Mary, the Model of Saying Yes to God

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year B

St. Gerard Majella Church, Baton Rouge, LA

December 21, 2014

Our Christian Faith teaches us that only God saves, and only God can save. When it comes to our relationship with God, God always takes the initiative. He always takes the first step, not because God needs us to survive but because we need him to survive. I dare to say that God needs us, but not to survive but to love. His love for us is so profound, so indescribable, so unconditional and boundless that he became one with us. None of us would want to do what God did. No matter how much we love our dogs, our cats and other pets, we may never want to become one of them just to save them and relate with them. But that’s precisely what God did. 

In today’s first reading taken from 2 Samuel 7:1-5, David wanted to build God a house. He wanted to do something for the Lord. Like us, he forgot that it is God who always does something for us, not we who do for him. In essence, it is we who are needy. God has no material or spiritual need. God’s only need is us—you and me!  We cannot do God any favors. But some of us, in our moments of greater generosity, think that we are doing God a favor. When we give more money to the church, some of us think we are doing God a special favor. We forget that we are only giving to the church from what God had given to us.  Our God, through the prophet Nathan, in the first reading, reminds us that our salvation is his initiative. Salvation does not come from the human person but from God. Psalm 127:1 tells us that “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who labor, labor in vain.”

Therefore, for nine months before the first Christmas, God initiated the salvation of the human person when he approached a certain young girl, unknown outside her village, showered her with unmerited favors, proposed a plan as outrageous as the Incarnation to her, and made its realization contingent upon her freely given consent. It was God, who first approached Mary. It was God who first proposed the plan to her. And it was God who saw this plan to its total fruition. The only thing God demanded from Mary was her cooperation. And the only thing God demands from us too is our cooperation, our yes. God has this ‘bad habit’ of respecting the free will he gave us. From the beginning he has invited, not compelled our collaboration. What we need to do then, is to form our own ´habit´ of always saying ‘Yes’. When it comes to forming the habit of saying yes, the Blessed Mother Mary is our super model.

Brothers and sisters, do we know that in the entire history of humanity, no decision, no response, no consent, no surrender can compare both in drama and import with the one that Mary was asked to make? Our salvation, the new order, the new beginning, the new dawn, God’s entrance into humanity, the migration of the creator from heaven to earth, the relocation of God from eternity to time, from heaven to our neighborhood hung upon Mary’s answer and acceptance. And the circumstances were hardly reassuring. She was just a young teenager. She believed God wanted her to remain a virgin, even in marriage. She lived in a cultural backwater, in a hinterland. She probably had a minimal education. Even as a faithful and religious Jew, I don’t think she understood God’s proposal. I don’t think she understood very well what God was asking from her. When the angel Gabriel said, “the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you,” I don’t think she understood what that meant. Yet, in spite of her limited understanding of what was happening, she still yielded: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” The fact that Mary came through in spite of her circumstances and difficulties stem from four basic attitudes: She has unlimited trust in the will of God; she does not first demand understanding, before accepting God´s ways; she has no predetermined personal plans that are non-negotiable and to which God´s plan must be adjusted; and lastly, knowing and doing God’s will is the hinge on which her life turns. As soon as she said yes, the Son of God began to inhabit her womb. God became one of us. With that, our human nature was raised to a new, incomparable dignity. This little Hebrew girl did more for us than all the other great lights of humanity combined.

This Christmas, all we need to do is to recognize that it is God who gives gifts to us, rather than the reverse. We should therefore ask, during this Christmas, the special grace to have the necessary dispositions to become his ‘co-workers’ (1Corinthians 3:9), like Mary. Let’s also ask him for the ability to put-off our own plans, when it’s clear to us that God wants something else. Let’s ask him to help us accept his word preached and taught through the Church – even when we don´t fully understand or it doesn’t make sense to us. 

During this Christmas, why not ask God for a Christmas gift that is more spiritual?

Live Lovely, Love Warmly!

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

St. Gerard Majella Church

Baton Rouge, LA, USA

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Christians have always had a problem of how to tell the world who they are. At some periods in history and still in some places in the world, Christians have put on uniforms that sell their identity to the world. Think of the various uniforms used by various Societies of Consecrated Life, which distinguishes consecrated people from other Christians, and which also distinguishes a Religious Order from others. These religious garment called habits are still being used today.  There are also times when we use badges, banners, pinups, signs etc to distinguish and show who we are. We are symbolic beings who use symbols to express our faith. Jesus himself wrestled with the question of how to distinguish his followers from non-believers around them. But his prescriptions go deeper than the externals. For Jesus, the essential mark of distinction between Christians and non-Christians is not in the way they dress but in the way they love. What marks us out is not what our banners, badges, pinups, stickers say, but how we love.

In today’s gospel taken from Matthew 22:34-40, a scholar of the law approached Jesus with a very good question: “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” In answering his question, Jesus gives a profound definition of religion: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

Brothers and sisters, love is the Christian identity. It is the Christian uniform. If we are not wearing the habit of love, then we are not authentic. Love is the essence of our Christian Faith. Jesus defines the Christian religion as the love of God which is demonstrated in the love of others. Christianity is not only a faith believed, but also a faith lived and demonstrated. To Jesus, the definition of authentic religion is love- love of God and love of the people of God. He wants us to love God with all the emotion, with all the will, and with all the intellect. God should come first, second, and third in everything we do or plan to do. Everything we plan to do should be weighed on the scale of God. Loving the Lord with all your heart means allowing God to control and direct your emotions; loving God with all your soul means letting your will conform to the will of God; loving the Lord with all your mind means letting your intellect be directed by God. Jesus wants us to surrender our emotions, our will and our intellect to God. Our emotion should feel God; our decisions should be in consonance with the will of God; our thoughts should think God. Simply put, feel God; desire God, and think God!

Now, our love of God should translate into the love of others. In John 13: 35, Jesus says to his disciples, “If you love one another, everyone will know that you are my disciples.” Love makes God present among us. love enthrones the reign of God in our human family. It wipes away tears of frustration, hunger, sickness and hopelessness from the sufferers. Love breaks the chain reaction of evil and replaces it with a chain reaction of good. Love weakens evil. Love makes the whole of creation new. Love removes mourning or sadness. Even in suffering, love from others lightens the burden. 

Jesus wants us to love God with all we’ve got and to love our neighbor as well! According to Pope Benedict XVI, “The love of God and the love of neighbor have become one; in the least of the brethren we find Jesus himself, and in Jesus we find God.” 

Live justly, love warmly, Be happy! 

Dual Citizenship of a Christian

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

St. Gerard Majella Church, Baton Rouge, LA

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Today’s Gospel begins with “The Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech” (Matthew 22:15). Why? Because Jesus has been on the attack. He has been launching series of attacks against the chief priests and the elder of the people. He has spoken three parables in which he indicted them. In the parable of the two sons (Matthew 21: 28-32), Jesus presents the Jewish leaders as the disobedient son who never went to his father’s vineyard to work. In the parable of the wicked tenants (Matthew 21: 33-46), he regards the Jewish leaders as the wicked tenants who killed several servants and the son of the landowner sent by him (the owner of the vineyard) to obtain his produce. In the parable of the wedding feast, Jesus suggests that they are the condemned guest who was not dressed in a wedding garment and was thrown out of the wedding hall where there’s weeping and grinding of teeth.

