HOMILY FOR THE 11TH SUNDAY OF THE ORDINARY TIME, YEAR C
Rev.
Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi
On the 19th
April, 2016, I woke up in the morning and some thoughts came to my mind as a
result of an experience I had of a Catholic Christian who had to leave the fold
because some people he knew to be evil were regarded as ardent members of the Church.
After the morning Mass of that day, and at around 7:55 am, I penned down this
thought and then had to share it on my Facebook page. It is the hospice
dimension of the Church; the Church looked upon as an infirmary (hospital,
clinic, healing centre, a rehab). It is a dimension of the Church I thought,
which requires more stress today in the face of the self-righteousness of many
Christians. This post attracted many considerations from which more thoughts
ran through my mind. Sincerely, the questions and contributions that followed
that post help to form the bedrock of this homily. Hence, permit me to start
this Homily with this question: Why should somehow leave from the Church just
because he or she thinks some others to be evil or cultic? Why should someone
be angry seeing the person he perceives as evil come to Church?
This is the attitude
that the readings of today exposes to us. To go straight to the point, this
person that has this inclination already runs the risk of being a Pharisee of
Jesus’ time seen chiefly in the Gospel of today. Now,
if you are angry at the Church even to the point of abandonment of faith; may
be due to fanaticism, scandals, inhuman acts by your fellow members, you must
be aware that your decision has no foundation. May be, you should also quit
your job, drop out of school, disconnect from all your friends and family, stop
chatting via any social media; then get yourself locked up in your room. By so
doing, you avoid human beings totally. There will be flaws wherever there are
humans. We all need healing. Remember,
it is said that to err is human but to forgive is divine. This simply means
that it lies in man’s nature to make mistakes as it lies in God’s nature to
forgive. Let us be conscious of this and learn to admit our guilt, and walk
towards better Christian lives, for only so can we meet God’s forgiveness that
is unfailingly crossing our paths.
The
readings of today apart from the fact that they present to us people who
admitted their guilt and their need for God’s forgiveness, also made it clear
to us that the Church is not only made up of saints, but also sinners who have
been forgiven and who know that they are in need of God’s continuing
forgiveness. When God forgives, he forgives completely (Ps. 103:12). It is when
we recognize that we all are in need of healing that we can better accept
everyone and work mutually and continually for our healing. The First Reading
(2 Sam 12:7-10.13) gives us an account of how David, the king of Israel, due to
lust and greed committed murder and fornication, but later recognized his sins
and pleaded for divine forgiveness. It was because of this act of admission of
his guilt, through which he pleaded for divine forgiveness that he was
forgiven. This is shown in the words of the Prophet Nathan: the Lord has put
away your sins; you shall not die. The Second Reading (Gal. 2:16.19-21) brings
to our awareness that we need Jesus for without him, we cannot be declared
righteous. Only his love, mercy, and forgiveness guarantee a man’s
righteousness, not merely by works of the law. We all are sinners in need of
the justification of God. Justification is the righteousness and faith gained
through Jesus Christ without which we cannot be able to please God (cf. Romans
3-8). We receive God’s forgiveness and healing through Jesus Christ (cf. Eph.
4:32).
The
Gospel Reading (Luke 7:36-8:3) is no exception to this theme of our need for
healing and the divine forgiveness. It presents succinctly the undying love of
God for sinners. The first sentence of the Gospel mentions the name of a group
that promotes laws of purity (the Pharisees), as the second sentence mentions
the name considered impure (the sinners). This simply implies that in that meal
Jesus was invited to were the presence of both those considered as pure and
those considered as impure (saints and sinners). The Pharisees believe that the clean and the unclean have nothing in
common, and that if they come together, the unclean renders the clean unclean. Jesus
was not a Pharisee; that was why they ended only at being surprised since in
their thoughts as a result of what they were taught, prophets are also clean
since they work for Yahweh. Jesus was seen by them as a prophet; that was why
he was invited by a Pharisee, Simon. If a Pharisee had done what Jesus did, the
story would not have remained the same.
It
took a sinner to show Jesus the greatest signs of hospitality, not even that
Pharisee who sees himself as a saint. The sinner, who is a woman washed Jesus’
feet with her tears, kissed them and anointed them with alabaster oil. But
instead of this self-righteous Pharisee to see the good in the action of the
woman; a woman who had done what he did not do and could not have done; he
began to think about the laws of purity he knew, failing to see how guilty he
himself was. The generosity of this woman is contrasted with the stinginess of Simon,
the Pharisee. He was unable to show the most important gestures of hospitality.
But thank God, Jesus is not a Pharisee and cannot think like them. He believes that the clean and the unclean
should work together, only by so doing and acting can the clean render the
unclean clean. There should be no form of discrimination between them.
