THE REMNANTS TURN BLESSED

HOMILY FOR THE 4^TH SUNDAY OF THE ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

Those who are left in Israel; who are they? These are the ones referred to as the remnants. The First Reading taken from the oracle of Zephaniah (Zep. 2:3; 3:12-13) makes us to understand that the Lord is interested in the remnants of Israel. But before we fully understand the Lord’s interest on them, some foundational expositions are important. The word remnant simply denotes ‘that which remains’; remainder. When used with reference to nations in the Bible, it refers to a people that are left after a conquest/war. But over time, the word acquired a deep theological and spiritual meaning with regard to the history of the Israelites as a people. There are basically two understandings the word has acquired in the Hebrew Testament and History. And this duo has much to teach us as Christians.

1. The very first time this word was used with reference to a people in the Scriptures is found in the books of Deuteronomy and Joshua. The context of these episodes centre on the success of Moses and how he defeated many Kings, and in particular Og, the king of Bashan who alone remained among the people of Rephaim, otherwise known as the giants (cf. Deut 3:11; Joshua 12:4.13:12). This context was seen further when Joshua took charge of the governance of the people of Israel. Having conquered many nations and kings, foreigners (the remnants) were now living with them. They were then instructed by the Lord to be strong against the bad influences from the nations remaining among them (cf. Joshua 23:7). These bad influences came in the forms of worshipping their gods, swearing by them serving them, and even inter-marriage. And in vv. 12-13, the Lord gave the verdict if they fail to keep to the instructions. The Lord would no longer drive out these nations (referred as remnants), but they would become a snare and a trap for them, a whip on their sides and thorns in their eyes. Most other references made of remnants in the Historical and prophetic books point to this context of other peoples. Whether the Israelites obeyed this instruction is yet another consideration. Surely, their disobedience of it would result to their becoming remnants themselves to other nations, and they would become exiled and subjugated, which would lead them to a loss of their prestige. When the Lord uplifts you and favours you, it is all the more reasonable for you to keep the Lord’s instructions and not break away from the instructions which actually were the ladders of your development. If you do not bear this in mind and go ahead priding yourself and flouting your evil deeds, the hands of the clock may be turned against you.

2. Having transgressed and broken the instructions of the Lord, calamity befell the Israelites that the word remnant was also used to designate the houses of Judah and Israel that remained after the conquests by Assyria and Babylon. In Jeremiah 40:15ff, the term is the normal designation of the group of Judahites which settled at Mizpeh after the fall of Jerusalem and then, when Gedaliah was murdered, moved to Egypt. In Ezekiel 9: 8; 11:13, the remnant of Israel is the Kingdom of Zedekiah, and in Amos 9:15, the remnant of Joseph is that which survives foreign conquest as yet in the future. This remnant may experience God’s favour. Isaiah is asked to pray for them (cf. Isaiah 37:4; 2 Kings 19:4). From this use of the word, there developed a sense of the word which makes it so technical that at the mention of the word remnant, it immediately means Israel which survives after the conquest, an act of the judgment of God, and which is the bearer of the promises of Israel.

But since the remnant is the only surviving Israel, it is the only object of the promises made to Israel, and it became the one to whom promises of consolation and messianic restoration are addressed. Here comes the sense of the First Reading. The remnants shall enjoy fabulous prosperity in Israel. The survival of the remnants is a palpable demonstration of the sustenance of God’s fidelity to Israel. Israel did not totally perish, and so the remnants became a sign of God’s fidelity to Israel. The word then acquired a deeply spiritual connotation. These remnants must correct the mistake of their forefathers, and so be faithful to God and his covenant. They must be a people humble and lowly. They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord. They shall do no wrong and utter no lie. Hence, they are declared the blessed people of God, for their existence has become a correction of an error of the past. Most times, as Christians, we exist to correct the deeds of our parents. You are you, as I am I. Our lives must be lived in such a way that we do not relax in a particular vice under the pretence that it is in our blood. There are no such things as the blood of stealing, the blood of fornication, the blood of lies, the blood of idolatry, etc. You can correct the stealing history of your family. Do not relax and be included in liars just because your family is known to be one of liars. You can find out the way the vicious influence of your family seem to affect you as a person.