Now, instead of reflecting on the parables of Jesus, instead of trying to examine their lives and make effort to do things differently, instead of asking Jesus what they should do to be authentic believers of God- to be saved, the Jewish leaders went away angry and started planning a counter-attack against Jesus. Sure enough, they found one. It was a carefully formulated question meant to entrap him and to bring him down. So, they sent some their disciples with the Herodians to Jesus to ask him, “Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” 

Their question is a very tricky one. Their main goal is to set a trap for Jesus so that he could get himself in trouble. If he says it’s unlawful to pay tax to Rome, the Pharisees would quickly report him to the Roman government officials as a rabble-rousing and unpatriotic person and he would immediately be arrested. And if he says it is lawful to pay tax, they would jump on it, use his own words to discredit him before the people who bear the burden of paying these taxes. Jewish people hated paying taxes, but not for the same reasons that some people of our time hate paying taxes. They resented paying taxes not because they wanted to keep their money. The reason for the resentment is spiritual and religious. Their nation was a theocracy, which means, God was the only King; therefore to pay tax to an earthly king was to admit the validity of his kingship and it was an insult to God.

In his answer, Jesus demonstrates he is wiser and smarter than all. To the question, “Is it lawful to pay census tax to Caesar or not?” he replies, “Show me the coin that pays the census tax”. “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” They replied, “Caesar’s”. Then he shocks them, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.”

This Gospel passage (Matthew 22:15-21) calls for faithful citizenship and also reminds us of our double citizenship. Through birth, we’ve become citizens of the earth, and through baptism, we’ve become citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, each of us is called to be responsible citizens. Failure in good citizenship is also failure in Christian duty. “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.” Caesar represents our leaders, political leaders to whom we owe a duty in return for the privileges which their rule brings to us. A lawless and chaotic society risks being extinguished from the global map. We give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar by being faithful citizens who keep the rules and laws of the land that Caesar swore to protect and uphold. The Christian is also a citizen of heaven. To give to God what belongs to God means offering ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy, and pleasing to God (Romans 12: 1). It means offering our life to God, everything we are, everything we have, and everything we have been through, and asking him to use them for his own glory.

Now, the two citizenships should not clash. The demands of the State and the demands of God ought not to clash. God ultimately will never ask us to do what will obstruct or destroy the human family; after all, he is the Origin. But when a Christian is so convinced that complying with a particular demand of the State will ultimately violate the commands of God, he or she should resist it. One thing that’s so clear in today’s Gospel is: An authentic Christian is also a good citizen of a country and a good citizen of the Kingdom Heaven. The Christian belongs to two cities: city of the earth and the city of God. As such, such a Christian will always strive to carry out what God requires and what the society demands, as long as what the society requires does not violate God’s command to love. In 1 Peter 2:17 says, “Fear God. Honor the emperor”.

All Are Invited!

Homily for the Twenty-Eight Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

St. Gerard Majella Church, Baton Rouge, LA

October 12, 2014

In today’s Gospel taken from Matthew 22:1-14, Jesus speaks about what the kingdom of heaven may be likened to. He tells of a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. Several guests were invited. On the day of this occasion, the king dispatched his servants and messengers to summon the invited guests for the feast, but they refused to come. The king did not give up on them, instead he sent other servants to go tell his guests: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast.” But despite the second summon and beckon, some of the guests still ignored the invitation and went away; some of them mistreated the king’s servants, and even had some of them killed. Obviously the invited guests were neither hungry nor have any need. After all, some were property owners; some had farms; others had businesses. But some were just arrogant and vicious to the point of putting the king’s servants to death. The king became furious. In anger, he sent his army to wipe out the murderers and burn their city. Then he said to his servants: “The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.” The servants went to the streets and invited everyone, ‘the bad as well as the good.’ The banquet hall was filled up. 

When the king came into the banquet hall to greet the guests, he saw a man who wasn’t dressed in a wedding garment considered proper for a wedding banquet. When he challenged him on it, the man had nothing to say. So the king told his guards, “Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”

What was wrong with the people who refused the king’s invitation? Why would they exclude themselves from the experience of a wedding feast? The answer is simple: they did not have any relationship with the king. In this parable of the wedding feast, Jesus makes it clear that just being a member of the church with official approval is not enough. When the king came to see his guests, he saw a man who had been admitted by the king’s own servants, but wasn’t dressed up for the wedding feast. The man was physically present, but wasn’t ready for the wedding feast. He was invited just like the others; he showed up just like the others, but he wasn't ready for the occasion. He was present, but just did not know what to do. His presence was not enough. He was physically present, but socially not ready. When I was in the seminary, there were guys who came to the seminary to study for the priesthood.  Like me, they were also invited by the Lord. Like me, they also wanted to be Redemptorists priests or brothers, but after a discerning process, which included them and the Formation Directors, they were found to be unready and unprepared. Eventually some of them were asked to leave. 

By the virtue of our baptism, we are all Christians. But you and I know that not every Christian is ready for the Wedding Banquet of the Lord. There are people who come to Mass every Sunday, but are yet unready for it. There are so many who claim to be in the church, but are hardly ready. Some of us are hardly physically unready (i.e. they only go to church when a family member or friend is wedding, a child related to them is being baptized, and when someone they know dies). Such persons cannot really be spiritually ready for the Wedding Banquet of the Lord. There are some who are physically ready, that is, they are seen in church every Sunday, but spiritually are not ready and prepared. They may honor the Lord with their lips, but their hearts are far away from him (Matthew 15:8). They may be calling the Holy One “Lord, Lord,” but hardly do his will. To be in the Church is to be in a relationship of love with Jesus Christ. 

The King who gave the wedding banquet is the Father. The Son is Jesus. The wedding banquet is that of the Lord found in Revelations 19:7, “Let us rejoice and be glad and give him the glory. For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.” It is the end of the time banquet which will mark the second coming of Jesus. Everyone is invited to this wedding feast. But only those who are prepared and ready, who are still wearing the spotless white garment given to us at Baptism will be admitted into the Banquet Hall. At Baptism the priest usually place a white garment on the newly baptized and say, “... you have become a new creation, and have clothed yourself in Christ. See in this white garment the outward sign of your Christian dignity. With your family and friends to help you by word and example, bring that dignity unstained into the everlasting life of heaven.” 

At this banquet, all are invited, but only those who retain their symbolic white garment given to them at Baptism unstained will be admitted into the banquet of the Lord. At this banquet, all are invited, but only those who are prepared and ready would be admitted into it. Everyone is invited, but only those who are ready would be chosen. To just show up in any kind of dress is not enough. To just show up at the right place and at the right time is not enough. Each of us must be spiritually ready to enter into the banquet hall of the King. To be ready is to be spiritually and morally alert, alive and healthy. To be ready is to be awake and alive in the spirit. To be ready is to be pure in heart. To be ready is to persevere in doing what is good. St. Paul tells us in Galatians 6:9 “Do not be tired of doing what is good, for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” To be ready is to continue unceasingly to do what is just, what is honorable, what is lovely, what is gracious, what is amazing, what is excellent, what is true, and what is pure. In Matthew 5:8, Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” In today’s second reading from Philippians 4: 12-14, St. Paul assures us that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Yes, we can be faithful! Yes, we can be pure in hearts! Yes, we can keep our love relationship with Lord unstained and undivided! Yes, we can love the Lord above all things! And yes, we would be admitted into the wedding banquet of Jesus our Lord! 

