Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year C

In Him Misery And Mercy Meet

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year C

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, April 3, 2022

Prophet Ezekiel spoke about the corruption of the temple which prompted the glory of Yahweh (Shekhinah) to rise and leave the temple and move East, up over the Mount of Olives. The departure of God’s glory from the temple was devastating to ancient Israel. The very reason the temple is holy is the glory of divine presence (Shekhinah). But what we now see in today’s Gospel (John 8:1-11) is Jesus’ itinerary, which takes him to the Mount of Olives and then back to the temple, an indication that the glory of the Lord has returned to the temple and has made it holy again. So, in Jesus of Nazareth, Yahweh has returned to the temple just the same way he had left. With this mind, we can now understand today’s story much better. 

What John is presenting in today’s Gospel is what happens when the temple is corrupt, what happens when Yahweh departs the temple and what happens when the glory of God returns. What are the scribes and the Pharisees doing in a corrupt temple? They are doing the same thing that troubled Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah and the rest of the prophets. They are using their knowledge of the law and religious rituals to precisely exercise power and to persecute the poor. The proper purpose of the law, rituals, sacrifice is always to bring people closer to God. To correct what needs correcting, to facilitate friendship between the Creator and creatures and to bring divinity and humanity together. Are some of the laws in the Old Testament harsh. Yes! But it is in the manner of a sports coach who demands much more from the players. World class Soccer coaches for instance demand a lot from their players. They tell them what to eat and when to eat them. They tell their players what they should never eat or drink. They demand that the players not attend or host parties or any social events during a soccer season. They expect their players to resume training on time— no late coming is ever tolerated without permission from the coach. Soccer coaches basically run the lives of the players. Like a top-notch world class soccer coach, God does not want us to settle for second-best. So, God is sometimes a very tough and demanding soccer coach through the law. Sad enough, the law can be used in an aggressive or domineering way. Think of a school teacher who is plainly cruel, who is using his or her authority and knowledge of a subject to hurt and humiliate their students. I can remember some of my teachers and professors who did this to the struggling students in their classes. They abused their power and authority. Think of a police officer or a Judge who uses knowledge of the law in similarly corrupt way. This gives us a clear idea of what made the temple and its occupants deeply corrupt in the eyes of great prophets. 

So, the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman “who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle.” Turning to Jesus, they said, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery.” Allow those words to sink in! By the way, where were they when they caught the woman and what were they looking for as they caught her in the very act of adultery? It is obvious they are carefully looking for someone they could blame and scapegoat. Are they doing this as an act of love, to help her grow in spiritual life? Please! Give me a break! They are doing it to humiliate her. We know this because after arresting her, they dragged her out and put her in the middle where everyone will notice her. Nothing could be more humiliating than that! Being caught in the act of adultery is humiliating itself. Then being dragged out and made to stand where everyone can see her is utter humiliation. What a cruel and insensitive thing to do. What did they say to Jesus? “Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.” They are using their knowledge of the law to hurt this woman. But not just her alone, but to hurt Jesus himself. They are backing the Lord into a difficult corner. They want him to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea. If he says, ‘Oh no, let the woman go,’ they will accuse him of being soft on crime. They will charge him of being an outsider who does not love the law. They will shout from the roof-top that Jesus is undermining the law of Israel’s greatest figure, Moses. But if he says, ‘Yeah, stone her to death,’ they will berate and attack him of preaching one thing and doing another. They will most certainly accuse him of being cruel, of talking about peace and mercy, yet promoting violence and unforgiveness.  

Handed a dilemma, what does Jesus do? He is the glory of the Lord that has returned to the temple. In him now, we see what the temple, law, ritual are meant to do. Jesus bends down and writes on the ground. John did not tell us what he wrote. St. Augustine speculated he wrote the sins of all those who were blaming the woman. Then he stands up and utters one of the most famous axioms in the whole New Testament tradition, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” In that utterance, we learn that one of the prime purposes of the law is to make us humble. The scribes and the Pharisees did not allow the law to make them humble; they were using it to humiliate people. It is also something we do often through gossip or blaming or scapegoating someone else. We use the law not to humble ourselves, not to acknowledge that we have fallen short of what God wants, but to humiliate others. The law of God should humble us. Why? Because we still break it. If your weakness is not adultery, it may be lying. If it is not lying, it may be anger. If it is not anger, it may be unforgiveness. 

Now, in contradistinction to the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus reaches out to the woman in a non-condemnatory way, offers her mercy upon mercy and challenges her “Go, and from now on do not sin any more.” Jesus is not undermining the law. He is not denigrating the law. He is not promoting lawlessness. Rather, he is using the law to bring the sinner back to life. The temple was always meant to be a place of mercy; a place where sins are forgiven; a place where friendship with God is reestablished. As the New Temple, Jesus is now demonstrating that he is the place where misery and mercy meet. He is the return of Yahweh’s glory to the temple. This same Jesus is uniquely present in every Catholic chapels and churches. Don’t wait for the naysayers, or the cynics or haters to drag you to him. Visit him yourself and hear those most soothing words, “Neither do I condemn you.”