Blessed is the man who goes back to follow the dictate of the Lord, and does not give up based on one queer postulation that a vice runs through his/her blood. Yes, blessed is the man who breaks away from such an influence. And that is the centripetal force of the Gospel (Mtt 5:1-12). The word blessed which is used in each of the beatitudes is a very special word. It is rendered in Greek as makarios. It is a word specifically used for gods. It is used to describe a deep joy which has its secret within itself, that joy which is serene and untouchable, and self-contained, and which is completely independent of the sorrows and uncertainties of this life. No one will take your joy away from you, said Jesus (John 16:22). Hence, our blessedness connects us with that joy which seeks us through our pain, that joy which sorrow and loss, pain and grief, are powerless to touch, that joy which shines through life, and which nothing in life or death can take away. Hence, this blessedness is a triumphant shout of bliss for a permanent joy that nothing transient can take away.

The Beatitudes too are not simple statements. They are exclamations. Psalm 1:1 heralded: O the blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the wicked. This blessed is borne out of experience and action. It is not one of utopia. They are not pious hopes of what shall be. They are congratulations of what is. Your blessedness as a Christian is not one which is postponed to some future world of glory; it exists here and now. It is not something into which will enter, it is something into which he has entered. One who is blessed would have course to boast in Jesus, and would no longer count important the distractions of this world. Being declared blessed is the highest form of wisdom that one can attain. This wisdom is attained not by worldly connections but by humility. It is a wisdom which has its pathway as stooping low to conquer. I pray you work so hard as to go through this pathway so that you can attain this wisdom. I wish you a life of blessedness this week. God bless you.

WALKING IN THE LIGHT

HOMILY FOR THE 3^RD SUNDAY IN THE ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

 

Walking over and walking across...

To walk over or to walk across implies a movement from and a movement to. And human beings always prefer to move to something better, somewhere better, and somebody better. No person enjoys moving from misery to misery. No one likes to repeat an experience of a disappointing situation of strife and agony. People naturally desire to move from a poor place to a better place; from a poor village to a merchant city; from a poor country to a rich country. We desire a better experience, expedition, and expanse. I had a discourse with some young people concerning their current experience in the educational and economic situation of the Country. Not even a person desired to continue with such frustrating experiences. Most of them had the desire of moving away to another nation where their talents will be appreciated, and where opportunities abound for their success in life. After some thought-provoking questions I asked them, many regained their hopes and desired to live in a country where they can really call theirs.

Like these youths, the Northern Israelites at a time in their history were under the oppression of the Assyrian Government. There grew a concern in the people of the deliverance they expect from the Lord. The opening lines of the First Reading (Is. 9:1-4) present us with the towns (Zebulun and Naphtali) that were the first to be subjugated by Assyrians. They were the Northernmost tribes, and so received first this invasion from the Assyrians. The prophet hence announces light for those who live in darkness; that is, new hope for the people of northern Israel oppressed by the Assyrians. He says that God has smashed the oppressor because he believes that a new king will come who will be so powerful that all nations will be placed under his feet. He promises the people that they soon will be walking over and across the present situation of frustration. Darkness can represent those worries, strife, agony, sorrow, and misery you are passing through today. The Prince of Peace has all it takes to walk you over from this darkness to the light that He is.

Walking into the light...

Yes, I believe that we are walking over from darkness to the light. But for the light to blossom all the more for our journey, we must live as children of light till we become luminous that we become lights for others. This is the message of the Second Reading (1 Cor. 1:10-13.17). Anyone who has walked into the light who is Jesus the Christ ought to know and understand what his/her calling demands. There should be no dissension among Christians in such a manner that there is an introduction of many disjointed parts that should actually be parts of the body of Christ. There must be a stress of unity in diversity. We must coming together with our varied and rich talents for the singular purpose of building the body of Christ, and not allowing our talents and goals to disintegrate the body of Christ, or to distance us from Him.