Kings Without Kingdoms 

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

St. Gerard Majella Church

Baton Rouge, LA

October 5, 2014

Jesus tells another parable to the “chief priests and the elders of the people” and also to us. He tells about a landowner who leased his vineyard out to tenant farmers before embarking on a journey. While he was still away, he sent his servants to collect the rent, but the tenants turned on them with aggression and violence. Finally, the landowner sent his own son, thinking, “they will respect my son.” But on sighting his son, the tenants said to each other, “This is the heir to everything; if we kill him, we will have his inheritance!” So, they seized him, dragged him outside the vineyard, and killed him. Then Jesus asks his listeners, “When the owner of the vineyard returns, what do you think he will do to those tenants?” They answered him, “He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will make sure he gets his share when it is due.” Jesus ends the story with a warning, “Didn’t you ever read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone which builders rejected has become the keystone of the arch?’ Let me tell you something here: the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruits” (Matthew 21:33-43).

It’s not theologically wrong to assume that the landowner in this parable is God. The vineyard is the earth. The tenants are the chief priests, the elders of the people and God’s people in general. Before the advent of Jesus, God had sent several prophets to preach, teach, warn, straighten, and to guide his people. But several of these prophets were abused, ignored, and even killed by the Jewish leaders. Finally, God sent his Son, Jesus Christ. As soon as he began his ministry, he was an instant hit. He became a polarized figure: ordinary folks loved him, but the religious and political leaders hated him and sought for a way to put him to death. The chief priests and the elders of the people that Jesus spoke to in today’s Gospel were among those that hated him. They are the ones who would arrest him, judge him, accuse him before Pilate and get him executed. They would eventually throw the son out of the vineyard and kill him- a reference to Jesus being taken outside the city of Jerusalem to be crucified. But Jesus warns them that they would soon find themselves no longer in charge and others would be given the responsibility of leading God’s people and teaching them the ways of holiness. 

Jesus’ warning in today’s Gospel, “…the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruits” should be taken seriously by all and sundry. Professing Christianity, being outwardly pious, having an outward show of religion cannot guarantee anyone heaven unless they are matched by doing what is true, what is honorable, what is just, what is pure, what is lovely, what is gracious, what is excellent, and what is worthy of praise as St. Paul suggested in Philippians 4:8-9. When people ask what it means to be Catholic, we may attempt to answer such a question simply by making a reference to religious faith and practices like Mass, prayer, the sacraments etc. But being Catholic goes deeper than Mass attendance, saying the prayers and receiving the sacraments. Beyond these religious expressions must be an honest desire for justice, that is, living as God expects, doing as God wants, and thinking as God desires. Being a Catholic means welcoming God’s unsettling message and not seeking to silence God’s messengers. It means, not just looking at the quality of our religious practices, but at how these practices reflect and influence our lifestyles. It means allowing the Word of God we read in the Scripture and hear at Mass during preaching to confront our lives, influence the choices we make, challenge our attitudes and prejudices, expose our selfishness, and question our commitments. If we desire to be part of God’s kingdom, then our lives must be characterized by justice and integrity. We must bear the fruits of the kingdom which is living according to Jesus’ law of love. Christians who do not live according to the Lord’s law of love: “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34) are like a king without a kingdom. Christians who live under a different set of rules, rules not founded in love and compassion are like a king with no kingdom to call his own. Nominally, they are still Christians but they have left the fold and the Master. They may still be in the Church but they are out of the track. They are like a strayed flock of sheep that are no longer following the Shepherd. 

Do What You Promised To Do!

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

St. Gerard Majella Church, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 

September 28, 2014

Dearest beloved, in today’s gospel Jesus narrates a story of a father and his two bad sons. The story explains some of the attitudes of some Christians towards the call and invitation of God, the mission of the church, and the church’s call to all her sons and daughters to get involved actively in the life of the church. It is a story that points out the hypocritical nature of some of us.

A father had two sons. He went to the first and said, “Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.” The first son replied, “I will not.” But after a soul searching reflection, he changed his mind and went in obedience to his father. The father went to the second son and gave him the same order. The second son replied with respect, “Yes sir, I will go!” But he never went. Now, it is important to understand that none of the sons in the story was the kind of son that would bring full joy to a father. The first son was disrespectful to his father. In the Jewish society of Jesus’ time, his reply to his father’s request wasn’t the kind of response expected from a loyal son. But what he lacked in his response, he accomplished through his obedience. He became the virtuous son when he eventually went to the vineyard. He did what the father wanted. The second son on the other hand applied courtesy in his response to his father, but ended up disrespecting him even further by not going to the vineyard to work. Courtesy without obedience is worthless. The ideal son would be the one who accepted the father’s request with respect and obediently carried it out. 

Today’s gospel speaks about the mere talkers and the real doers of the Christian Message. It talks about the verbally loud “professers” of the faith and the quiet and unnoticed doers of the faith. The loud talkers are Christians who profess Jesus with their lips, but in their actions deny him. Their verbal profession of faith is louder and much better than their practice. In the gospel of Matthew 15: 8, Jesus says, “[Such] people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” No wonder he also says, “Not everyone who calls me Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter” (Matthew 7:21). Such Christians would promise anything, praise the Lord loudly for all to see, dance out their hearts and clap vigorously during worship. They've outward show of piety and religiosity, but never make any serious effort to practice what they promised. Describing such people St. Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:5, “They act religious, but deny its power that could make them godly.” To such people St. Paul urges the authentic believers, “Stay away from people like that!”  

But there are Christians whose practice of the faith is bolder than their verbal profession of it. Outwardly, they may not appear pious and religious. They may look tough. But they are the ones usually seen doing acts of kindness. They are privately generous, honest,  prayerful, just and upright. Some of them may not even be regular church goers, but they live more Christian lives than professing Christians. 

In today’s gospel, Jesus teaches us that making promises is not enough; we must fulfill the promises we make. Making a promise to do something for the Lord and for the Church is not enough. We must fulfill those promises. If we promise to do something, let’s do it. Promises can never take the place of actual performance, and fine words are never a substitute for fine deeds. The second son who promised his father that he would go to the vineyard to work but never went, had all the outward show of religion and outward mark of respect and courtesy. In his answer, he even called his father “Sir,” showing respect to his father. He showed courtesy. But his courtesy was empty since he  never did what he said he would do. True courtesy is accompanied by obedience. The first son, though originally was disrespectful to his father, but won the respect and love of his father back by eventually going to the vineyard to work. 