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year C

Who Did Jesus Address The Parable Of The Prodigal Son To?

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year C

St. Bridget Catholic Church, Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, March 27, 2022

Nearly all sermons on the parable of the Prodigal Son have concentrated on the flight and return of the younger son, the resentment of the older son and the lavished mercy of the father. But to really understand this story, we must take a serious look at the historical setting that prompts Jesus to narrate the parable. Luke says that there are two groups of people who came to listen to Jesus. The first group are the “tax collectors and sinners. These men and women are compatible with the younger son. They are like the younger son. They don’t observe the moral law of the Bible nor keep the traditions of the elders. Simply put, they are not religious people. They engaged in wild living. Like the younger son in the parable, they too have “left home” by leaving the traditional morality of their families and the society. The second group of people are the “Pharisees and the teachers of the law.” They are like the older son. They adhere to the traditional morality of their families; they study and obey the Scripture. They worship and pray constantly. 

How did each group respond to Jesus and his message? With the use of a progressive tense, Luke says, “Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus.” By that he communicates that the attraction to Jesus by religious outsiders was an ongoing pattern in Jesus’ ministry. Sinners flocked to him frequently. It is this phenomenon that baffled and angered the moral and the religious people. So, they complained, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” In the first century Judaism, to sit down and eat with someone is a sign of acceptance. The Pharisees and scribes were upset that people who never came to their Jewish religious services were all flocking to Jesus. Why would they be drawn to Jesus’ teaching? If he were teaching them the truth as we do, they would not go to him. He must be telling them what they want to hear, the Pharisees and scribes may have thought. 

So, who is this parable addressed to? It is primarily addressed to the second group, the Pharisees and scribes. The parable is Jesus’ response to their attitude and questions. Over the years, whenever this parable is read in church or in religious education classes, the focus has always been on the younger son’s flight and prodigality, on the resentment of the older son, and the boundless mercy of the father. The focus is on how God will always love and welcome sinners no matter what we have done. And I don’t totally disagree with this approach. In my previous sermons, I have done such too. But when we do this, we miss the original target of the parable; and then sentimentalize the parable. The targets of this story are not “wayward sinners” but religious people who try to follow the requirements and dictates of the Bible. Jesus is addressing the moral insiders, not the immoral outsiders. He wants to show them their blindness, shortsightedness, and self-righteousness, and how these things are destroying both their own souls and the lives of the people around them. You may think the hearts of the first hearers of this parable melted into tears, but that’s not so. Actually, they were shellshocked, upset and infuriated. Jesus did not tell this story to warm anyone’s heart but to shatter our definitions, our classifications, our conclusions and calculations. Jesus is revealing the danger of self-centeredness, which is the sin of the younger son. He is also highlighting the danger inherent in self-righteousness, which is sin of the Pharisees and scribes. But there is something else he is doing. He is shinning a spotlight and at the same time condemning the older son’s notion of the moral life. He sees obedience to his father as servitude, that is slavery. In this account, the Lord is saying that both the religious and the irreligious, that both the younger son and older son are spiritually lost. Jesus is not on the side of any of them because none of them is on his side. 

Today, we still have the younger son and the older son. I can see myself in both sons. Sometime ago, in an interview, I was asked to describe myself, and my simple answer was, “I am the lost sheep found by the Good Shepherd.” By the way, my being lost and being found by the Lord is an ongoing thing. It has not stopped. I am still a sinner. Like a sheep, I still stray. But thanks be to God for his grace searches me out and brings me home. Thanks be to God for the gift of the Sacrament of Penance that restores me to God’s friendship. To most of us, Christianity is religion and moralism. But it was not so from the beginning. From the beginning, it was seen as something else entirely. The early followers of Christ were called Christians in a disparaging and insulting way by the Roman authorities at Antioch. Why? Because they were living like the Christos. 

One important point that should not be forgotten is that while the religiously observant people were offended by Jesus, those estranged from religious and moral observances were beguiled and attracted to him. We see this throughout the ministry and life of Jesus. In Luke 7, a Pharisee named Simon had invited Jesus for dinner. But there was one uninvited guest, a sinful woman in the city. In the end, who accepted Jesus? The sinful woman! In the story of the Samaritan woman (John 4), it was the sinful Samaritan woman who accepted Jesus’s message and not the Pharisees. In Luke 19, it was the excluded tax collector, Zacchaeus, who accepted Jesus and not the religious people of his day. Throughout the New Testament, Jesus’s teaching attracted the irreligious and offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. Today, the sad news is that the kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches. We tend to draw diehard moralists, self-righteous people, people who think they can earn their salvation by keeping the rules. Don’t get me wrong, it is good to keep God’s commandments. However, our salvation is purely a gift. Divine life is God’s free gift that nothing we do can earn. If our preaching and the practice of our Christianity are not drawing people to Jesus, then we may not be preaching the same message in words and deeds. If our church is not appealing to the younger sons in our society, then it must be full of the older sons. For us to get the attention of people who flocked to Jesus during his day, we have to look at our message and mode of spreading it. 

