minister carrying the Host to the pew. When that happens, someone should follow that person and make sure that the Eucharist is consumed. Here in our parish, we have found the Sacred Hosts thrown away outside the Church. That is very wrong! If you have invited a guest to the church who is not a Catholic, please tell him/her not to receive Communion and why he/she is not allowed to do so. The person can come to the priest to receive blessing. Remember, the Eucharist is Jesus Christ! It’s the Lord’s everything! Finally, no one should leave the Church immediately after having received the Lord. Once we have received Christ, we must remain to pray and sing and give thanks, not to retreat to the parking lot. Unfortunately, by the time the Mass ends, many of those who have received Jesus in Holy Communion have already gone. Can’t we spend some precious moments in communion with the One we have received, giving thanks with God’s people until the priest says, Go in peace, the Mass is ended? And be there to respond: Thanks be to God?

Eucharist: The food for the Journey 

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara CSsR

Homily for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

St. Gerard Majella Church

Baton Rouge, LA, USA

August 12, 2012

What does it really mean to share communion with another person? The most dramatic and yet familiar image of communion between persons is to be found in the marriage bond. The book of Genesis 2:24 tells us that “a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh,” the two are united in an intimate communion of life and love. This very covenant between a man and a woman is by nature life-giving. For this reason, we say that the bond of marriage exists for the sake of both life and love.  

This is how it is with the Eucharist. Our communion with Jesus Christ is, in fact, a spousal union. Jesus Christ is the Bridegroom and we the church, are his bride. We are intimately united with him in the holy Eucharist that we become one body with him. By eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood we are materially and substantially united to Jesus Christ in an intimate communion of life and love. And if our hearts are truly open to the grace that is offered us in this sacrament, if we receive the Lord worthily, with willing hearts, we participate in the very life of Jesus Christ, and through him, we  partake in the life of the Blessed Trinity as well. This marriage relationship with Christ Jesus, by its very nature, is life-giving and makes us fertile. This union makes us generators of life and givers of life to those who hunger and thirst for God. 

In today’s first reading taken from 1 Kings 19:4-8, we see a foreshadowing, an indication of this mystery in the story of prophet Elijah in the desert. Prophet Elijah was being hunted down by Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab for silencing the false prophets of a false god, Baal. In a message to Elijah, Jezebel said, “May the gods strike me dead if by this time tomorrow I don’t kill and destroy you.” Elijah was frightened by her threat, so, he escaped and ran into a desert. Elijah walked a whole day into the desert and thereafter became tired and worn out. In his fatigue, he prayed “Lord, this is too much for me. (Please) take away my life; I might as well be dead!” While sleeping under a tree, an angel of God came to Elijah with heavenly bread. The angel ordered him, “Wake up and eat.” When Elijah got up from his slumber, he found a loaf of bread and a jar of water near his head. He ate and drank, and lay down again. Later, the angel came back and said to him, “Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you.” Elijah ate again and was strengthened both in body and in spirit to continue his journey to the mountain of God’s presence- an earthly image of heaven- and strengthened also to continue proclaiming God’s presence to those he had been sent to preach. 

Beloved in Christ, Elijah got the strength and the encouragement he needed by simply obeying the orders of an angel who said to him, “Wake up and eat!” By eating the bread and drinking the water offered to him by an angel, he got his lost strength back. He was nourished and strengthened not only spiritually but also physically. But Jesus, our Most Holy Redeemer, the One greater than an angel, greater than all the angels, the One that all the angels worship is offering us the real Bread- his Body and the real Drink, his Blood. In today’s Gospel he says to us, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

You know, when Jesus said those words to his audience, they immediately rejected and dismissed him saying “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, “I have come down from heaven?” They judged him by human values and by external standards, and easily dismissed him. They couldn’t understand how Jesus, the son of a carpenter, a man from a poor home could possibly be the Son of God. 