Jesus then had to tell Peter the Parable of the Debtors, and having
acknowledged the woman’s generosity towards Him said to her: your sins are
forgiven. By these words, Jesus articulates what had been obvious in the
woman’s actions. Jesus too brings home the message of his short parable of vv.
40-43, which is a challenge to the self-righteousness of this Pharisee, who
neglects what he should have done, and condemned what another did. Yes,
only those who are in need of help gets help. Only those who see themselves as
unworthy will be made worthy. Only those who need justification will be
justified. Only the sick who recognizes their illness and makes effort to get
healed will receive healing. Let us grab these:
1.
However, you know every Evangelist has a community to which he wrote. Luke
narrates this story to teach his community a lesson. The Pharisees represent
Jewish Christians who promote rigorist criteria for membership in the Lucan
community and participation in their meals. He tried to tell his audience to
focus more on the foundation of their membership which is Christ, and not
forming dissensions which only promote pharisaic attitudes and
self-righteousness. Is such in our worshipping community today? Your experience
answers the question. There are some additional rules we set for membership
into the Christian fold, into the reception of the sacraments or into any pious
or social group in the Church that actually are accidents and are not needful.
We need to review those rules that make it difficult for people to encounter
God’s forgiveness and mercy. Such rules may be good for pastoral reasons, but
sometimes they scare people away from our fold unconsciously. Remember the
Great Commission (Mtt 19:28-29). We must go back to the drawing board.
2.
We must notice a contrast between two attitudes of mind and heart in Simon and
the woman (cf. Barclay W. on Luke). Simon was conscious of no need and
therefore felt no love, and so received no forgiveness. Simon’s impression of
himself was that he was a good man in the sight of God. The woman was conscious
of nothing else than a clamant need, and therefore was overwhelmed with love
for him who could supply it, and so received forgiveness. Whenever we take
ourselves as the measure of all things, we start dwindling spiritually. Have
you ever asked yourself how many times you remember to pray for divine
forgiveness in your private prayers? Nelson Mandela is known
to have once said: I am not a saint unless you think of me as a sinner who
keeps trying. That should be our attitude. The
greatest of sins is to be conscious of no sin, but a sense of need will open
the door to the forgiveness of God, for God is love, and love’s greatest glory
is to be needed. We must constantly grow in the need for God; for in such
orientation can our love for God be enhanced more, and so we encounter the
importance of forgiveness. The one thing that shuts a man off from God is
self-sufficiency. David admitted his guilt, his insufficiency, and his need for
God’s help and forgiveness; so he received pardon and forgiveness. In fact,
make out time today to say the prayer of David when the Prophet Nathan went to
him: Psalm 51.
3.
It is then the work of the Church to teach the self-righteous the importance of
love, tolerance and forgiveness, and to teach the lost sinner the need of
coming back to God. So many times, we are the ones tired of pleading for Gods’
mercy, not God tired of forgiving us. God does forgive. Never imagine that your
sin has outgrown God’s edifice of forgives. Even though our sins have stained
us so much, he has the technology that can wipe us totally as newly born. If we
turn to the Lord, he will have mercy, and will freely pardon, for our thinking
is not his (cf. Is. 55:7-12). I believe you are not thinking that the hand of
the Lord is too short to save you or his ear to dull to hear you. Just read
Isaiah 59ff. Come and be forgiven. Approach his throne of mercy. Sure, only the
sick needs the doctor. For the son of man came to seek and to save what was
lost (cf. Luke 19:10). He is our healer. He heals us of every infirmity, and
mandates the Church to do the same as He is with her.
4.
Thus, we must look at the Church for what it actually is. It is an infirmary
(healing centre); a clinic trying to heal many people of their wounds, sores,
injuries, sins, disappointments, and hurts. You will find messed up, conniving,
annoying, calculating, cultic, witches, wizards; indeed imperfect individuals,
including yourself and myself. It is the work of the Church to take care, heal
and assist every person. So if you feel betrayed and scandalized by a fellow Church
member, put on your nursing cap and think of them as your patients. Treat them
with care, love and kindness despite their sins, rudeness and ungodliness. Be
one of the nurses in the Church, so that the Church can have more healers from
within. We all are sick and
need to be transformed. So the Church assists humans to continuously work for
this transformation. When we relegate the Church, be careful as to whether you
run a RACE devoid of GRACE. An experience of GRACE is when you allow GOD to go
with you in your RACE. The Church has this task of helping you to walk along
with grace. She does this and continues to do it until its plenitude is
achieved in Heaven when the Creator certifies us worthy of being free from any ailment.
Let
us allow God to heal us so that we can heal others, heal our world, heal our Church, and
heal the Nigerian society. God bless you as a wish you a blessed week of divine
healing and forgiveness.
No comments:
Post a Comment