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year C

The Prodigal Father And His Two Prodigal Sons

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year C

St. Bridget Catholic Church, Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, March 27, 2022

The parable of the prodigal son is regarded by many as one of the greatest stories ever told and Jesus’ greatest parable. Up and down the centuries, artists, poets, authors, preachers, saints, theologians, lay people etc have used their gifts and skills to unpack the deep spiritual insights and truths crammed in the parable. There is a lot in it that beguiles and draws everyone to meditate, to reflect, to pray, to write or to speak about. The Gospel says,  “A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’” For that time and place, the younger son’s request is extremely insulting. He is basically saying to his Father, ‘I can no longer wait for you to die. Just hurry up and give me my share of the inheritance.’ To make such a request while the father was still alive was the same as to wish him dead. Did you notice that in his comment, in just one line, he emphasizes me? “Give me the share of your estate that should come to me.” He wanted his father’s things, but not his father. His relationship to the father was a means to the end of enjoying his wealth. Now he is tired of that relationship and wants out. So, he says, “Give me…(what) should come to me.” The father, respecting the son’s freedom consented and divided the property between them. After a few day, the younger son collected all his belongings and set off to  “chora makra” (a big empty space in Greek), translated as “a distant country” in English. While in “chora makra” he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation. He lost everything. Add to it, a severe famine struck that land. This is what happens when we live outside the space of God’s giving love. Spiritual lifelessness and dryness will definitely follow.

Then coming to his senses, he thought, “How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here am I, dying from hunger.” Even the slaves in his father’s house have enough to eat. Anybody, even the lowest level figures who are attached to the divine life have more than they need. Upon realizing it, the younger son concludes, “I shall get up and go to my father and say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.’” He has realized that even the hired workers have more than enough. He accepts to take the lowest position in the land of plenty over the highest position in “chora makra.” This is like St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Two Standards. The devil will offer you the biggest job possible in his empire. He will make you the Field Marshal of his army. Jesus might make you the cleaner in his army. Accept Jesus’ offer! It is better than Field Marshal in the devil’s army. The younger son realizes that even the lowest level people in his father’s realm have more than enough. So, he got up and went back to his father. While he is still a long way off, the father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. What does that prove? It proves that all this time that the son was wandering in “chora makra,” the father was looking for him, waiting, and expecting. That’s the God we serve! We think primarily of God as someone who is deeply offended by our sin. Yes, God is offended by our sin, but that’s not in a personal and psychological sense. God hates our sin because it makes us less than who we are created to be. God is not a difficult, fastidious and anxious policeman. God is like this father who watches and waits for us to come back. 

Upon seeing his son, the father runs to his son, embraced him and kissed him. In the ancient world, in Jesus time and place, a patriarch, an old man, a father, grand-father will sit in his place of honor, and people will come to him and pay homage to him. A proverb in Jesus’ time said that an old man’s cloak should never move. Which means he never walks and runs to you. You walk and run to him. But in this case, the father throws caution to the winds, runs to his son. In order words, he humiliates himself before the son who humiliated him. This captures the dynamic in the relationship between us and God. Every time we sin, we wander in the “chora makra.” Every time we sin, we insult our Father. We say give me my share of inheritance that comes to me. Nevertheless, God will humiliate himself before us who humiliated him. This is a revolution in our understanding of God as contained in this great story. As the father is hugging and kissing him, the son says to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.” But the father cuts him off, and does not even let him finish his well rehearsed speech. The father turns to his servants and says, “Quickly bring the finest robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.” The father is dressing him up, covering his shame, and reminding him of his nobility. Everyone of us, created by God, redeemed by Christ and baptized in the Church has this sacred nobility. We can wander off in chora makra, we can throw away or soil the beautiful robe of righteousness given to us at baptism, the Father is able to restore it when we return. The ring given to the younger son reminds us of the wedding ring between the Groom, which is Christ and the Church, the bride. The father putting the ring back on the son’s finger is a kind of marriage. It is a reestablishment of a relationship. To his servants the father also says, “take the fattened calf and slaughter. Then let us celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.” This beautifully evokes other well known parables like the Parable of the Good Shepherd, who leaves the ninety nine sheep behind in search of one and when he finally finds him rejoices; think about the woman who loses one coin that worths less than a penny, and turns the house upside down. When she finds it, she throws a party. Most people will consider her crazy for throwing a party simply because she found a penny. Is she out of her mind? most people would ask. But that’s precisely it. God is crazy in love with us. In this narrative, you have the son who humiliated his father, squandered his possessions, yet, the father gives him a great feast. That’s why the Lord says “there is great rejoicing over one sinner who returns over the ninety nine who need no repentance.

