Homily for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time of the Year A

What Is Worth Boasting About? 

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time of the Year A

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, January 29, 2023

When you look around you and listen to people talk, what do you hear? A lot of boasting and bragging! In one on one conversation, people brag and boast. In a live television interview, they boast. In the work environment, they boast. In meetings, conferences, conventions, retreats, and even in religious gatherings, they boast and brag. In bars, on dates, on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media, they brag and pump their chests. Bragging has become part of our daily life just as brushing your teeth, taking a shower and dressing up. We boast about the food we eat, the clothes we wear, and even boast about our ability not to boast while we are boasting and bragging. While we can talk about certain things about us for informational and educational purposes, many other things we boast about should be talked about a little less. What are the things we brag about? Some men brag about how much alcohol they can drink. They boast about the number of bottles of beer they can consume in one sitting. Men, listen to me! Do you know the point you are making when you brag about how much you can drink? You are basically saying, “I can destroy my body way faster than anybody and the best part is that I will barely remember doing it.” People also brag about restaurants they have eaten at. Who cares! I can make my own meal, a healthy meal and at least know what I am putting in it. Some young men boast about their athletic prowess. Hear this now: if you are not a professional sports player, your athletic prowess has little value. Maybe, some girls and ladies may admire you and want you, but generally speaking, it does not add more worth to your existence. And by the way, in a few years from now, all those six or nine packs will disappear and you will be struggling to keep your belly flat. Some people, worldly people boast about how many sexual partners they have had. Men and women who engage in this kind of boasting are simply telling their listeners that they are loose street dogs who are unable to control their sexual appetites. What they are communicating to their listeners is, “Hey guys, I don’t have self-control,” which is a very vital virtue and quality to possess. They are saying that they are not in control of their lives. They are saying that they are not reliable and trustworthy. We also have some people who boast about how much worse off their exes are now without them. Really? If your former girlfriend, boyfriend, husband or wife is not doing well in life, if the men or women they later married are less accomplished than you, who said you are not partly responsible for what they have become? People boast about how much they know. They brag about the school they attended. Great! It is good to know and to be a nerd. But do you have integrity? Are you a virtuous person? Does all your knowledge lead you to the Logos of God? Does it lead you to the Truth, Jesus Christ the Lord? Does everything you know take you to the direction of God who is the Source of all knowledge? If it does not, then you haven’t known what exceedingly matters the most. All true and reliable knowledge must lead us to the indispensable God, the creator of all things.

What other things do we boast about? Oh! We love to boast about fights we have won. That’s good! From time to time, we fight for what we believe. We fight for our values. We fight to protect our existence. We fight for our family. We fight for the nation. We fight to retain our jobs and be promoted. And the more we fight and win, the more our ego is inflated and the more we are tempted to brag about it. But brothers and sisters, don’t spend a minute bragging about fights you won. Don’t forget that the most important fight is not physical. It is not carnal. It is spiritual. In 2 Corinthians 10:3-4, St. Paul says, “Although we are in the flesh, do not battle according to the flesh, for the weapons of our battle are not of flesh, but enormously powerful, capable of destroying fortresses.” People also brag about their personal success in life and the successes of their family members. I always maintain that it is good to be successful. Be successful in your job, in your career, in your businesses, in your family etc. But don’t forget that the greater success, the most important success is making heaven. We also brag about the success of our favorite sports team; we brag about being successful parents, about our nation or ethnicity. We brag about our jobs, our wealth, and the power we wield. A lot of women brag about their looks, how beautiful they are, the number of men making advances at them, the length of their hair, their designer clothes, shoes, jewelries and where they buy them. 

