Homily for the Second Sunday in the Ordinary Time, Year A

We Are Called And Sent Like Saint Paul

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Second Sunday in the Ordinary Time, Year A

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, January 18, 2026

Almost everything in our culture calls us to be self-reliant, be in control, and be our own boss. We are told to be strong and not let anyone push us around. We are urged to be leaders, not followers. Even in some Christian circles, you hear prayers like, “I will be the head and not the tail,” “I will be the first and not last,” “I will lead and not follow.” The culture motivates us to set the tone of our lives and go wherever we want. After settling into my first parish in Memphis in 2007, one of the first things I noticed was this language: “I am the first person in my family to attend college.” “I am the first person in my family to attain so and so position.” I wondered why they were trumpeting their own achievements. It did not take me long to realize that the language of self-assertion is part of the American story. The display of the ego is part of everyday life. When I go to Nigeria now, I hear similar language, too. As nice as these sound, they come from the ideology of self-assertion, self-affirmation, and freedom without restrictions. It produces a kind of egotistic religion that says, “I believe in God, but I am not a religious fanatic. I cannot remember the last time I went to church.” And when you ask people who believe in such an ideology what takes them through life, they say, “The faith that takes me through life is my own little voice.” They will tell you their religion is to try to love, be yourself, and be gentle with yourself. On the face of it, it looks good. But it is individualism on steroids. Sadly, this worldview has filtered into people’s economic, political, social, and even religious lives. Everything now is a matter of what I want and what I decide. This very attitude leads people to pick and choose from the world's religions what they like and want to practice. They pick and combine elements from Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity, and that becomes their religion. 

Why am I talking about these issues? Because the Bible is firmly against such a move, especially in matters of religion. With everything I have said so far, listen to the opening line of St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (1:1-3), “Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” Paul identifies himself primarily as someone called, not by himself or by a powerful ruler, but by Christ Jesus. He is not the one doing the calling or making the decisions. He is not setting the agenda. He is in the passive voice. Paul identifies himself as someone called by another, as someone chosen by another. I tell you, that little opening line defines who Paul is. The anthropology of our culture is a wilful anthropology. It insists on what an individual wants, with no regard for what God wants for that individual. It charges people to reject anything or anybody that will decide the course of their lives. 

The voice of modernity tells us that “It belongs to the very nature of freedom to determine the meaning of one’s own life.” But long before the clamor to reject authority, tradition, religion, etc., we have Paul, who identified himself as someone “called,” meaning his life does not belong to him. As Saul, he tried to set the agenda for his own life. But when Christ met him and transformed him, he realized his life is not his own. He surrendered his will to the divine will. The Christian voice found in the book of Psalms says, “In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.” What does modernity say? “In your will, you find peace.” The Biblical standpoint is that we find our peace and deepest identity in God. That’s the same thing St. Paul is saying, too. 

What is God’s will for Paul? What did God call Paul to be? An apostle of Christ Jesus! Who is an apostle? The Greek word for apostle is “apostelein,” meaning “to send.” Paul describes himself as someone sent by Christ Jesus. Again, he is not sending himself. He is not determining. He has been determined. He is not setting his own path; his path is set for him. Paul is an apostle; he has been sent. He is like a letter, a message sent by Christ Jesus. Today, many in our culture are a million miles away from how Paul defined himself. In his writings, Paul often regards himself as “Doulos Jesu Christo,” meaning “a slave of Jesus Christ.” Imagine someone today in our culture delighting in the fact that he or she is a slave? But Paul says he is a slave of Jesus Christ. The Risen Jesus is the beginning, the middle, and the end of Paul’s life. The Risen Jesus is the reason he gets up in the morning. He is the reason he does everything. The Risen Jesus is the one who gave him a mission. And Paul is on a mission for Christ Jesus. 

It is important to know that the message is not Paul’s. It is not Paul's bright and profound ideas. Paul is not a guru or a spiritual master who has reached some understanding. He is a messenger, sent by another according to the will of God. In Paul's life, everything about self-assertion, self-determination, self-glorification, and an overemphasis on freedom has been reversed. In Paul, everything about this trendy new age religion has been reversed. In the first reading from Isaiah, we hear, “The Lord said to me: You are my servant, Israel, through whom I show my glory” (Isaiah 49:3). That’s who we are. We are the servants of the Lord. No matter what you have achieved in life, never forget that you are primarily a servant of God. No matter where you are, do not forget that you are a servant of God. By virtue of our baptism, we, like Paul, have also been called and sent by God. 

God bless you!