The parable ends with the chilling reflection of the older son who resents what was going on. Again, the father comes out to him as he did to the younger son and pleads with him to join the party. In anger, the older son says to his father, “Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends.” He sees his relationship to his father as that of servitude. The younger son grabbed the divine life and then wasted it; the older son treats the divine life not as a gift, but as something he has to slave for. Each of them in a slightly different way misses the dynamic of the father. To the older son the father says, “My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours.” Don’t you get it? All you have to do is to open yourself to the divine life and it will flow into you. Once you get it, give it away, and then it increases 30, 60 and 100 fold. What you should not do is grab it, make it your own little possession or slave for it. In either case you are going to miss the dynamic. So, the father urges the older son, “But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your father was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.” What the parable does not resolve is whether the older brother came to his senses and came back to life and light again. The older brother is also lost in his own way. But will he be found? 

Homily for the Third Sunday of Lent, Year C

Repentance Is Actually A Good Thing

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Third Sunday of Lent, Year C

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, March 20, 2022

In the first century Ancient Judaism, misfortune or suffering was related to sin committed by the sufferer or the sufferer’s parents. But in Luke 13:1-9, Jesus states clearly that such assumption is not always the case. To drive home his message, Jesus uses the sad events of the massacre of the Galileans by Pontius Pilate and the collapse of the Tower of Siloam that killed eighteen people to emphasize that such a tragic death was not necessarily due to any particular sin. Then in a breathtaking way, Jesus flips it and tells his audience, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did.

Now, the account of the slaughter of the Galileans by Pontius Pilate is unknown outside the Gospel of Luke. We don’t have evidence of it from other historical reference. But there is actually no reason to doubt the truth of the event because what Jesus said matches perfectly with the kind of person Pilate was. In a book titled, “Embassy to Gaius” the first century Jewish author, Philo of Alexandra, who was actually a contemporary of Jesus describes the kind of person Pilate was: deeply corrupt, hugely insolent, greatly insulting, extremely cruel, and has a habit of wantonly executing people without trial. Philo’s description of Pontius Pilate fits perfectly what Jesus is describing in Luke 13—the killing of Galileans and the dishonoring of the temple by Pilate. Another Jewish historian Josephus, a very famous one, in his book titled “The Antiquities of the Jews,” writes that Pilate had disrupted a religious gathering of the Samaritans on Mount Gerizim by slaughtering the participants; and that on another occasion, Pilate had killed many Jews who had opposed him when he appropriated money from the temple treasury to build a bridge in Jerusalem. 

Friends, what the Lord is saying here is that suffering or death is not necessarily a consequent of sin. It matches with another event found in John’s Gospel. When his disciples saw a man born blind and right away asked Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (9:2), his response was that neither of them sinned, rather God allowed this to happen for some greater purpose. In our time, people assume there is no connection whatsoever between sin and suffering. But in the Lord’s day, people link every suffering to sin. If they saw someone with experience of tragedy, they assume such persons are being punished for their sins. But Jesus says, no. It does not work like that all the time. Then he adds, “But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”

Let me just say it, this is one of Jesus’ less popular saying. You will see bumper stickers about the Golden Rule, “Do unto others what you will want them do unto you,” and John 3:16, “For God so loved the world…” I have never seen a bumper sticker about Luke 13:3, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” So, this is not one of Jesus’ popular sayings. However, that he says it twice in this Gospel passage suggests the urgency and the significance of what he is saying. On one hand, Jesus is debunking the belief that physical death is due to a particular sin, but on the other hand, he is saying, if you do not repent, that is, if you do not stop committing sin, you will die. Is that not a contradiction? It’s a classic example of a paradox. Jesus’ words are deliberately phrased as riddles, as parables designed to make us think. If death is not necessarily the result of sin, then why should I perish if I don’t repent, if I don’t stop sinning? Of course he is not talking primarily about physical death. He is talking about spiritual death, which is the worst kind of death. He is talking about being cut off from God. He is talking about what he said elsewhere in the Bible, “What shall it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your soul?” (Mk. 8:36). He’s not talking about the loss of physical life, but a kind of spiritual death, exclusion from God’s Kingdom. 