Sisters and brothers, you might be thinking, “well, if no one notices me, if no one commends me, if no one celebrates me, I will do it myself.” But when you do that, you become the proverbial lizard that fell from a tree, and upon realizing that no one was praising him, decides to praise himself. As people of faith, does it mean that we should not boast at all? What does the Bible say about boasting? In our today’s second reading (1 Cor. 1:26-31), St. Paul says, “Whoever wants to boast, should boast in the Lord.” Christianity, I continue to maintain, turns the values of this world upside down. What we consider very significant may not be so for God. What we think is the greatest value, the greatest treasure, before God might be utter rubbish. Our boast should not be based on the amount of wealth, power, honor and pleasure that we have. Our boast is in the Lord. Do you want to boast? Boast in the Lord! Boasting about the things of this world is meaningless and foolish. How come? Because they don’t last, and we don’t take them to eternity. It is not surprising that at the very heart of each of the beatitudes is the virtue of humility. Humility is seeing God as the only true and indispensable good and treasure. It also involves seeing others as your equal and treating them as God would treat them. How does God treat us? He treats us with love! Be humble, everybody! In today’s first reading (Zephaniah 2:3; 3:12-13), we are told that it is the humble that takes refuge in the Lord. No one can find true, lasting and reliable refuge outside the true and living God. So, if God is your only true and indispensable value and treasure in life, you are a candidate for heaven. 

Homily for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time of the Year A

The Most Reliable Refuge Is In The Lord

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time of the Year A

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, January 29, 2023

One of the keys of becoming a faithful and holy follower of Jesus Christ is to find your life hidden in Christ. The more you align your life to that of Jesus, the more you become like him. In today’s first reading, we see the key to becoming more like Christ. This key is not something popular, rather something difficult for a lot of people. As New Testament people, we often rejoice that we are not doing what the Old Testament people did. But a close examination shows that in the New Testament, the bar has been raised. In today’s first reading (Zephaniah 2:3; 3:12-13), we are told that it is the humble that takes refuge in the Lord. Whatever it is that you are going through today, I urge you to focus on taking refuge in the Lord. What does this mean? It means that in the battles of your life, in all the pressure that is going on today in your place of work and at home, you need some refuge. And that refuge is in Christ. No one can find true, lasting and reliable refuge outside the true and living God. 

Christianity, I continue to maintain, turns the values of this world upside down. What we consider very significant is not so for God. What we think is the greatest value, the greatest treasure before God might be utter rubbish. Some might think that if Jesus really wants to grow his Kingdom, then he needs to bring popular people, people with great influence into the Church and use them to advance the Church. But what we see in today’s second reading (1 Cor. 1:26-31) is just the opposite. In his letter, St. Paul is not talking about powerful people with wide-ranging influence. He is not talking about people who are larger than life. He is not talking about people who sit in powerful positions in society. He is rather talking about people who were unwise, who were not powerful, who were not born into noble homes, who were weak, who were lowly, despised, and who count for nothing. They were reduced to nothing, but by the grace and magnanimity of God, they have been raised in Christ Jesus. In the calculations of the world, we are nothing. We are not powerful. We are not counted. We are easily dismissed. But here now is the good news: in Christ Jesus, we are more powerful and stronger than all the forces of this world can muster and can throw at us. Because we are in Christ, Christ has become our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Our boast is not based on the amount of wealth, power, honor and pleasure that we have. Our boast is in the Lord. Do you want to boast? Boast in the Lord! Boasting about the things of this world is meaningless and foolish. How come? Because they don’t last, and we don’t take them to eternity.

In today’s Gospel (Matthew 5:1-12a) popularly known as the Beatitude, Jesus insists and affirms that it is not the wise or those who are particularly talented that God uses but those who humble themselves before the Lord. When you live in Christ, your life takes on a whole new texture, a whole new aroma and a whole new flavor. The Beatitudes or the Sermon on the Mount tells us all about it today. Jesus going up to the Mountain is very similar to Moses going up to Mount Sinai and receiving the Law. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is now the new law. Seated on the mountain and surrounded by his disciples, Jesus opens his mouth and declares: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The poor in spirit is not poverty of spirituality or poverty of spiritual things. It is rather humility. At the very heart of each of the beatitudes is the virtue of humility. Humility is a virtue. It means seeing God as the only true and indispensable good and treasure. Humility also involves seeing others as your equal and treating them as God would treat them. How does God treat us? He treats us with love! So, if God is your only true and indispensable value and treasure in life, you are a candidate for heaven. 