But this Gospel is no longer about the Jews of Jesus’ time. It is about us! Do we sincerely, profoundly and supremely believe that Jesus is the bread that came down from heaven? Do we believe that the Bread and Wine we eat and drink at Mass is the Body and and Blood of Jesus? When reflecting on the Eucharist, do we only apply  human, scientific and external standards? What drives and motivates us? Faith? Sight? Let’s remember the words of St. Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:7 “Walk by faith and not by sight.” Let’s also remember that Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must first believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” 

In today’s Gospel, in this third section of John 6, Jesus invites us to come to him, to share communion with him by eating his flesh: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven...” Jesus is the essential for life. He is the essence of life. He is the quintessential of life. To refuse the invitation and command to partake in the Bread of Life is to refuse life. It is the food for the journey. And if we receive him in the right disposition, St. Augustine says, “We become what we receive- that is, the body of Christ.” 

Dearest beloved, Jesus is the food for the journey. The Eucharist is our food for the journey of discipleship. The words of the angel to prophet Elijah “get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!” says it all. The journey may be long! The journey may be steep. It may be an uphill or downhill journey. We may travel in sunny, pleasant conditions. We may also travel in cloudy, foggy, and dark night. But no matter what the journey brings, we will surely get to our destination if we are united with the Lord through the Eucharist. The Eucharist embodies the transformative power of the Cross. It contains Jesus’ everything, given to us so that we might live more fully here in this world and be ultimately granted a share in the marriage feast of the Lamb in the Kingdom. As we feed our body with material food for its sustenance, let’s not forget the most important food of all- the Eucharist. It’s the food for the journey. It nourishes both our body and our soul.  

“Lord, give us this Bread everyday”

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara CSsR

Homily for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

St. Gerard Majella Church

Baton Rouge, LA

August 5, 2012

On this 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, we continued with the Gospel of John 6.  Today, we read that when the crowd did not see Jesus and his disciples (because they had withdrawn from the people), they (i.e. the people) got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. As soon as they found him, they exclaimed “Rabbi, when did you get here?” But Jesus did not waste time in telling them why they were actually looking for him: “Amen, amen I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life which the Son of Man will give you.” After a back and forth argument, the people wanted Jesus to give them the true bread from heaven. Jesus now used the occasion to tell them who he is “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

Why did the crowds pursue Jesus? What were they looking for? What was so compelling, so utterly different and unique about the man Jesus? What actually made crowds of thousands go looking for him until they found him on the opposite shore? 

It’s important to point out that the Jews had been looking for Jesus for a very long time. Our first reading today from Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15 describes how the Israelites in the time of Moses, during the time of their wandering in the desert, went out each day in search of food. And when they found what appeared to be fine flakes on the ground and asked what it could be, Moses assured them “This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat” (Exodus 16:15). Twelve centuries later, when the descendants of those same Israelites set out in search of Jesus and found him on the opposite shore, little did they know that they had found the One about whom Moses prophesied. This is what Jesus meant when he said to them: “It was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, for the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:32-33). Reflecting on the words of Jesus, the Jews asked him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” And Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst” (John 6:34-35).

“Sir, give us this bread always” the people pleaded with Jesus. The bread that the Jewish people wanted always, beloved in Christ, is Jesus Christ. This same Jesus, who came down from heaven and who gave his life to the world, is truly present in the consecrated Bread that we receive in the Eucharist and in the Cup that we share. He is the real Bread from heaven, which the Israelites hungered to receive. 

Jesus says, “I am the Bread of Life.” All other food we eat will grow stale, inedible in a short period of time. Even the manna from heaven that fed the Jewish people in the wilderness was temporary. But Jesus, our Greatest Treasure offers us a new kind of Bread, one that does not go bad, one that is not temporary, one that nourishes and sustains everlastingly, one that sustains and bolsters hope. 

Beloved in Christ, the Eucharist is the Bread of Life. In the Eucharist, Jesus is truly and supremely present - Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. During communion, what we receive is not a symbol of the Lord, it is the Lord himself. It’s Jesus! We are the most fortunate of all. The demand of the Jewish people, “Sir, give us this bread always” was given, so to say, to us. When they asked for the daily bread, their minds were in material bread. But the Bread of Life which was first revealed to them is made available to us daily at Mass. So, to Catholics who can afford to come to Mass but choose not to come, you are the one missing because at every Mass, the Lord feeds us specially with himself- the Bread of Life. To Catholics who wish to come to Mass but cannot come due to ill-health, advancement in age, and other impediments, please make arrangement for a Eucharist minister or a priest to bring you Communion. We all need the Bread of Life. Like the Jewish people of Jesus’ time, let’s continuously ask, “Lord, give us this Bread always.”