In the Corinthian Church were four parties. There were those who belong to Paul. They were the Gentiles most probably. They had lived Christianity with an exaggerated sense of freedom, thinking that the Gospel of Christian freedom implies freedom to sin, instead of freedom not to sin. There were those who claim to belong to Apollos. Apollos was a Jew from Alexandria, an eloquent man and had a good knowledge of the scriptures. Alexandria was known for their intellectuality. Those who claim to belong to Apollos were no doubts the intellectuals, who were fast turning the newly found Religion into a Philosophy. There were those who claimed to belong to Cephas. Cephas is the Jewish form of Peter’s name. These were most probably Jews, who sought to teach adherence to the Jewish norm. There were legalists who exalted the law and belittled grace. There were those who claimed to belong to Christ. This must be the poor and relegated group who claimed that they were the only true Christians. Their real fault was not in saying that they belong to Christ, but in acting as if Christ belonged only to them. They are the intolerant self-righteous group.

Relating these groups to our worshipping community today, we find out that so many of us have divided the Church and are still glorifying in such division. The First group (Paul) represents those who think that our Christianity cancels our Africanity, or vice versa. They can also be those who fail to find a perfect reconciliation between the African Religion and Christianity. The Second Group (Apollos) represents the so-called intellectuals who believe that their knowledge of God assures them of salvation, and who even ridicules the mysteries of the Christian Religion for the fact that they are incomprehensible to them. If care is not taken, they end as atheists. The Third group (Cephas) represents those who still feel that they are the ‘owners’ of the Church. They make decisions and dictate what is good or bad for God. They do not give room for new findings and experiences. They are the extreme conservatives. For them, the young Christians have destroyed all that Christianity is known for. They have a rigid interpretation of the law of God, rather than the love of God. The Fourth Group (Christ) represents the self-righteous ones. They do not believe that others are also making effort to be good. They see themselves as the elects, and others as the reprobates. They see sin in everything the other Christian does. Where have you located yourself?

Walking in the light of Christ...

The Gospel (Matthew 4:12-23) makes reference to the First Reading. Jesus walked across to the land of Galilee to begin his new message from a land that will be so receptive of it. Galilee was a town that has had great history of invasion by the Gentile world that she inhabited many gentiles in her. But the town regained her Jewish status when King Aristobolus in 104BC reconquered Galilee for the Jewish nation and made circumcision compulsory for all male. Hence, history has made Galilee to be open to new strains of blood, new ideas, and new influences. Thus, a new teacher with a new message has the greater chance of being heard in Galilee. It was there that Jesus began his ministry as the light of the world. It was in this same Galilee that he called the disciples of today’s Gospel.

“Come, follow me” (Venite Post me) were the very first words used by Jesus the Christ when he was walking beside the sea of Galilee and saw these brothers (Peter and Andrew; James and John) casting their net into the lake. At once, they left their nets and followed the Lord. These brothers had their professions. They were fishermen. They had a background that had thought them how to fish and survive. It is from this background that they can upgrade in their service of the Lord; from being fishermen to being fishers of men. If they had not learnt well the know-what and know-how of being fishermen, they would not know what it means and how to be fishers of men. They took their cultural backgrounds seriously, out of which the Lord promoted them to greater heights. Being fishermen, they were interested in stomach infrastructure, but being fishers of men, they will now be drilled to become interested in soul infrastructure.

We are like these apostles who were called by Jesus. We have biological family before we were baptised as Christians. We had our orientation, family values, home trainings, backgrounds before we became converted. Our calling as Christians ought to lead us to a better awareness of our mission in life: to be children of light, and to walk in the light. There are certain virtues our cultures bequeath to us such as respect, prudence, continence, and community love. There are also certain vices our cultures dispose us to, such as insincerity, greed and envy. Our duty is to continually make a leap out from these vices and step up to these virtues we learnt from our culture, thereby upgrading them with the formation we receive as Christians, and not throwing them away expecting to experience new and fresh values. If we throw our cultural values and trainings to the mud expecting to experience fresh values, we run the risk of syncretism and apostasy. But if we recognize that these values have been taught by our cultures and maintain them while imbibing methods and ways of improving and deepening them through the Christian doctrines and disciplines, then the sky is our starting point.