The new year 2023 has just started. Are you looking for a new attitude to cultivate? Look at the Beatitudes. It is often said that the Beatitudes are the attitudes we should adopt in our lives. But it must go from attitudes and deep into action. It must go into the way we live our life. The Beatitudes are really a description of Jesus. So, by walking this way, we become more like the Lord. And when we become more Christ, we will reap the reward mentioned in each of the Beatitudes. Generally speaking, in the Old Testament, the reward is on the outside— gold, silver, land, being the head and not the tail etc. all of which are good. But in the New Testament, the reward is even greater. It is greater than silver, gold, land, power, fame, wealth, honor, pleasure etc. It is greater than that which the world considers as the greatest. It is Jesus Christ himself. As we begin this year, I encourage you to take refuge in the Lord and begin to walk the way of the Beatitudes. Do you want to be happy? Adopt the Beatitudes. Do you want to be successful? Look at the Beatitudes. It is the way. It is the reward that is waiting for us, and it is Jesus Christ. 

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year A, 2022

Make Your Expectations As Extravagant As God’s Generosity

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year A

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, December 18, 2022

In almost every other religion in the East and West and across the ages, God or the gods are considered powerful forces that must be begged, pleaded with and sacrificed to in order for human beings to get what they want. Worshippers of these gods believe that their gods are distant, difficult, and reluctant to grant favors. So, to make them give to people what they want, the gods have to be greatly persuaded by embracing extreme moral views, by practicing all forms of excessive mortification like fasting and mutilation of the body. In some situations, making animal and human sacrifices are adopted just to appease and motivate these divinities to give something they are not willing to give out on their own. But the Bible presents an entirely different picture. The Bible is not the story of our quest and longing for God. It is rather the story of God’s quest for us. What we see in other religions is the quest of human beings for God. What we find in other spiritualities is the human person’s search for God. But the Bible is not that story. It is not the tale of our extravagant invocation to God. It is the story of God begging us to ask more of him. I know this sounds strange; it is counterintuitive. But that is just what it is.  

In today’s first reading and the Gospel, we find this interplay in full display. In the first reading (Isaiah 7:10-14), we hear of Ahaz. Who was he? He was a young and inexperienced king who found himself in a very difficult situation. At that time, the powerful Syrian army was marching towards Israel, and Israel’s allies and enemies were forming various kinds of agreements, and the young Ahaz was in the middle of it all. He was confused and didn’t know what to do. Then Isaiah the prophet tells him to put his trust in the Lord, but Ahaz hesitates. The prophet encourages him, “Ask for a sign from the Lord, your God; let it be deep as the netherworld, or high as the sky.” What does this mean? The young king was told to dream big, to aim higher, to trust unreservedly, and to ask God for something extraordinary. Unfortunately, Ahaz dithers and says, “I will not ask! I will not tempt the Lord!” Check this out! God is not demanding more excellence from the king. God is not giving him a list of things to do before God can give him what he wants. God is simply telling him to dream big, aim higher, ask for something mighty and extravagant. Ask for something extremely huge. Ask for a crazy sign if you want to. Let it be as high as the sky and deep as the netherworld. In other words, God wants to do something great for Ahaz if only Ahaz will be open to it. God never hesitates to give us grace; we are the one who hesitate to receive it. What is fantabulous about this story is that even though Ahaz refused to ask for a sign, God still gives a sign anyway: “…the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.” What’s Emmanuel? God is with you! 