In our contemporary culture, the call to repentance is usually difficult for people to take in. The word “repent” has been given a bad name. It has been associated with people who stand by street corners and yell, “Repent, for the end is near.” Some associate it with the brand of Christianity that is fanatical or judgmental or angry. But the proper understanding of repentance suggests it is not something to be afraid of. Repentance is not and should not be a negative thing. In reality, it is a powerfully positive thing. What’s repentance? What does it mean? In the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), the Church stresses that repentance is a radical reorientation of life, a return to God with all our heart, and turning away from sin and evil. Are these not good things? Is it good to turn away from evil? Is it good to return to God with whole heart and mind? Is it good to reorientate our life towards God? Is it good to seek an end to evil? YES! How many of us will not like evil to be driven out of their lives? Is there anyone here who does not want to change and to be a better Christian person? Is there anyone here who does not want to turn away from doing the things that hurt others and hurt themselves? Repentance is actually a good and positive word. It should be one of the most popular words from the Bible because it means turning away from evil and turning to goodness. It means breaking the chains of sin. It means seeking freedom from the addiction of sin, living a life of freedom and enjoying peace and joy that Christ came to give us. Now, the part of repentance that is sometimes difficult for a lot of people is repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. It is hard for some people to hate the things they have done. This is the case for most young people, but as you get older, you start to realize the way you had wounded others. And that’s when the feeling of sorry sets in. But you don’t have to wait till your older years. Who even told you you will live to be old? It’s better to do that reflection now and to do something about the ways you have hurt and wounded others. Granted that the word, “repent” has been given a bad image, but a proper understanding of its meaning will lead to a journey of return to God. Unless you repent, unless you change, unless you convert your heart to God, unless you turn away from evil, unless you stop doing things that harm yourself and others, unless you love to hate the sins in your heart, not just others’ sin, you will perish too. You won’t bear good fruits, and God has put us in this world to bear good fruits. 

“Why Lord?” A Question of doubt or a Prayer?

“Why Lord?” A Question of doubt or a Prayer?

Fr. Marcel Divine Okwara CSsR

In every form of suffering endured by humans, and “at the same time at the basis of the whole world of suffering,” there is always the question about why? or why Lord? Why do I suffer? Why must I suffer? Why do I feel so much pain? Why Lord are my tears in vain? Why Lord does it happen this way? If there is a God who cares, how can such a God permit so much suffering in the world? The expression “Why Lord?” is about the cause, purpose, meaning and the significance of human suffering.  It is primarily addressed not to any human but to God alone.

Suffering is an existential phenomenon that is widespread in animal world. But it seems only the suffering human knows that s/he is suffering and therefore wonders why. As an existential human phenomenon, suffering does not discriminate; it affects all people of all nations, tribes and religions. It confronts theists and atheists; it affects agnostics and active religious people. Suffering worries and troubles both the rich and the poor; it is a concern for literates and illiterates. Virtually every field of study- pure sciences and social sciences, still grapples with the question of suffering. Every religion on earth wrestles with the existence and the whyness of suffering in the world, and attempts to offer some satisfactory answers to the cause, reason and purpose of suffering. When adherents of any religion align themselves to the reasonable answers given by their religious faith, most times the absurdity and utter despair that sometimes follow the experience of suffering are quelled. Suffering is an unpleasant human experience that incites especially a believer in God to ask the question “Why Lord?”

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the question “Why Lord?” is an expression of doubt or a form of prayer. For some time now, I have been reflecting over that expression to see whether it is a question of frustration from the one who suffers or a very brief form of prayer of a sufferer seeking and beckoning on the One who alone is good to send relieve. So in this short essay, I will attempt to reflect over the expression that most of often than not is generated by the pain of suffering. But I want the reader to understand beforehand that this is not purely a research work. It is essentially a product of my own independent reflection on the common expression “Why Lord?” In that case, I am not obliged to make references to prior works of scholars. This essay therefore is purely my personal reflection on the subject of Why Lord?   This paper is not a treatise on suffering. I have already written a more comprehensive work on the treatise of suffering titled “SUFFERING IN THE BUDDHIST AND CHRISTIAN TRADITION: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS”

The expression “Why Lord?” is a question that only suffering and disorder generate. It's a common question that arises out of unspeakable suffering. When those who suffer pose the question, their intent is not to challenge God or to engage God in a debate of why they suffer. The question is a reaction to suffering, and not a rejection of God. The question contains an inherent longing for relief. Contrary to some opinions, the question is not a turning away from God rather a turning towards God, the One who alone is good and who alone can heal.

All human suffering, no matter the size, shape or form is an unpleasant experience or as a friend puts it “an unsweet experience. The pain of suffering spurs humans to raise some questions. While some of the questions are confrontational, others are profoundly and reflectively prayerful. In pain, the human person seeks for solution, or at least, an understanding or a meaning to suffering. Job in the Old Testament of the Christian Scriptures was an upright man who too found himself in an unspeakable suffering. Job was described as “blameless and upright, one who feared God, and turned away from evil” (Job 1:1). According to the Old Testament understanding of riches and suffering, Job’s wealth, riches, and good health were a testimony of his righteousness. According to their doctrine of retribution, it is only the unrighteous that suffers. But Job’s situation did not remain unchanged. He also experienced severe suffering. He lost everything- family, wealth, and good health. Though Job did not loose his faith in God, but the deep pain of his suffering incited him to question God. Job’s question when summarized is “Why Lord?” “Why Lord did you allow all these terrible things to befall me?” Job’s question should never be interpreted as a declaration of his doubt or a turning away from the Lord. The man of suffering wanted to understand. Part of the reasons why suffering brings deep pain and grief is our inability to understand its raison d’être.  We don’t know why we suffer. We don’t understand why we suffer. We don’t know the purpose of suffering.