They left their nets and followed Jesus. Living their nets implies shedding off from themselves every form of distraction. It implies too stopping and rejecting any behaviour that is inimical to their new calling. As Christians, we must leave our nets; that is, the bad habits and behaviours which out of negligence or oversight we may have imbibed from our culture, and the corrupt practices which consciously or unconsciously our society has made us prone to. The Christian discipline, doctrine and devotion renders conscious those unconscious ones and brings to our awareness those negligence and oversights which are the limitations of your background.

Do not forget that these words of Jesus to these apostles came in the form of a command. But the apostles had the freewill to respond positively or negatively. We today feel this command and are responding positively. Be ready to be with Jesus the Light, following Him from place to place, loving him for the way he preaches and teaches, learning from Him, and believing in his teachings. Docility to the Christian faith is important. As a follower, you must always go after He must have gone. Indeed, the Latins capture the word ‘follow’ very well with the word post (coming after). As a follower (a disciples, a learner), be ready to learn. Be humble to learn. Be quick to accept correction. Do not be so fast as to go ahead of Jesus who actually leads you. If you go before him, Jesus becomes the one following you, and you become His teacher. Do you want to follow Jesus, or do you want Jesus to follow you?

I wish you a happy Sunday and a blessed week ahead. God bless you.

BEING THE LAMB FOR THE WORLD

HOMILY FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY OF THE ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

In times past, before the advent of Christianity, our forefathers had their various ways of worshipping God. One of these ways lies in their understanding of sacrifice. They sacrificed many kinds of animals to the gods, as they expect these gods to be appeased by those sacrifices. There were specific animals that were always demanded for the sacrifice, the chief of whom is the white fowl. They even went to the extent of sacrificing fellow humans based on their understanding of the demands of the gods. I say this because the concept of sacrifice is one that cuts across every religion. If we believe in God, then we must sacrifice for the sake of the person we believe in. The Jews had their own notion and practice of sacrifice. There are also specific animals that they favour, the most prominent and most used of whom is the lamb. So, the lamb for the Jews is the animal for sacrificial. That is how the phrase “the sacrificial lamb” gained prominence. Jesus is addressed as the lamb today by John the Baptist who dethroned himself in order to enthrone Christ. The mission/vocation of John is one that would have to point the Messiah whose coming is redemptive.

John the Baptist in the Gospel (John 1:29-34) saw Jesus coming towards him and he said: behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. These words form the cornerstone of my reflection today. What does it mean that Jesus is the Lamb? How can Christians be like Jesus in the Lamb identity?

Jesus as the Lamb...

The usage of lamb for Jesus was one that would gain easy understanding for the Jews because of their knowledge of lambs in their religious practices. The Jews had a double-fold celebration that makes this understanding more vivid. One is their historical commemoration of the event of the Passover. Two is their daily practice of sacrifice at the temple in Jerusalem every morning and evening. Lamb was well known, then and its usage had a message it tries to pass on to the people about Jesus.

The Passover feast reminds the Jews of the Passover Lamb that was slain and sprinkled on the door of the Israelites. In Exodus 12:11-13, on that night when the angel of darkness walked abroad and slew the first-born of the Egyptians, the Israelites were to smear their doorposts with the blood of the slain lamb, and the angel, seeing it would pass over that house. The blood of the lamb delivered them from that destruction. With this background, John the Baptist points Christ as the Lamb that stands as the deliverer of his people. Little wonder Christ is seen by Paul as the Passover Lamb (1 Cor. 5:7). Christ is the Lamb that delivers us from the power of the enemy, the devil. He is our protector.