After about seven hundred years, the prophetic declaration of Isaiah was fulfilled in a little town of Nazareth in Galilee, and precisely in the simple home of Joseph. Today’s Gospel  (Matthew 1:18-24) says that after Joseph the carpenter had engaged a young girl named Mary, he later received devastating news that the woman was pregnant. The implication is that she is not faithful to Joseph. As would be expected, Joseph was heartbroken. The young girl he loves has betrayed him. The life he had planned with her has been shattered. In his community, this very act of infidelity will humiliate Joseph; and if the law of Moses is applied to the letter in this case, Mary will be stoned to death. Sad and disappointed, Joseph resolved to divorce Mary quietly so as to save her life and reputation. What does Joseph and Ahaz have in common? First, they were both young men. I know we often assume that Joseph was an old man, but there is nothing in the Bible that suggests such. Two, both were under immense pressure. Three, they were also confused. It must have been so difficult for Joseph to fall asleep the night he realized that Mary was pregnant. Did he ask God for a sign? We don’t know. In the entire New Testament, no word of Joseph is ever recorded. But the Gospel says that night Joseph did receive a sign in his dream. And it is something he could never ever have imagined: “the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Joseph’s despair and confusion has turned into a profound joy.

Sisters and brothers, as the season of Advent comes to a close, it is important to remember that what was promised to Ahaz, what was promised to Joseph is also promised to us. God wants to give us life. He wants us to dream big. He wants our expectation to be as extravagant as his generosity. Christmas is coming. God is becoming one of us. The greatest act of humility in human history is unfolding before us. God who created one hundred billion galaxies, and each galaxy has one hundred billion stars created us in his image and likeness. And once we got into trouble with original sin, he came to be with us. We are not talking about faith like the Greeks and Romans where God is above the clouds and occasionally they do come below the clouds to take advantage of the people. In the Bible, our God comes down below the clouds to love us, to save us and give us the greatest gift of eternal life. The implication of St. Augustine’s assertion, “If we praise God, God is not made any greater. If we don’t praise God, God is not made any smaller. But if we praise God, we become greater and if we don’t praise him, we become smaller,” is that God does not need us. God is self-sufficient. God is blessed within himself. However, God wants us. God wants you. Christmas is all about God desiring us, wanting us to be with him in a covenant relationship. When the virgin conceived and gave birth, the child is called Jesus, which means God is my salvation, and that is God’s greatest gift to us. At Christmas, we celebrate the stubborn fact that God has pursued us. God wants us. God wants to adopt us as sons and daughters. God has not left us as orphans to figure things out ourselves. Christmas is so much more. It is not about Santa Claus, gifts, food etc. It is about being adopted. Christmas is about being pursued by God; it is about being overcome by his love. As Christmas draws near, let us prepare to meet God with an open and willing heart— a heart of a son, a heart of a daughter. 

Homily for the Third Sunday of Advent, Year A

Something Substantial Is Happening In Jesus Of Nazareth

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Third Sunday of Advent, Year A

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, December 11, 2022

Upon his emergence on the public scene, John the Baptist announces and points to Jesus as the long expected Messiah. He addresses Jesus as “the one mightier than I.” He seems pretty clear in his proclamation regarding Jesus. But in our Gospel today, John  appears confused about the identity of Jesus. What changed? John is in prison at this time. He has been arrested by Herod Antipas for opposing Herod’s marriage to his brother’s wife, Herodias. John’s public ministry has ended and he is within a few days or weeks to his execution. Evidently, John is receiving reports of Jesus’ own ministry from the prison. We can speculate that perhaps Jesus wasn’t exactly what John expected him to be. While John was a preacher of fire and brimstone, Jesus had a different style and approach. So, John sends his disciples to Jesus with a puzzling question: “Are you the one who is to come or should we look for another?” What is interesting is not so much the question, but the answer that Jesus gives: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.” From that very moment to the present day, when the question comes up: “Is Jesus the Messiah? This is the answer always given. So, if you are asked if Jesus is the Messiah, this is still the right answer to give. 