Sisters and brothers of the Lord, the Christian way is the way of obedience; obedience to the Father through Jesus Christ and his Church. The Christian way is in performance and not in promise alone. Words are cheap. Words can be deceptive. But deeds count more. Our relationship with Jesus is deepened by deeds of charity and love. What gets us divine merit is obedience and not verbal professions. We are Christians because we follow in the footsteps of Christ. We are not Christians simply because we profess Christianity or profess to be born again. A verbal profession of faith is good, but it is not enough. Faith professed must be accompanied by charity. Faith professed must be demonstrated and lived out. Good deeds give life to faith. Good deeds demonstrate faith and give meaning to faith. Bad deeds and disobedience expose faith to ridicule. Christianity is a religion of profession and obedience, but more of obedience. It is a love relationship with Jesus which must give birth to obedience. In John 14:15, Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” 

In our Christian journey, we may have made many promises to God. Today, let’s review those promises and see if we have kept them. If we have not kept any of them, we still have another chance to fulfill them. 1 Samuel 15:22 tells us that obedience is better than sacrifice. Obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ is what makes us faithful and actual Christians. Nominal Christians only make promises and professions but never lived them out. Faithful and real Christians live out the professions they make and honor the promises they make. 

The Glorious Cross: Our Victory

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

St. Gerard Majella Church, Baton Rouge, LA

Sunday, September 14, 2014

God is certainly more than what we say he is. Whatever names or adjectives we call him or associate with him, he is much more than that. We often times regard him as good and faithful. We say he is love, merciful and compassionate. Indeed he is! But I often times say that, “If you cannot call him God, just call him Patience.” God is indeed a very patient and tolerant God. Patience is his nature. He’s so patient with our foolery and unconscionable behaviors. Despite our ungrateful behaviors, he continues to be patient and tolerant. But in today’s first reading taken from the book of Numbers 21:4b-9, God appears fed up with the people of Israel. They were ungrateful even after all God had done for them.  He saved them from Pharaoh’s slavery, liberated them from slavery in Egypt, saved them from the rampaging and vicious Egyptian soldiers, and fed them miraculously by sending manna in the desert and causing water to flow from a rock to quench their thirst. Yet, when the Israelites encountered little difficulty, they forgot the wonderful past deeds of the Lord and started to complain against God and Moses: "Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!” Really? Does anyone think that the almighty God would bring someone from one harm only to let the person plunge into a deeper harm? Does anyone think that the all-powerful God would bring his beloved one from the excruciating pain of a frying pan only to let the person fall into a blazing fire? Does anyone believe that the all-redeeming Lord would lead someone or a group of people out of harm's way, and halfway into the journey, abandon them? Can the Source of Light, the Light itself lead a people through the darkest night, and halfway into the Promise Land of light turn off the light? 

The Israelites believed so. They were so impatient with Patience, God himself, and his servant Moses that they were ready to harm Moses. God wanted nothing for them but life—to live in freedom, to enjoy his friendship and to be saved. But in their way of thinking, God had brought them out from Egypt to die in the desert. They flared in anger towards God and Moses, and God allowed them to experience the consequences of their outbursts. Any rejection of God, in any form or shape, has punishable and painful consequences. Of course God doesn’t punish anyone, but our very refusal to be loved by him and to walk in his ways is enough punishment, which we have brought upon ourselves. The Psalmist in Psalm 130:3 asks: "If you O Lord should mark our sins, who could stand?" But in our human way of thinking, God does punish. This is evident in the first reading, which says: “In punishment the Lord sent among the people serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died.” But God couldn’t possibly allow his people to be finished up by the wicked serpent. As soon as Moses prayed to him on behalf of his people, God immediately intervened and said to Moses: “Make a seraph and mount it on a pole, and if any who have been bitten look at it, they will live.” This means that the very thing that brought death has become a symbol of life. God can bring out good from even the ugliest situation. When the bronze serpent was lifted up, and sinners looked upon it, they were spared and saved. This Old Testament event prepares us to receive and understand the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). In the Old Testament, God used the symbol of death, i.e. the serpent, to save the Israelite people. In the New Testament, God once again, used another symbol of death that is, “the cross, and transform[ed] it into an expression of divine love for all of us.” 

Today, we celebrate the glorious cross of Christ. We honor the instrument of torture on which Jesus Christ, our Savior and our God died. The cross can rightly be called the, “sign of the Son of Man.” From the cross was born the new life of Paul; from the cross was born the conversion of St. Augustine of Hippo; from the cross was born the joyful poverty of St. Francis of Assisi; from the cross was born the radiant goodness of St. Vincent de Paul; from the cross was born the great compassion of St. Alphonsus Liguori; from the cross was born the heroism of Maximilian Kolbe; from the cross was born the amazing charity of Mother Teresa of Calcutta; from the cross was born the courage of John Paul II; from the cross was born the bravery of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador; from the cross was born the courage and justice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who challenged America to live out the true meaning of its creed, that all men and women are created equal; from the cross was born the revolution of love. So the cross is not the death of God, but the birth of his love in our world. 

The cross is not a depiction of weakness, rather a symbol of hope and new-life. For through the cross, Jesus conquered death, definitively for all eternity. Through the cross, we too can conquer death, the death that comes from sin. Through the cross, we all are led by the Spirit of God, to the glory of the Resurrection. Through the cross, we receive eternal life and bliss in God. The cross is the profound manifestation of God’s love for all men and women. As we celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, let us be joyful and thankful to God for his uncommon and unexplainable love for us. Unlike the Israelites, we should desist from complaining for what we are yet to receive, or for what we have been denied. For whatever we are yet to receive, and for whatever we have been denied, let us accept as part of our cross. For in the Gospel of Matthew 16:24, Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me.” The cross is a symbol and a sign of victory, and not defeat. Without the cross, there is no crown. Our Holy Father, Pope Francis says, “When we walk without the cross, when we build without the cross and when we proclaim Christ without the cross, we are not disciples of the Lord. We are worldly. We may be bishops, priests, cardinals, popes. all of this, but we are not disciples of the Lord.” 

The Cross of Jesus! Be our Defender!

Forgiveness Is Not Optional 

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

St. Gerard Majella Church, Baton Rouge, LA

September 7, 2014

Conflicts seem to be deeply rooted in the human condition. Even in families there is conflict. Throughout the Bible there are stories of persistent conflict between Cain and Abel, between Sarah and Hagar, between Esau and Jacob. Even among families that appear outwardly peaceful there can be deep divisions. And in churches, Jesus knows we will wrong each other intentionally and unintentionally.  A closer look at Paul’s letters to early Christians shows that a good number of them are on how to handle the conflicts that come with being a community. Paul would not have told the community to put aside quarreling and jealousy if there wasn't a problem would he? Conflicts are not something that Jesus was silent about. He even gave us a good method of dealing with those who offend us. In today’s gospel, Matthew 18:15-20 Jesus says: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.” That is fraternal correction. The reason for fraternal correction is shown in the second reading taken Romans 13:8-10 “Brothers and sisters, owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another, for one who loves another has fulfilled the law…You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law.” To those we love, we correct fraternally. To those we love, we tolerate. To those we love, we are patient with. To those we love, we forgive. When there is love, there is fraternal correction. The commandment to correct a brother or a sister who offended us can only be obeyed when there is love. After all the Peter 4:8 says that “Love covers multitude of sins.”