The daily ritual of the temple and its sacrifices was a known practice. Every morning and every evening, a lamb was sacrificed in the temple for the sins of the people. This is in keeping with the tradition of Exodus 29:38-42. So long as there is the temple, this practice was made. So, seeing Jesus as the lamb also meant that he is sacrificed for the remission of the sins of the people. If in the temple, a lamb is offered for the sins of the people, then in Jesus is the only sacrifice which can deliver people from sin. The Lamb takes away the sins of the world. The idea of sacrifice may be weird for our generation, but if we can think about the idea of bail or restitution, the knowledge of what Christ as the Lamb stands for becomes clearer. When a criminal commits an offence and is imprisoned, he/she has grown incapacitated to free him/herself. He needs another who comes to bail whose coming is restitutive in nature; to make compensation for the injury the criminal has done against humanity. We were in prison out of our sins and carelessness. We need someone to bail us. He is the Christ, the Lamb of God. Christ’s bailing is so conclusive because with his bail, no one can convict us again. No manner of sinning can supersede his sacrificial bail, and the restitution He has made with His life. In John 19:31, Jesus dies the same day the lambs were been killed in the Temple. This is to show us that the writer has in mind of unequivocally proving that Jesus’ offering replaces and completes once and for all any offering and sacrifice that has been made and that will ever be made for the remission of sins.

Indeed, the prophets capture it well. Christ is like a lamb led to the slaughter house (cf. Jer. 11:19; Is. 53:7). These prophets had it clear in their minds of one whom by his sufferings and his sacrifice, meekly and lovingly borne, would redeem his people. St. Peter is so clear about Jesus as the spotless and umblemished lamb who ransomed men from sin (1 Pet. 1:18-19). The book of Revelation favours many times (about 29times) the use of the Lamb of God with reference to Christ. In Rev. 5:5, Christ was known to be the lion of the tribe of Judah, who is ever victorious. However, the use of the title Lamb has a message it passes. The Lion became the Lamb that we may become lions. He dehumanized Himself that we may be divinized. He became so low that we may be raised. Having seen that Christ vocation as the Lamb was judiciously and meticulously carried out by Him, we must too carry out our vocations and missions in this life the way God wants.

Christian as lambs of the world...

Every Christian is called. That means we all have vocations. We are called to imitate Christ the lamb in conquering sin, delivering ourselves and others, sticking out our necks for the sake of humanity based on our love for God. Just as the blood of the Lamb became a symbol of protection for the Israelites in captivity, and the blood of Jesus as the power that crushed totally the intimidations and torments of the devil, so too, the Christian lifestyle must be one that serves to protect the interest of the minority, those persecuted, the sick, the downtrodden, the orphans, and the dejected and denigrated of the society. The Second Reading (1 Cor. 1:1-3) of today spells it out clearly that we are celled to be saints.

We all are called. Being called implies that we have vocations. Our vocation as Christians is to be the prolongation of Jesus who today is presented in the form of Lamb. In whatever business you engage in life, discover the call to become a lamb inherent in it. By so doing, you reap the fruits of your work well. We must stoop to conquer. Lambs are known for their innocence and meekness. We must be innocent of the failures of others, becoming promoters. Never participate in pulling people down or becoming a wolf where you are called to be lambs. Wolves are destructive, but lambs are innocent. In our meekness, we work together to puncture the society that gives us the impression that pride and intimidation cum aggressive spirit paves the way. Lambs conquer with their humility and not with pride and arrogance.

It is in becoming lambs that we can possess the spirit of servitude. We are the servants of the Lord. As servants, we belong to Him, and only do what he expects us to do. As servants, he sends us on errands and we return to him with the account of our stewardship. Yes, as the Psalmists says, we have come to do His will. In the First Reading (Is. 49:3.5.6), we are addressed as servants who are there to raise up the tribe of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel. Having served well, he makes us the light of the nations; those people can look up to. When you live your live with these characteristics as a lamb in all humility, you become a reference point for others. People will look up to you as mentors and as coaches. The Lord will place you on the Holy Mountain so that anyone who sees you will give glory to God. May this be your portion. Amen. Happy Sunday and have a blessed week ahead. God bless you.