Notice that the Lord’s answer to John the Baptist is concrete, and not a compendium of abstractions. It means that in Jesus of Nazareth something concretely huge is happening. There is a major difference between Jesus and people who are simply Gurus and spiritual teachers. Granted that Jesus is also a spiritual teacher, but he is like no other. There was and is none like him. Something substantial is happening in Jesus. And what is happening is exactly what prophet Isaiah said would happen when the Messiah comes, namely, healing and uniting together God’s creation. Sadly, for centuries, a lot of people including some theologians had tried to deny the miracles of Jesus. They said the stories of Jesus’ miracles in the Gospels are simply made up. They advocated for the elimination of all the Gospel passages that talked about the supernatural events in the life and ministry of Jesus. But any attempt to do that will leave us with just a few pages of the Gospel. Why? Because the witness of Jesus as a healer and a miracle-worker is littered throughout the Gospels. Jesus was a great preacher with a difference. Aside from his transformative preaching, he also worked miracles. In any town he visited, innumerable miracles accompanied his great sermons. It is so right to say that his teaching was taken more seriously precisely because of his healing. That’s why people came to listen to him. People saw him as a remarkable figure. 

But how come Jesus didn’t cure every afflicted person? With all the infinite power that Jesus possesses, how come he didn’t heal everyone of every disease? The right answer is that we don’t know. What we know clearly is that in Jesus’ ministry, something substantially concrete is happening; the kingdom of God has finally arrived and is making its way in human history and experience. Additionally, we also know that the Church, which is the mystical body of Christ, is continuing to be the means by which the Kingdom of God breaks into the world; the means by which the healing power of God comes into this world. Some of our great saints were healers. Up till this present day, the Church’s healing ministry still exists. And before a holy man or woman is canonized, miracles must follow. Prayers and petitions made through them must be accompanied by verifiable miracles of healing. Throughout my priestly ministry, I have heard and seen some priests and lay faithfuls who have the charism of healing. In the life of the Church, there are authentic healers who continue Jesus’ work of uniting creation together. Furthermore, in every Catholic hospital and clinics, people are effecting healing in the name of Jesus.  

Beloved in Christ, in the list of things that Jesus told John’s disciples he was doing, the last is “the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.” Who are the poor? All of us! What makes us poor? Sin! God is the Source of grace and life; so, all of us are poor inasmuch as we wander away from him via sin. What good news is being proclaimed to us? Forgiveness of sin! At the heart of Jesus’ work is the forgiveness of sin. To the paralyzed man, Jesus says, “As for you, your sins are forgiven.” To John’s disciples Jesus said, “the blind regains their sight.” Jesus healed people of physical blindness, but blindness is also a classical biblical image of sin. Estranged from God, we wander in the dark, and lose our way. So, the forgiveness of our sins is a kind of light. It shows us the path and we know where to walk. Next, Jesus says “the lame walk.” Did Jesus physically cure lame people? Yes! But we can also view sin as a kind of paralysis. We are meant to walk towards God, but we don’t always do so. We are meant to make progress, but we are paralyzed. By freeing us of sin, we are able to walk again. We also hear that lepers are cleansed. Did Jesus really cure lepers of leprosy? Yes indeed! But leprosy in the Bible is always used as a symbol of sin. It compromises us, weakens us, and eventually kills us. So, with our sin forgiven, we are cleansed spiritually just as a leper is cleansed physically. Jesus also says, “the deaf hear.” Did Jesus cure deaf people of their deafness? Absolutely yes! But in our sin, it is as if we are spiritually deaf. We are unaware of the suffering and cry of those around us; we refuse to hear the voice of God. Finally, Jesus says, “the dead are raised.” Did he raise the dead physically? Yes! He raised Lazarus, the daughter of Jairus and the only son of the widow of Nain. But the ultimate symbol of sin in the Bible is death. Sin is nothing but spiritual death. Sin eats away our vitality until we succumb. But here now is the great good news: in the life and ministry of Jesus, through his death and resurrection, Jesus deals definitively and decisively with sin which is the greatest suffering that we have. More to it, through the ministry of the Church, Jesus continues to forgive us and heal us today just as he did during his public ministry. In this Advent season, as Christmas approaches, present your infirmities and weakness to the Divine Physician, Jesus. Present your blindness, your deafness, your lameness, your spiritual death before him and ask for his healing. 

May God bless you!

Homily for the Second Sunday of Advent, Year A, 2022

Produce The Fruits!