Without Jesus We Are A Flock of Sheep Without A Shepherd!

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara CSsR

Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church

Baton Rouge, LA

July 22, 2012

Last Sunday, we read from the Gospel of Mark 6:7-13 of the sending out of the Apostles in twos by Jesus. Having completed their learning and tutorship under Jesus, the Lord decided it was time to send them out on their own without him (Jesus) following them physically. Today’s Gospel taken from Mark 6:30-34 tells us that when the Apostles came back from their mission, they reported to Jesus all they had done and taught. Jesus was pleased with their accomplishments. So, unlike many masters especially today, who view humans as money making machines, who do not value the importance of rest and do not think that rest is a fundamental human right, he told his Apostles: “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” 

Jesus valued the importance of rest and understood that every human worker is not just an instrument at the service of the employer. The worker is the very purpose of work. As such, his or her moral and physical well-being make periodic rest very important, and because the human conditionality is limited, no person can go on and on working without resting. Pope John Paul II in his Encyclical (An encyclical is a Pope’s letter to all the Catholics in the world) titled Laborem Exercens: On Human Work said that the human worker needs enough rest before he or she wears out too quickly. Pope Leo XIII in his Encyclical titled Rerum Novarum: On the Condition of Labor pointed out that the human person’s ability to work is limited, that there is a point beyond which each person cannot go. Every human worker, he argued, deserves rest for recuperation and leisure and also to attend to his or her spiritual needs. Jesus knew this all too well. So, as soon as his Apostles returned from a difficult and tasking mission, he saw their weariness. He noticed their need for rest and recuperation and then invited them to a quiet place where they can rest, eat and refresh. What a compassionate and caring Master! 

In today’s Gospel, we see the pattern of the Christian life. We see what the Christian life should be. It is a life which begins, first, with an experience of God; secondly, expressing the God whom we have experienced by way of conduct and finally communicating the God we have loved or rather the God who has loved us. As we live our lives in faith and carry out our daily activities in faith- faith rooted in God, we must remember to continuously be in the presence of God, so that from there, we can go into the presence of men and women. It is absolutely impossible to live the Christian life without spending some quiet time to be alone with self and with God. It’s possible our problems are largely caused by our refusal or failure to make out time to speak to God and to give God time and opportunity to speak to us. Some of us do not know how to be still, how to be alone, and how to listen, therefore, we do not give God time to refresh and recharge us with his spiritual energy and strength. We forget that Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and know that I am God.” It’s not possible to deal with life’s troubles if we do not maintain a constant contact with the Lord of life himself. We have to come to him daily with an open mouth and with an expectant faith. After all, in Psalm 81:10, the Lord says, “I am the Lord your God...Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.” 

Our Lord Jesus recognized the weariness of his Apostles after they had accomplished the mission he sent them. He did not want to overwork them. He decided it was time for them to rest and recuperate: “So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place.” But the rest that Jesus and his Apostles wanted was thwarted by the crowds who wanted to see Jesus. When the people saw him and his Apostles leaving with a boat, they knew where they were going. They hastened to the place on foot and got there before them. 

Now, when Jesus saw them waiting for him, he was not in anyway displeased or upset. Many of us would have been upset. The rest that he wanted for himself and for his Apostles was interrupted. But he did not resent them; he did not scold them. Some of us priests would have yelled: “Please I want to take a nap; it’s my siesta time. I am tired! Please leave and come back tomorrow during office hours.” But not Jesus! Yes, his Apostles wanted rest, but these multitude of people also wanted rest. His Apostles wanted bodily rest, but the crowds wanted the rest of mind; they wanted peace for their souls, and the rest and peace they yearned for can only be given by Jesus. Was it not Jesus who said in the Gospel of Matthew 11:28, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” 