If anyone offends us, we should avoid talking about the incident with others before we bring it to attention of the offender. Nothing is said until it is said before the person. If you are hurt by what someone had said or did, confront the person in a gentle and respectful manner. Hold on one hand the courage of narrating what had taken place, and on the other hand hold forgiveness. Forgiveness offers us and our offender healing. It sets us free from the bondage of anger and then widens our space.

Now forgiveness does not mean overlooking what someone has done to us. The emotions we feel when someone hurt us are genuine, real, upsetting, and they must be honestly and painfully acknowledged and dealt with. Doing this can provide a way of healing and forgiveness. Harboring feelings of resentment, unforgiveness, anger, hate and rage can prevent the healing process from ever beginning. To forgive is not to say that what others did to us was okay. To genuinely forgive means refusing to allow hurt  stop us from growing and moving forward. If we refuse to move forward instead wallow in hurt and anger, we become paralyzed by the evil that has taken place. Unforgiveness limits our freedom. An unforgiving spirit can harden one’s heart and block it from any flow of love. One is terribly diminished when he or she refuses to forgive. If we are sincere about forgiveness, we must allow God to remove our hard-heartedness and meanness of spirit. Forgiveness does not mean forgetfulness. It is rather a conscious decision that we make in our head, and pray that it slowly descends to my heart. When it comes to forgiveness, we have no option but to forgive. As followers of Christ, we cannot pick and choose who to forgive and who not to forgive. We are called by the Lord to forgive everyone. And to be able to accomplish that, Jesus lays three practical steps for us: If anyone offends you, approach them in the Spirit of the Lord and bring the incident to their attention. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if the meeting fails to produce an honest reconciliation, invite one or two persons to join you in resolving the matter. Still, if reconciliation and healing continue to be elusive, take the matter to the church. Tell your priests about it. Tell some trusted elders of the church about it. In the end, if they refuse to listen to the peace and reconciliation process initiated by the church, if they reject your peace and healing offering, then you can consider them as nominal Christians and treat them as such. Such persons who refuse and reject peace, healing, and reconciliation cannot be said to be truly disciples of Jesus Christ in actuality. But inasmuch as we are to treat them, as “Gentiles and tax-collectors” as suggested by Jesus, we are still expected to love and pray for them. For the one who said: “…then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector” (Matthew 18: 17), also said, “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).

What makes Jesus the most credible person to teach about forgiveness and reconciliation is that what he asks us to do, he himself had done. There is nothing he asks his followers to do that he himself did not do. He’s a perfect example of one who practiced what he taught and preached. After he was hung upon the cross, his executioners turned him into an object of mockery. They touted him saying, “He saved others, but cannot save himself. He claims to be the king of Israel, let him come down now from the cross and we will believe in him” (Matthew 27:42). When he called and prayed to his Father out of deep pains, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?”, which means, “My God, my God, why did you abandon me?” they jeered at him saying, “He is calling on Elijah.” As if that was not enough, they “took a sponge, soaked it in a cheap wine, put it on the end of a stick, and tried to make him drink it.” Again, they boasted saying, “…let us see if Elijah is coming to save him.” Jesus was pushed and challenged extremely by the arrogant executioners. They tested and tempted him beyond limit to see if he would use his powers in a negative sense. Surely, a man who healed the sick,  who raised the dead, who walked on waters, healed lepers, multiplied few loaves of bread and fish to feed multitude, made the blind see and deaf to hear can obliterate the foolish and arrogant soldiers simply by his spoken word. But at the peak of his physical pain, at the height of his psychological pain, deep and profound pain of total rejection and abandonment by all, Jesus still found the courage to shockingly say, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Is that not amazing? In the same manner, he calls us to offer forgiveness to those who offend us. When we forgive, we too can have the courage to approach our merciful God and say, “Forgive me Lord for I have sinned.” In the Lord’s Prayer we say, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” We cannot possibly and confidently approach God and ask for mercy, for forgiveness from him when we have not forgiven our offender. It does not make any sense to ask from God what we have refused to give to others, something that we have the capacity to do.  The basis of forgiveness is love. We don’t often forgive easily because we don’t love enough. 

The commonly used expression “Forgive and forget” is not a scriptural and Christian saying. Jesus offers us another way in which we can forgive. He does not want us to simply forget past hurt. He wants us to talk about it with our offender and then resolve the problem. When we forgive in the name of Jesus Christ and with his grace we can actually help others who have been deeply hurt begin the process of being healed.  Jesus wants us to forgive, because to err is human, but to forgive is divine. 

Be healed in your mind and in your heart!

Reject the Gospel of No Cross, All Crown

Fr. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara CSsR

Homily for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

St. Gerard Majella Church, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

August 31, 2014

In the Gospel of last Sunday taken from Matthew 16:13-20, Jesus asked the Apostles, “Who do you say that I am?”  Peter made a profound act of faith when he said, “You are the Christ (that is, the Messiah, the Savior), the Son of the living God.” Jesus praised and blessed Peter for recognizing and confessing him as the Christ, the Son of the living God. Shortly after that, he told the Apostles that being the messiah means that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised. Peter did not like the words of Jesus. He was not impressed at all. It’s never a generally accepted norm for someone to wish or to predict doom and gloom upon himself or herself. So, out of protective love and concern, Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him saying: “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” As Peter was rebuking Jesus and rebuking any evil from coming to him, Jesus sensed that the Evil One has seized the thought of Peter. He realized that if anyone needed a casting and binding prayer, a deliverance prayer, a prayer of rebuke, it is not him but Peter. So, he exercised his ministry right away: “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human being do”  (Matthew 16:23).

Don’t blame Peter for not wanting any harm to come upon his Master. Don’t blame him for protecting the interest of his Master. Isn’t that what a good friend does to a friend? But the good Lord had already spoken through the mouth of Prophet Isaiah saying “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my way” (Isaiah 55:8)  Jesus’ way is the way of the cross. His way is the way of redemptive suffering. His way is the way of thorns and cross. Jesus understood perfectly the principle of “no cross, no crown.” Many of us are like Peter in today’s Gospel. We are joyful and excited to hear about the peace, love, and joy that our faith can bring us. We are extremely happy to hear of prosperity, breakthrough, healing and deliverance that could come from believing in Jesus. In many churches, including the Catholic Church, there is usually a very loud Amen at the end of the prayer for material blessings. Most Christians love to hear about financial breakthrough and prosperity, healing and miracles etc but once the topic of discussion is the cross, many don’t wanna hear about it. Peter is like many Christians today who believe in the theology of no cross, all crowns. But Jesus teaches us today that without the cross, there will be no crown. Without death, there will be no resurrection. In John 12:24, Jesus says, “I tell you most solemnly, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

Jesus did not promise us a crossless life. He did not promise us thornless roses. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a coin with two sides: the cross and the crown. If we try to embrace one, the glorious one and reject the other, the denying of oneself and the carrying of the cross, we falsify the gospel. That is what is going on in many new generation churches today. Their preachers tell people to simply believe in Jesus, and all their problems will be gone. They turn Jesus into a coke machine and turn Christianity into a Christo-disco boogie-woogie. They rap in Church and ask people to dance out their hearts, that with Jesus there is no cross. They make people believe that faith in Jesus solves all human problems. And because of this, when someone’s cross does not go away, he or she thinks that God has forgotten him or her. Some even relapse into faithlessness. Their preachers take away the redemptive cross, and give people false promises, false hope and fake crowns.