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Second Sunday of Advent, Year A

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, December 4, 2022

Before the great ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates was born, no one foretold his birth. Prior to the birth of Buddha, no one pre-announced his birth and his message. No one predicted the day he would sit under a tree and receive enlightenment. The mother of Confucius, the birth of Confucius, the birthplace of Confucius were not recorded anywhere centuries before his birth and emergence. There were no predictions about the birth of Mohammed or any other significant figures in history. These figures only came and said, Here I am, believe me. They were men from men; they were men among men and not the Divine in human flesh. But with Jesus, it was different. His coming was not unexpected. For centuries, his birth, his birthplace and mission were foretold all throughout the Old Testament. Jesus’ birth was predicted from the beginning of the Book of Genesis. Aside from Genesis, the Books of Isaiah, Micah, Hosea foretold of his birth. As for his death, it was predicted by the authors of Psalms and Isaiah. What does all this mean? It means that those who say that Jesus is just one more religious figure among the many are dead wrong. If you say he is one inspiring human being among the many others, you are wrong. If you say he is the greatest of all the prophets, you are wrong. If you say that he is one of the many messengers sent by God, you are absolutely in error. If you say he is the symbol of God, you are completely and utterly mistaken. Jesus is himself God! In the Nicene creed, we affirm and declare that “He is God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God.” 

One great prophet of ancient Israel, the last Old Testament prophet to prophesy the Adventus of Jesus was John the Baptist. In fact, he was the one who identified Jesus and pointed to him when he appeared at a public scene. In today’s Gospel (Matthew 3:1-12), John is in the Jordan River preaching repentance in preparation for the coming of Jesus. He is also baptizing penitents. More to it, he is letting everyone know his own job description: “I am baptizing you with water, for repentance…” But right after that, he transitioned into speaking about the one he is sent to announce of his coming: “The one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” John warns his listeners, especially the Pharisees and Sadducees who brag about being the descendants of Abraham that claiming Abraham as their father is not enough. He warns that for them to avoid the coming wrath, they must produce good fruit as evidence of their repentance. John is encouraging them to prepare for the coming of Jesus the Messiah by repenting. And he ties it to fruit. He ties it to doing things in their life that are righteous and upright. 

In our first reading (11:1-10), Isaiah speaks about the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit— the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of understanding, of counsel, of strength (i.e. fortitude), knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. These gifts have been given to us, hopefully to produce fruits. And that fruit according to St. Paul in Galatia chapter 5 are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The problem with the Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees is that they were looking to their spiritual lineage as kind of their tickets to heaven. They are indeed children of Abraham. But John’s warning is that being children of Abraham is not good enough. They must produce fruit, fruit of repentance. In our own lives today, we can say, “Well, I have been baptized.” It’s good to be baptized. Baptism is the gateway to heaven, but we must produce the fruits of baptism to finally make it to heaven. Producing the fruits is how we prepare for the coming of the Lord. At every Advent, we memorialize Jesus’ first coming, pay attention to how he is coming to us today and then look forward to his second coming at the end of the age.

As we prepare for the coming of the Lord, it is important to ask ourselves the following questions: am I producing the fruits? Which of these fruits am I producing and which of them am I not producing? Am I turning away from that which is hurting me and preventing me from turning to the Lord? Interiorly, am I preparing for his coming? Is Advent just a period of putting up Christmas decorations? Is it about making our homes look more beautiful and smell more beautiful? Don’t get me wrong, doing all of that is good. But we should not forget the real house of God, which is you, your body, the temple of the Holy Spirit. During this season of Advent, make it a project to turn your heart around. Consider those things that are hurting you right now. Think of those things that are detrimental to your spiritual growth, walk towards Jesus the Divine Physician and present them to him. Before you know it, Christmas will be here. If you want to celebrate Christmas with Christ, take this season of Advent seriously. 

God bless you!

