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.