They argue that Jesus has asked everyone with burdens to come to him and find rest. But the same Jesus that said, “Come to me all you that are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest”  also said, “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” He’s the same one that said, “Whoever wishes to come after me, must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me”  (Matthew 16:24). Jesus asks us to come to him and learn from him. That is, to learn from him the way of cross; the meaning of the cross, that without the cross, there will be no crown; to learn that the way of the cross is the way of redemption. He wants us to learn that carrying a cross does not mean that God has abandoned us. Just like gold is purified by fire, so we are purified by the cross. The cross is not a sign of rejection and abandonment by God. It’s not a symbol of defeat and failure. It’s a symbol of love. The cross leads to the crown. The pain of the cross creates the path to the crown. Some may say, “Do we come to Jesus to be freed from our burdens, or to take on more burden, the cross? We come to Jesus not to be freed from all burdens, but to be freed from all meaningless and futile burdens and in its place, take on the cross of Jesus Christ that leads to salvation and glory.

Sisters and brothers, ignore the gospel that denigrates the cross. Ignore the sermon of “No cross, and all crowns.” Yes, the cross is painful. But it’s what purifies. It’s what leads to the crown. Without death, there is no resurrection. Without the pain of labor, there is no child birth. Without the discomfort of studying all nights and all day, there is no graduation and the corresponding success in life. Without hunger, there is no joy of belly fill. Every good things in life, comes after a painful and long hour of trying and making effort. Ignore the preacher who tells you that if you have faith in Jesus, you will never experience any pain. Ignore the preacher who teaches that faith in Jesus means freedom from all burdens. Ignore the preacher who tells you that the cross or suffering is as a result of your sins. It is not! The gospel of no suffering is the gospel of no crown. It’s the gospel of the devil. Ignore the fancy and very attractive one sided gospel of instant glory, sugar-coated gospel that offers the false promise of no cross, all crown. Ignore the gospel that says, “Only believe in Jesus and everything would be well.” It did not go well with Jesus; he did endure the cross. It did not go well with Mother Mary; a sword of sorrow pierced her soul. It did not go well with John the Baptist, he had his head chopped off. It did not go well with Peter and Paul, they were crucified upside down. In the face of misery, hardship, bereavement, sickness, failure, let our faith response not be a walking away from God. But to recognize that those difficulties are necessary paths we must travel to receive the crown. They are necessary conditions for future glory. The world is a place for the cross. Heaven is the place for the crown of glory. Heaven is a reward of righteousness for those who learned from Jesus the meaning of the cross and carried it ungrudgingly. With perfect resignation to the will of God, the cross doesn’t crush, it crosses those who carry it faithfully over to the Promised Land.

“Get Behind Me, Satan!”

Fr. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

St. Gerard Majella Church, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

August 31, 2014

In the Gospel of last Sunday taken from Matthew 16:13-20, Jesus asked the Apostles, “Who do you say that I am?”  Peter made a profound act of faith when he said, “You are the Christ (that is, the Messiah, the Savior), the Son of the living God.” Jesus praised and blessed him for recognizing and confessing him as the Christ, the Son of the living God. Shortly after that, Jesus told his Apostles that being the messiah means that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised. Peter did not like the words of Jesus. He was not impressed at all. It’s never a generally accepted norm for someone to wish or to predict doom and gloom upon himself or herself. So, out of protective love and concern, Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him saying: “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” As Peter was rebuking Jesus and rebuking any evil from coming to him, Jesus sensed that the Evil One has seized the thought of Peter. He realized that if anyone needed a casting and binding prayer, a deliverance prayer, a prayer of rebuke, it is not him but Peter. So, he exercised his ministry right away: “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human being do”  (Matthew 16:23).

Don’t blame Peter for not wanting any harm to come upon his Master. Don’t blame him for protecting the interest of his Master. Isn’t that what a good friends do for each other? But God had already spoken through the mouth of Prophet Isaiah saying “…my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my way” (Isaiah 55:8)  Jesus’ way is the way of the cross. His way is the way of redemptive suffering. His way is the way of thorns and cross. Jesus understood perfectly the principle of “no cross, no crown.” Many of us are like Peter in today’s Gospel. We are joyful and excited to hear about the peace, love, and joy that our faith can bring to us. We are extremely happy to hear of prosperity, breakthrough, healing and deliverance that could come from believing in Jesus. In many churches, including the Catholic Church, there is usually a very strong “Amen” at the end of the prayer for material blessings. Most Christians love to hear about financial breakthrough and prosperity, healing and miracles etc but once the topic of discussion is the cross, many don’t wanna hear about it. Peter is like many Christians today who believe in the theology of no cross, all crowns. But Jesus teaches us today that without the cross, there will be no crown. Without death, there will be no resurrection. In John 12:24, Jesus says, “I tell you most solemnly, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

Now, when Jesus said to Peter, “Get behind me Satan” did he in any way suggest that Peter was satanic? Absolutely not! Was he saying that Peter was an evil person? No, he did not! He sensed that the Devil had influenced the mind of Peter, and was telling him what to say. Jesus saw that Satan was trying to use his bosom friend to derail or prevent the work of God from moving forward. The Tempter was using Peter to talk Jesus out of his mission, part of which involved suffering and death. So, looking intently at Peter but beyond Peter, Jesus said, “Get behind me Satan.” 

If there’s anyone trying to discourage you from giving yourself totally to God, say to that individual, “Get behind me Satan.” When a voice within you asks you to do anything that violates the law of God, say to it, “Get behind me Satan.” If there’s any situation that wants to prevent you from keeping your eyes firmly fixed on Jesus, say to it, “Get behind me Satan.” To that voice urging you to hate and discriminate, say, “Get behind me Satan.” If someone tells you not to forgive your offender, say to the person, “Get behind me Satan.” If pain or sickness or difficulty in life is trying to make you lose faith, say to it, “Get behind me Satan.” If anything or anyone has become an obstacle and has prevented you from using your time, talent and treasure in the house of God, say to it today, “Get behind me Satan.” If you’ve become too busy to go to church and too busy to pray, then it’s time to say to whatever is taking the place of God in your life, “Get behind me Satan.” Whatever it is that has been preventing you from accomplishing God’s mission for you, God’s calling for you, speak with Jesus, “Get behind me Satan.”

May the devil always stay behind us and stay away from us!

Go Deeper Than What Has Been Said About Him!
Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

St. Gerard Majella Church, Baton Rouge, LA

August 24, 2014

The practice of opinion poll usually conducted in political and economic fields can help us understand today’s Gospel taken from Matthew 16:13-20. In this Gospel passage, Jesus conducted an opinion poll about himself, but it wasn’t for political reasons but for educational and spiritual reasons.