Homily for the First Sunday of Advent, Year A, 2022

Advent: Season To Finally Let Jesus Into Your Life

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the First Sunday of Advent, Year A

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, November 27, 2022

God is invisible. We can’t see him, but if you want to know what God looks like, look at Jesus. If you want to get some ideas of what God looks like, look at Jesus. Jesus is the icon, the image of the invisible God. In him the invisible God becomes visible in order  to set us free. He comes to save us from the deception and lies of Satan. He comes to save us from the seemingly glamor of wealth, power, honor and pleasure. Jesus comes to save us from ourselves. He comes to save us from the corrosion of attachment. Each of us, in various degrees, is attached to some worldly goods. We have some desires, some loves, some longings that work against our Christian commitment. Jesus wants to save us from those too. But if we deeply feel there is nothing in us that we need to be saved from, Jesus becomes a historical figure we fondly remember. If we don’t need salvation, Jesus quickly becomes one wise person among the many. He becomes a spiritual or moral teacher among the many others like Buddha, Mohammad, Aristotle etc. On the other hand, if you feel like a prisoner waiting to be released and set free, if your disposition is the same as the thief who said to Jesus, “Remember me when you enter into your kingdom,” then the ancient Advent chant, “O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel…” will be on your lips. If you have checked yourself out and found out you need the Savior, you will passionately sing and pray, “Come Lord Jesus, do not delay!” 

But why do we need salvation? Why do we need the Savior? Because we regularly wander away from the Lord’s path. We are meant to walk in the spiritual order of God, sadly, a vast majority of us do not always travel along that way. And the saddest news here is that a great number of the lost do not know they are lost and do not feel and think that they are lost. When I started driving here in the USA, I didn’t use GPS because I couldn’t afford it. I relied only on printed MapQuest directions. One day, after taking a priest to Memphis Airport and was driving back to the parish, I missed turning to the right boulevard. Since I wasn’t using anything electronic that can recalculate my route automatically, I got lost. The good news was that I knew I was lost. So, the moment I saw a gas station, I drove into it to seek help. As soon as I mentioned my intended destination, the answer I got was, “You are truly lost.” In the end, I was able to get home because the man I met at the gas station knew where my church was located, he was going my way, and he also asked me to drive behind him. 

Sisters and brothers, like the man I met in a gas station in Memphis, Tennessee, Jesus knows we are lost. He knows where we are meant to be. Jesus is the Way to where we are meant to be, and he is the Savior that wants to take us there. But are we willing to travel with him? If you look at your life right now, you may be pleased at where you are. You may have attained some success in your profession. You may have a good family and your children may be doing well in life. But at the deepest level, are you happy? At the spiritual, religious and moral level, are you entirely okay? Don’t you feel lost at the core? Like me, don’t you sometimes feel like you don’t know where you are going? Outwardly, we try to put up a good show. We paint a good picture that communicates to others that all is well with us. But at the depth, we know all is not truly well. We know there is some emptiness, some incompleteness, some deficiency, some darkness, some shame. Rather than ignore them or numb them with more worldly activities, turn and cry out to the one who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). 

Advent is always the season of preparation. We prepare to celebrate Christmas. But this preparation won’t be adequate and complete if we go through the season without paying particular attention to how we conduct ourselves. Advent is a season of waking up. In our today’s second reading, St. Paul says, “Brothers and sisters: You know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep.” Advent is the time to “throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” It is the season to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and to make no provision for the desires of the flesh.” Therefore, let us begin this Advent by identifying those actions and attitudes that come between us and our Lord. I understand that our culture tells us in a million ways to affirm we are innocent: “I’m okay, you’re okay.” But the Word of God instructs us to be honest with ourselves, to admit and acknowledge just like the thief Jesus promised paradise to, that we have done some things sinful and criminal. Acknowledging our guilt should not be a psychologically debilitating exercise. It should not lead to self-pity or a feeling of utter depravation. It is rather a courageous willingness to offer our weakness to the divine physician. It is allowing the God of justice to set things right in us. Until we do this, we will never appreciate the one who said, “I have come that you may have life, life in its fullness” (John 10:10). To be able to celebrate Christmas with Christ, we have to take Advent seriously by coming to grips with our deep spiritual deficiencies.  