So, in his confusion and pain, Job did not turn away from God, he turned to God instead, and sought to know why he was being ravaged by all sorts of suffering. The expression “Why Lord?” is an attempt to understand the meaning of one’s suffering from the Lord. It is not a rejection of God, rather an acknowledgment of the reality of God and his power to prevent suffering. “Why Lord?” is a profound question seeking for the meaning of suffering. As I said earlier, part of the reasons why suffering brings so much pain is due to our limitedness and our inability to understand why we suffer. An understanding of the whyness of human suffering can actually bring some comfort and relief and help reduce the pain associated with suffering. This is so evident in the case of Job. From his dialogue with God, Job realized that suffering and adversity are not necessarily linked with being good or wicked. He realized that suffering could be a test of one’s faith. He realized that suffering that can also be redemptive. Job realized that the good suffer as well as the wicked. The realization of those facts brought healing to Job. He was healed from psychological pain; psychological pain which is pain within a pain caused by one’s inability to understand why he or she suffers. Let me state here that a comprehensive understanding of the reason, the purpose and the meaning of suffering does not make suffering a painless human experience. Knowing in detail why we suffer does not take away the discomfort, the disorder and sometimes the deformity of suffering entirely. But it can reduce the psychological pain, the absurdity and the feeling of loneness, loneliness and abandonment by God. In suffering, we can still feel that God is very near.   

Some believers believe that the expression “Why Lord?” is a question of doubt. But I contend it's rather an expression of faith in God posed in form of a question. The expression expresses and exposes the pain of the sufferer, and at the same time the person's desperate yearning for healing and solution. It is not a challenge to God. It's an attempt to comprehend the painful pain of suffering. It is first an expression of faith for it is only a believer that can address his or her worries to God. “Why Lord?” is a question that may not produce an instant satisfactory answer. But it essentially highlights trust in the Lord. It also underscores pains that prompt a question, a question seeking for comprehension. In the search for understanding lies a face-up to God who is the believer’s problem solver. Between the lines of the expression lies faith- faith in God.   

The expression “Why Lord” is also a form of prayer. Though the expression seeks for the meaning of suffering, but it is first an address to God.  Though it is a short expression, but it forms prayers and comes from prayers. Though it is an expression of discomfort, but it is also a longing for healing from the God of healing and miracle. “Why Lord?” is a cry and lamentation for healing. It's a short expression that catches and expresses a deep suffering. But it is not an empty expression of lost of hope, rather an expression of lamentation that is directed primarily to God. Unspeakable suffering is the reason for the question, but God is even the greater reason for the question. The omni-benevolence, omniscience and the omnipotence of God is the greater reason for the question. The question is fundamentally directed to God and not to the pain of suffering and disappointment. The brief expression sums up a believer’s longing for God’s intervention. God is seen as all powerful, all good God who loves and cares a lot for his children, so when an untold suffering which sometimes challenges the believer’s beliefs comes, he or she in trying to grapple the ugly situation turns to the all good God.

Some have argued that the expression “Why Lord?” indicates doubt or a loss of faith. But my position is that it is a profound expression of profound pain. The expression communicates the sufferer’s pain and hope in God. By turning to God, the sufferer seeks not only answers to suffering but also healing and relief. As I have said previously, it is a longing towards the God of host, the deliverer and healer of his people. It is a question directed to God because God is the creator and the Lord of the world. The question “Why Lord” is solely directed to God because only God can heal, restore and redeem.    

“Why Lord?” can move people to tears. It can trigger supplication from others. It can drive inquiry and research that aims at reducing or eradicating human suffering. Although human suffering can be redemptive, but that does not mean we should fold our hands and watch people languish in suffering. All efforts should be made to alleviate and reduce human suffering. “Why Lord?” can generate an active compassion for the one who suffers and incite a search for solution to human suffering. The question "why Lord" has less the tone of frustration and more of the tone of faith and dependence on God. The one who cries "why Lord" is a believer who is being ravaged in the world of suffering by suffering. In pain the sufferer seeks for the meaning of his or her suffering not from unbelievers or the world, but from the Lord of heaven and earth who created everything and knows everything. “Why Lord?” is a form of looking up to heaven from where help comes from. And may the one to whom that question is directed at bring healing and cure to his people who suffer. Amen! 