Jesus had gone into the region of Caesarea Philippi; after settling down, he asked his disciples: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  One after another, his disciples replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” But Jesus wasn’t done yet. He wasn't interested in computing and calculating his popularity or in knowing how high he was regarded by the people. He had a different reason and purpose. So he immediately fired a second question: “But who do you say that I am?” His second question seemed to have thrown his disciples off balance. When he posed the first question, several of his disciples had something to say. But when the second question came, only Simon Peter responded: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” With great joy Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.”

To answer Jesus’ first question is easy. It does not take a personal experience with Jesus to answer it. It does not take the reading of the Bible, meditation, prayers, and an encounter with Jesus to answer it. A person does not necessarily need to have an ongoing relationship with him to attempt to answer it. To answer it, what a person needs is to simply look around and listen to public opinion, to gossip, to what people are saying about Jesus. But to be able to answer the second question, one must look inward, to listen to a completely different voice, a voice that is not of flesh and blood but that of the heavenly Father. The answer we give to Jesus’ second question will be determined by how each of us relates to him. Is Jesus someone we can make out time to visit and speak to in prayer? Does he worth our time on Sunday, on Holy Days of Obligations, and even during the week? Is he someone we can trust? Does he deserve our love? Does Jesus worth falling in love with? Do we see him as someone whose love for us is exceeding, whose compassion for us is profound, and whose forgiveness for us is matchless? Do we see Jesus as someone who has the authority to tell us how to live, what to do, what not to do, how to relate with others, and how to honor God? Do we see Jesus as our Best Friend? Is he someone we are looking forward to spending eternity with? If you haven’t been in touch with him, do you miss him? And do you think he misses you?

It’s not enough to say that Jesus is the Savior, Jesus is the Son of God, Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus is God, or as we recite in the creed every Sunday: Jesus is “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made…” But are we ready and willing to connect our mind and heart to those words to the point of saying with St. Paul: “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 flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Are we ever-ready to say those words, mean them, connect to them, live them out in our daily lives to the point of saying with St. Peter: “Lord, you know every thing; you know that I love you” (John 21:17). When we say that Jesus is our personal Lord and Savior, do we really mean it like St. Thomas, who after his initial doubt to the appearance of Jesus to his Apostles declared on seeing Jesus himself: “My Lord and my God!” 

Like the Apostles, we could also tell what others are saying about Jesus. That’s alright! There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s the starting point of learning who Jesus is. Our relationship with him most probably started with what others told us about him. But we have to move beyond that. We have to move beyond what others have told us about him in order to know him more personally and more intimately. If you are asking yourself how you can know Jesus personally and intimately, it’s the same way we get to know a person in a personal way, that we get to know the Lord. That is, by spending time with the person. Now, spending time with God and with Jesus is called Prayer. There is no other way of knowing him personally and intimately. There is no shortcut! 

As Catholic Christians, we should not be satisfied knowing what others  have said about Jesus, we must know and encounter him personally. An encounter with Jesus changes and transforms lives. It was such an encounter that prompted St. Augustine to declare: “Late have I loved you O Ancient Beauty. Late have I loved you. You were with me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you…I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst more.” The Psalmist felt so comfortable in the presence of the Lord that he proclaimed: “How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord God of host” (Psalm 84:1). Just like the story of the poet and the monk, we should know Psalm 23 and also the Shepherd. 

Persist And Insist 

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara CSsR

Homily for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

St. Gerard Majella Parish, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

August 17, 2014

From the beginning, God had revealed himself to certain figures in history. The Old Testament tells us that he revealed himself to Noah, Abraham, Moses, Isaac, Jacob etc. Apart from revealing himself to these personalities, he also chose Israel to be his special people. But in Jesus of Nazareth, the Ancient of Days who revealed himself to human personalities comes to us and to everyone else that is not Jewish, that does not live within the boundaries of Israel. Even though Jesus’ words to the Canaanite woman: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24) seem to contrast this, yet it is in this encounter that the Lord enlarged his mission and demonstrated that his mission is to be extended beyond the geographical space of Israel.  

Today’s Gospel taken from Matthew 15:21-28 tells us that Jesus had just made a deliberate withdrawal from the noisy and ever busy city of Galilee and sought peace and quiet in the border region of Tyre and Sidon. His popularity had spread far and wide. Wherever he went, the crowds followed him. There was no place in Palestine where he could be sure of privacy. So, he went to Tyre and Sidon where the Phoenicians lived. He wanted a place where he would be free from the crowds who were not giving him any breathing space, and also be safe from the hateful hostility of the Scribes and Pharisees. At least no Jew is likely going to follow him to Tyre and Sidon and no Jew is likely going to be there anyway. Tyre and Sidon were Gentile regions.

But even in these foreign Gentile lands, Jesus did not escape the common plea and demand of human need. Human suffering does not discriminate. It affects every human person and every human race. In Tyre and Sidon, a woman whose daughter was being tormented by a demon approached him with a cry: “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon.” This woman was not a Jew. But she must have heard of the wonderful things that Jesus had done. Desperately, she cried for help on behalf of her daughter. At first, Jesus paid no attention. He was silent. Then, his disciples said to him, “Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.”

Even the silence of Jesus did not discourage the Canaanite woman. His silence did not get on her nerves. The silence of Jesus did not make her stop calling out after them. She keeps calling Jesus. She refused to turn back. The words of Jesus: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” did not turn her back. She persisted with a cry: “Lord, help me.” Even when Jesus said to her: “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs,” this mother was not upset. Instead she replied Jesus respectfully: “Please, Lord, even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”

The Canaanite mother teaches us the virtue of persistence in prayer. Because of her persistence and expectant faith in Jesus her prayer was answered: “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” Her faith saved her daughter. Her refusal to give up brought healing to her daughter. Her virtue of persistence in prayer brought her daughter back to life. Her practice of PUSH- ‘Pray Until Something Happens” saved her daughter.

The Canaanite woman stands for all mothers. Like most mothers, she loved her daughter. She made the misery of her daughter her own. She personalized her daughter’s misfortune. You may call her a pagan, but she had an undying love for her daughter which is a reflection of God’s love for his children. It was love which made her approach a stranger; it was love which made her accept his silence; it was love which made her accept belittlement; it was love and compassion which made her swallow the harsh words she received from Jesus and his disciples. It was love that drove her to Jesus.

If you are asking God to help you solve a problem, but all you are getting is silence, keep praying for the desires of your heart. His silence may be a test of your faith. Like the Canaanite woman, continue to follow the Lord; continue to call him and make your request. God’s silence is not necessarily a refusal of God to heed. Look at the Canaanite woman. She started out by following Jesus, then called him Son of David. Son of David was a popular title, a political title. It was a title which saw Jesus as an earthly powerful wonder worker. But that title did not get her the attention of Jesus. Then she called Jesus “Lord.” She also came to him and paid him homage which is a sign of surrender and worship. She also accepted humiliation and then ended with prayer. She had indomitable and unconquerable persistence. In the end, her prayer was answered. Ephesians 6:18 says Keep on praying.

Sometimes the silence of God to our prayer may not necessarily be a refusal. It could be a test of your faith. Continue to disturb heavens with your request. God’s silence is not a bad thing, for it can provide us with an opportunity to grow in faith. His silence can provide us the opportunity to learn to pray. God’s silence can afford us the opportunity to develop reliance and trust in God. But our persistence in prayer can break God’s silence. 