Solemnity of Christ The King of the Universe, 2022

Our King Is The Crucified One

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Solemnity of Christ The King of the Universe

St. Bridget Catholic Church, Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, November 20, 2022

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ Jesus the King of the universe. Everything we say and write about him, everything we celebrate in relation to him is finally meant to affirm him as the King of our lives, as the King of the universe, the one to whom absolute obedience and allegiance is due. In the entire New Testament, no statement emphasizes the absolute preeminence of Jesus Christ stronger than what St. Paul said in today’s second reading: “Jesus is the image of the invisible God...” God is invisible. We can’t see him. But if you want to know what God looks like, look at Jesus! If you want to get some ideas of what God looks like, look at Jesus. Look at what the authors of the Gospels say about him. If you pray before an icon, the icon becomes for you a window to the actual figure. For you, the icon is not just a pretty picture; it is meant to be a window to the truth behind it. When you pray before the icon of the Mother of Perpetual Help, the icon becomes a window through which the Blessed Mother is present to you. St. Paul is saying here that Jesus is the icon of the invisible God. God himself is present to you when you look at Jesus.

But what does Jesus look like? Let’s go to Golgotha, a garbage dump outside Jerusalem. Golgotha was the place where people were crucified, where criminals were put to death. At Golgotha a young Galilean Jew who proclaimed himself to be the long awaited Messiah was dragged to. Prior to this deeply sad event, he had appeared on the hills of Galilee, preached with unprecedented and alarming boldness. He also performed great miracles of healing and demonstrated a mastery over the forces of nature. He spoke and acted, not like a typical Jewish prophet, but as God. As a result of all these, huge crowds of people came to him. Some were drawn to him out of love; others out of curiosity, while others, out of jealousy and hatred. But at a climatic moment of his ministry, his haters got him arrested and brought him to Golgotha. With his arrest, his followers abandoned him. All those who were once with him left him. He was alone. At Golgotha, in this garbage dump, they stripped him naked and pinned him to a terrible instrument of torture— the cross. He is surrounded by a brutal band of soldiers who specialized in putting people to death. To make matter worse, as they walked by, they pointed at him, laughed at him, made fun of him. The onlooking people shook their heads not out of pity but out of disdain. The irony here is that he is the one that St. Paul is talking about. He is the image of the invisible God. He is the Lord of of lords. He is the King of kings. He is the one in whom all things hold together. He is the beginning, the middle and the end of all reality. He is God from God and light from light. He is through God from through God.

With these in mind we all can now see that our notion of kingship is sadly mistaken. Our notion of power, majesty, and lordship has very little to do with the real thing. Consider the things they said to Jesus on the cross, and it will help you understand how we get things right and wrong: “The rulers sneered at Jesus and said, ‘He saved others, let him save himself if he is the chosen one, the Christ of God.’ Even the soldiers jeered at him…. if you are the King of the Jews, save yourself.” Add to that, one of the criminals reviled Jesus and said, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us.” Their mockery contains the key. It contains the clue. What do we think kingship means? Power! Authority! Domination! For us, kingship means the capacity to save yourself. If you have enough money, if you are Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk or Bill Gates etc. or a billionaire, you have saved yourself from most of the inconveniences of life. If you have enough political power, enough political clout, you can save yourself. If you have enough cultural influence, you can save yourself from embarrassment, from humiliation and from being forgotten. To be king is to be able to protect yourself. But the irony here is that the true King, Christ the King is not the one who saves himself, but the one who forgets himself in love. The true King is not the one who saves himself, but the one who dies as he saves others. The true King is not the one who aggrandize his ego, but the one who gives it away. He is not the one who fills himself up, but the one who empties himself out. 

Sisters and brothers, this is the icon of the invisible God. Do you want power in your life? Stop filling up your life with the goods of this world. Empower others. Do you want life? Save others. Do you want to be saved, redeemed? Help someone else find Jesus. Do you want to be protected? Reach out and protect someone else. If you want to know the Alpha and the Omega and everything in-between, perform a simple act of love. That’s how you become a loyal subject of Christ the King. I guess it is not what you expected. It is not what the world tells us over and over again. But the true King is the one who gives himself away.