Homily for the Second Sunday of Lent, Year C

The Significance Of The Glorified Body

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Second Sunday of Lent, Year C

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, March 13. 2022

Our readings for this second Sunday of Lent are meant to awaken in us a sense of wonder, a sense of mystical consciousness, and a sense of a world beyond this one we live in now. In the first reading, Abraham enacts the ritual by which the Lord established a covenant with him. The covenant narrative has all sorts of mystical symbols—the mountain, a deep terrifying darkness, the flaming torch, and the voice from heaven, which clearly indicate one thing: that Abraham is not making a regular contract he would usually do with a fellow man. Rather, he is making a covenant with God, a reality that he cannot control, a reality that is beyond this world. In the second reading, St. Paul excoriates the Philippian Christians for making their stomach their God and for being exclusively preoccupied with earthly things. More to it, he tells them that “our citizenship is in heaven.” Paul is the most competent biblical figure to speak about dual citizenship. Although he is a Jew, he is also a Roman citizen. So, he knows the meaning of dual citizenship. Now, every person is a citizen of a country. However, St. Paul says our true citizenship is in heaven, not here. Heaven is ultimately where we truly belong. That’s why the Church Fathers called heaven, the Patria, i.e. the Fatherland. But how do we become citizens of heaven? St. Paul says our Savior, Jesus Christ, will come from heaven to “change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body.” Finally, Paul says that this familiar world we live in is not the final reality. These two readings are meant to wake us up from spiritual and religious aridity, from complacency and indifference.

In our Gospel reading, we have the account of the Transfiguration of the Lord. Consider this! What the Apostles saw on Mount Tabor, the Mount of the Transfiguration, was precisely Christ’s glorified body. Right before Peter, James and John, Jesus suddenly changed. He was transformed and transfigured. In fact, the Greek word used is metamorphoo (metamorphosis in English), which means he changed in form. His clothing became dazzling white. By the way, the Transfiguration of the Lord is not just about the Lord, it is about us too. We are summoned to the Mount of Transfiguration, to the heavenly place just to have a glimpse of what it means to have a glorified body like the Lord’s. 

What does the glorified body mean? Based on the Transfiguration story and on the Resurrection appearances, St. Thomas Aquinas said the glorified body will have identity. By that he means it will be the same body we have now. Those in heaven, he said, will recognize us and we will recognize them. We will see each other, know and recognize each other. But this is not to say it will be utterly the same. Think of the caterpillar which goes through a kind of trial of the cocoon only to emerge as something completely more beautiful and more powerful. After going through cocoon, the caterpillar becomes a butterfly able to fly and looking like one of the most splendid things of creation. It is the same body that is now glorified and lifted up. Aquinas suggests something similar will happen to us in our glorified body. Secondly, he says, the glorified body will have quality. By that he means it will be at the height of its powers and integrity. To those of us who are now older, remember when you were much younger, when you were teenagers or in your twenty or thirty. Remember you can do whatever you wanted with your body. At that age, you can play all sorts of sports. In my twenties and thirties, I played soccer a lot, and sometimes I played for over two hours nonstop. I had incredible pace and power. My kick was strong and powerful too. In your younger years, some of you engaged in sports too. But as you get older, your body begins to lose some of its flexibility. It gets heavier, less responsive, and begins to lose its power. But the glorified body, says Aquinas, will be full, integral, powerful, beautiful and will be at the height of its perfection. Thirdly, Aquinas says the glorified body will possess impassibility, meaning it will never change or diminish. The diminishment of our power is one of the saddest things in life. The other day I saw group pictures of my classmates in the minor seminary. I have not seen some of them in a very long time like 30 years. As I look at their pictures now I wondered what happened to them. They really looked changed and quite old, and they they are likely going to say the same about me too when they see me. But with the glorified body in heaven, we will not worry about being less than we were. Added to it, the Bible says that every tear will be wiped away. Sickness and death will not threaten us again. Imagine how much of our life is diminished because we are always afraid of sickness and death. But it won’t be true in heaven in our glorified bodies. Fourthly, St. Thomas Aquinas says that the glorified body will have agility. By this, he means the utter submission of the body to the soul so that we will be able to accomplish what we want, travel where we want and be with who we want at a speed of thought. If you remember a very good friend that lives in a distant state or country that you will like to hang out with, you will go through the pain of buying ticket and flying for hours to get there. And if the person lives in a nearby State in the US, you will drive for hours to get there too. And when you arrive at your destination, you may have to sleep in a hotel. But in the glorified body, Aquinas said we will be able to do what we want and when we want it because the body is utterly submissive to the soul. Finally, the glorified body, as we see in the Transfiguration story, will have clarity or luminosity. What does this mean? It means that the glorified body will be free from any deformity and will be filled with beauty and radiance. 

The Second Vatican Council stresses the implications of the Christian Faith for this world which are commitment to social justice, concern for the poor, concern for the planet we live in etc. And these are indeed indispensable ingredients of a lively Christian faith. Deeply believing Christians know that social justice, care for the poor and for the planet earth etc. are integral to Christianity. They are not footnotes but subject-matters. However, there is nothing in the Catholic Tradition, including Vatican II that approves or encourages Christians to forget the supernatural preoccupation of Christianity. Time and again, the Bible reminds us that we are sojourners here, that we are passing through this world to a higher one. But it does not mean we should become indifferent to the goods of this world and to what is happening around us. Christians are interested in the world, but as Paul tells us, our true and lasting citizenship is in heaven. 