Seeing the crowds, the Gospel says “His heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.” What does it mean to be a sheep without a shepherd? The multitude of people like many of us were standing at a crossroad not knowing which way to take. But in Jesus they saw the Shepherd that can lead them safely home. You know, a sheep without a shepherd can easily stray way. Without a shepherd, a flock of sheep could easily be starved to death. A sheep without a shepherd may not be able to find greener pasture. The people were hungry and thirsty for something greater and more important than food and drink. In Jesus they saw a man who can satisfy their hunger and quench their thirst. Jesus is the living water. Jesus is the bread of life. Jesus is the food for the journey. Life is a journey. The material food we eat cannot sustain us for a longer period of time. After eating them, we are still unsatisfied and hungry. After eating them, we still feel hungry and unfed. They cannot give us the strength to withstand the troubles of life. They cannot give us the spiritual strength to engage in a spiritual warfare with the forces of darkness. They cannot give us the spiritual, emotional and even the physical strength to keep on going. Only Jesus, the Bread of life can. A sheep without a shepherd has no shield or defense against trials and temptations. It’s only in the company of Jesus that we can win. Without him, Jesus says we can do nothing. Without him we are most vulnerable. But with him, we are protected, secured, and safe. The crowds of people looking for Jesus knew these, and that’s why they walked a long distance to meet him. 

More of God And Less of Material Things

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara CSsR

Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

St. Gerard Majella Church

Baton Rouge, LA

July 15, 2012

It’s time to send out the Twelve in twos. They have been with Jesus for a while. As his disciples, they have been taught and learned enough to be sent. As students/disciples of the Rabbi, they have been equipped enough to be sent out in twos, on their own without Jesus following them physically. It’s time for them to go out there and demonstrate what they had learned. The period of tutorship was over. Graduation celebration was over. Being under the watchful eyes of their Master and watch him do all the talking was over. Like the mother bird, Jesus had finished teaching them how to fly on their own. The time has come for them to fly out “unassisted.” The moment of hunting on their own has come. In this case, not hunting for ants or other foods, but hunting for the lost sheep, God’s children. 

After giving them authority to dethrone evil spirits and render them powerless, Jesus gave his Apostles a simple but difficult instructions of taking nothing for the journey but a walking stick. He instructed them not to travel with food, or sack, or money in their belts. They can wear their sandals but should not take with them a second tunic. According to the iMac dictionary, a tunic is “a loose garment, typically sleeveless and reaching to the wearer’s knees worn in ancient Greece and Rome.” As for where his Apostles should take up residence, Jesus said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave. Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.”

But what essentially is the Lord telling his Apostles to do? The Lord wants his Apostles and disciples to embark on the journey of calling God’s children home without worrying about material things, but rather to trust in God for everything. In the Gospel of Matthew 6:25, Jesus puts it clearer when he said, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?” 

The Christian life is a journey towards God. As we embark on this journey daily, we should strive not to cling so much on material things but on spiritual things. We should strive daily to cling less on material things but more on spiritual things. Our very lives should not be defined in relation to the things of this world. The fancy earthly things we have are not what make us and we should not be defined in relation to them. We should be defined in relation to God. Our very lives should be a manifestation of the good God. We are called to reflect the glory of God. In God we all should trust. In 1956, America got it right when it adopted as its official motto “In God we trust.” Unfortunately, many in America today have long disregarded those words. Some do not trust in God anymore but rather in humanity. Some do not even trust in humanity at all but in dollars. For such people, a human person is important and relevant inasmuch as he or she can be used to make more money for them. 

But our Lord Jesus Christ reminds today of the importance of trusting more in God and less in material things. Every material thing is transient. Money, silver, gold, wealth etc are fleeting and transient things. Today we have them, tomorrow it is either we are gone or they are gone. But God, our greatest Treasure, our most Precious Jewel of inestimable value does not pass away; and those who believe and trust in him, those who cling on to him, those who lean on him, cannot pass away either. In John 11:25, Jesus assures us, “I am the resurrection and the life. And those who believe in me, even if they die, they shall still live.” 

Prayer

Good and gracious God, I want to be more of you; and be less of me. I pray to you that there will be less of me and more of you. Turn my eyes away from material things and fix them on you, on Jesus and on the Holy Spirit. Help me to always remember that you are an ageless and undying Treasure and make me cling on to you. You are my best inheritance. Therefore, I lay down all my earthly desires and plans at the foot of the cross and cling strongly on the One you sent to die for me, Jesus Christ. 

Make me more of you and less of me dear Lord. In Jesus most wonderful Name I pray. Amen.