We Would Never Struggle Alone

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara CSsR

Homily for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

St. Gerard’s Catholic Church, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

August 10, 2014

After the feeding of the crowd, Jesus asked his disciples to start boarding a boat, while he dismissed the crowds. The disciples boarded and began to go home ahead of him. The crowds too started leaving, for it was getting late. As soon as the last person had left, Jesus went up to a mountain to pray. Now, Jesus didn't necessarily need to pray. He is God. He did not need to pray to get anything done. But he still prayed. Why? Because prayer is not only about asking and making demands from God. It’s a place of finding God, talking and listening to him. Prayer deepens our relationship with God.

As Jesus was praying, his disciples were sailing across the lake. They were going home after a day of hard work and weary. But suddenly, a big storm came down on them, and they started struggling with and against the winds and the waves. As they struggled, little progress was being made to overcome the dangerous storm. As night wore on, Jesus started walking on the sea towards them. But the sight of him walking on the sea worsened the situation for them. They were already battling with a dangerous storm, and as if that wasn't enough, a “ghost” was seen walking on the sea towards them. The gospel says, “When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified. ‘It is a ghost’ they said, and they cried out in fear.”  At that moment, Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” On hearing those words, Peter reacted with a request “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” His request was immediately granted, “Come!” Peter stepped out of the boat walking steadily and unwaveringly on the sea. He did not sink for two reasons: one, he acted on the words of the Lord. Two, he kept his eyes on Jesus. Then he got distracted. Instead of keeping his eyes on Jesus, he looked away. He stared on the storm and became frightened. The storm, in his eyes, became larger than the Lord. Fear overtook him, and he started sinking. That’s what fear does to us. FEAR is False Evidence Against Reality. Fear magnifies a problem and makes it bigger than God. It distracts us and makes us loose focus. As long as Peter kept his eyes fixed on Jesus, he was walking on the sea which has become a problem for him and his fellow disciples. He was marching and trampling on his problem by foot. That’s what happens to any believer who keeps his or her eyes on Jesus. Problems will come, but problems will not crush us as long as we keep our eyes fixed on our Redeemer.

Peter took his eyes away from Jesus and started  to sink. If we turn away from the Lord, we too can begin to sink. If we take our eyes away from Jesus, life will become a sinking sand. No matter what difficulty we face, no matter the storm that comes our way, no matter how dangerous the wind of life may be, as long as we act on the words of the Lord and keep our eyes fixed on him, those problems and storms will pass us by. We will pass through them, but they will never sink us, instead, we will trample upon them. Peter looked away, and almost got drowned. In desperation he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out to him, grabbed him by his hand and saved him. But Jesus did not let him go free without rebuke: “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Jesus said to him. When in trouble, remember the words of Psalm 50:15  “Call upon me in the day of your trouble, and I will delver you and you will honor me.”

The disciples were Jesus’ closest, trusted and most reliable friends. Still, being close to him did not exempt them from the storm which suddenly came down on them. But guess what? In the hour of their need, Jesus came to them and saved them from an impending danger. When the wind was contrary and life was a struggle, he was there to rescue. When the need arose, the Best Friend, Jesus was there to help and to save. No wonder Isaiah 35:4 says, “Say to those who are fearful and broken hearted, be strong, and do not fear or loose your faith, your God will surely come, he will come with might to destroy your enemies. He will come to save you.”

In life, the wind is often contrary. In life, the storm is always painful. In life, we will always experience the storms of life. The storms of life are those times when we are up against the wind of life. Now, those times when life is a desperate struggle with ourselves, with our situations and circumstances, with our temptations, with our sorrows, and with our decisions, we don’t need to struggle alone. In such moments, remember to say the words of St. Peter: "Lord, save me." Jesus will come with his hand stretched out to save, and with his gentle and soothing voice bidding us to take heart and fear not.

God Needs Us To Perform Miracles 

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

St. Gerard Majella Church & St. Paul the Apostle Church

August 2 & 3, 2014

Steve had been praying for his neighbor, a poor man who lives down the road. He had been asking God to better his lot. But one day, his son said him, “Dad, I’m glad you always pray for that poor man that lives down the street. But you know what? Your prayer and good wishes are not always enough.”

Sometimes when we pray, God’s answer to us may be, “You can do that yourself, do it yourself.” This is what we see in today's gospel where the disciples are so concerned about the hungry crowd that they asked Jesus to dismiss them so that they could go and buy themselves something to eat. Jesus turned and said to them, “Hey, you give them something to eat. You can take care of that yourselves.” Only then do they remember the small guy with five loaves and two fish. Jesus blessed the five loaves and two fish and, to their surprise, that was more than enough to satisfy the enormous hunger of all the people. That is how we have the miracle of the Feeding of the Five Thousand.

Why did the disciples not think earlier of sharing their provision with the crowd? They did care and they did wish the crowd well. But probably they were simply being realistic and practical. Let's face it: five loaves and two fish is nothing before a hungry crowd of five thousand men, plus women and children. We see this more clearly in the gospel of John where one of the disciples, Andrew, says to Jesus: “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” (John 6:9) The action of faith to which Jesus calls his followers often goes beyond the dictates of human logic and realism.

The story of the Feeding of the Five Thousand, like most stories in the Gospels, speaks to us today because many of us can identify very readily with the disciples. Like them we find that our care and compassion for others are very often limited to prayer and good wishes. Like the disciples we wish people well but have no intention of taking positive action to help their situation. And, again like the disciple, what prevents us from taking positive action is often the realistic assessment that the little we are able to do is not really going to make any appreciable difference.

But in the gospel we see that when we translate our care and compassion into positive action, the little we are able to do is multiplied by God's grace in such a way that it becomes more than sufficient for the need. All that Jesus needs from us to feed the hungry crowds of the world is our “five loaves and two fish.” Why didn't Jesus just go on and produce bread from thin air to feed the crowd? Because God needs our “five loaves and two fish” in order to perform the amazing miracle of feeding the five thousand. I will like to conclude by sharing with you this story of how a certain Indian boy tried to contribute his own “five loaves and two fish.”

Tidal waves washed thousands of starfish ashore and they were dying on the sandy beach in the hot sun. People walking on the beach crushed the fish under their feet. An Indian boy walked with more care, once in a while stooping down, picking up a starfish and throwing it back into the sea. One man who saw what he was doing challenged him. “Young man,” he said, “what do you think you are doing. With the thousands of starfish on the shore, what difference does it make throwing one or two back into the sea?” The Indian boy slowly bent down, picked one more starfish and threw it back into the sea. “For that one,” he replied, “it sure makes a lot of difference.” When Mother Teresa of Calcutta was told that her work for the poorest of the poor in India was only a drop in the ocean, she said “Yes, it is, but without that drop, the ocean would be missing something.” As individuals, as communities and as a world, we suffer all kinds of hunger – for food, for love, for peace. God is able and willing to satisfy all our hungers. But God is waiting for men and women who believe enough to give up their lunch pack, their “five loaves and two fish,” which God needs to make the miracle possible.

Today, as I celebrate my three years as your pastor, I ask our wonder working Lord to bless you!