Homily for the First Sunday Of Lent, Year C

Jesus Trumps the Devil

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the First Sunday of Lent, Year C

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, March 6, 2022

Pope Francis describes Lent as “a journey of return to God.” This journey of return to God is usually blocked by our quest for sensual pleasures, power and glory. Our today’s Gospel, which is Luke’s account of the temptation of Jesus, shows us how Jesus handled such temptations. After his baptism in the Jordan River, he “…returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.” That Jesus was led by the Spirit in the desert to be tempted means that temptation is not altogether a bad thing. Temptation can be the season or time to state more clearly who you are. Part of knowing who you are is knowing who you are not. Part of knowing what your life is about is knowing what it is not about. So, at the beginning of the Lord’s public life and ministry, he must clarify what he is about, and who he is.

As the Lord enters the desert, the devil comes to him and says, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to turn into bread.” Jesus replies him, “It is written, One does not live by bread alone.” The first temptation is a low level, basic temptation; yet, it is a very powerful one. The temptation is for Jesus to base his life, not on the will or purpose of God, but on the goods that satisfies the body— food, drink, sex, sensual pleasure, and all those things that satisfies the desires of the body. As I have said in the past, those desires are not bad in themselves. We are not puritans, but none is the Ultimate Good. When your life becomes dominated by them you become blinded to the Ultimate Good. You are no longer able to see and desire the Ultimate Good, which is God. The great American spiritual writer, Thomas Merton, said that the desire for food, drink, and sex, are like children. They are insistent, speak all the time and make demand of what they want. Parents with kids know this all too well. When kids want something to eat, they mount pressure upon pressure, talk ceaselessly in demand of what they want. Whatever they want, they want it right away. Parents know that if they satisfy a child’s desire all the time, very soon, that child will be running the house. Similarly, if we indulge these desires in us and allow them to dominate us, we will never access the deeper levels of our lives. This is precisely why Jesus says to the devil, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Don’t base your life here. The purpose of life is much more than food, drink, sex and bodily pleasures. Don’t let sensual pleasure enslave you. You are created to be free. 

The second temptation, which is a higher level temptation, is a very dramatic one. After Jesus handles the first temptation well, the devil takes him up to a high place where he could see in one glance all the powers, all the kingdoms, all the splendor of the world and then says to him, “I will give you all this power and glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish. All this will be yours, if you worship me.” This is temptation, not to sensual pleasure but to power. Again, like sensual pleasure, power in itself, is not a bad thing. God is described as all powerful. In itself, there is nothing wrong with power, but power is not God. It is not the ultimate good. But when it becomes the deepest desire of our soul, we become spiritually corrupt. Human history is littered with men like Caesar Augustus, Marcus Aurelius, Charlemagne, Henry VIII, Louis XIV, Napoleon, Hitler, Idi Amin, Mobutu Sese Seko, Sani Abacha etc. who were seduced by the quest for power. When you read the account of the presidency of Richard Nixon, what you see in Nixon and those around him is exactly this tendency. Power is so tempting and so attractive, and if the desire for it is unchecked, it can become a dominant force in one’s life. In case you did not notice, there is something very troubling in this account. The devil clearly says, “… all this has been given to me…” That means, all earthly power in some sense belong to the devil. So, if you still wonder why it is so difficult for people in positions of power to resist the temptation to dominate, abuse and manipulate others, I hope you have found your answer. Power can be a very dangerous thing. What does Jesus say to the second temptation? He says, “It is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve.” I don’t care how good power is, how impressive it is and how attractive it is, it is not worth the price of your soul. If it means you have to surrender yourself to the power of darkness, to evil manipulation and domination, it is not worth it. Honoring God is the better part; it is one thing necessary. 

In the third temptation, the devil leads Jesus to Jerusalem and set him on the parapet of the temple and says to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written: “He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you, and with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” We are now at the highest place. We started from the floor of the desert to the high point where we saw all the kingdoms of the world and now we are at the parapet of the temple. What does it mean? The temple was the center-point in the life of the Jews of Jesus’ time. It was the center of political life, social life, economic life, and religious life. Everything centers around the temple. The temple was everything. Therefore, to be on the parapet of the temple, meant to be in the place of greatest glory and honor. There, everybody can see me. I am at the top of my society and on top of the world. Even God is watching out for me to despatch his angels to work for me. This is the temptation to glory and the inflation of the ego. It is the temptation to be seen by everyone and be considered very important. Again, this temptation is a very dangerous one. What does Jesus say to it? “You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” Your life is not about getting God and everyone to notice you. Your life is about doing the will of God. What guarantees peace is not the indulgence of bodily desires. It’s not the acquisition of power. It is also not the glorification of the ego. It is rather surrendering one’s life to the promptings of the divine will. Dante, the great poet said, “Lord, in your will is our peace.”