THOSE MARKED WITH THE SEAL

HOMILY FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF ALL SAINTS

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints. It is a feast that reminds us of the need for identification. Identification is a major sign that denotes belongingness. Many, if not all of the human society have something with which her members are identified. Schools have badges, stamps, logo, motto, uniforms, etc. Companies have their trademarks. Countries have their flags and coat of arms. There are some images that imprint unto our mind the existence of a particular group or society. These signs, images, trademarks are seals that help to authenticate membership in these organization. Many times, these signs are used to denote the visions and the mission of the said group.

Take for instance, the Great Seal of the Americans that has been in use since 1782 (325 years ago) is a major mark used to authenticate certain documents issued by the United States Federal Government. The crest is a glory or breaking through a cloud proper, surrounding an azure (blue) field bearing a constellation of thirteen stars argent (silver platform/metal). In it is the image of a bald eagle, bearing in its dexter (right) talon an olive branch, in its sinister (left) talon thirteen arrows, and in its beak the scroll bearing the motto: E Pluribus Unum (one out of many). In its reverse is another motto: Annuit coeptis (He has favoured our undertakings) and Novus ordo Seclorum (New world order). The reverse also bears an unfinished pyramid; in the peak is an eye in a triangle surrounded by glory. This great seal captures the major vision of the American Society. it is used for identification of certain documents such as the American passport, military insignia, embassy placards and various flags.

The First Reading (Rev. 7:2-4, 9-14) talks about the greatest of all the seal, the seal of the heaven citizenry. Every great seal denotes membership. It reminds the members of their vision and it is an insignia for authentication. God will give the command. That command will be to delay the judgments of the great tribulation until all the saints are sealed. The seal here means the mark of possession/ownership, authority, power, protection and preservation. In ancient times, a king’s ring was his seal. He would stamp the mark of his ring on all official documents showing their possession, authority and power. This is certainly one of the meanings the seal in the first reading bears.

In Genesis 41:42, Pharaoh took his ring and put it on Joseph’s hand as a sign of power and authority (cf. Also Esther 3:10, 8:2). In the case of Daniel, King Darius confirmed his proclamation after the divine liberty of Daniel from the den with his signet ring marked on the stone that was laid on the mouth of the den (Dan. 6:17). The number of those marked with this seal is numbered 144, 000. How? The number, 144, 000 does not denote strictly a numerical populace for heaven. It denotes completeness and perfection, and not limitation. It is made up of 12 multiplied by 12 –the perfect square; and being rendered more inclusive and complete by being multiplied by 1,000. These numbers tells us that the number of those to be saved will be great, not small.

In the New Testament, the Christian is sealed with the spirit of God; that is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit guarantees that we belong to God. The presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer is his seal and his guarantee that he will escape the judgment of God so as to live eternally with God. It is a life of blessedness. It is God who has put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee (2 Cor. 1:22). In John’s vision in the First Reading, these men who have been marked with the greatest seal together with the angels praised God and sang to his honour. John was amazed at the sight of these men. One of the elders went to him and asked John who the countless people are. They were clothed in white robes. They have lived a life of blessedness while on earth (cf. The Gospel, Mathew 5: 10-12). They are the men who have come out from the great tribulation because they had the mark of the greatest seal. They have washed their robes in the blood of the lamb and thus have made them white.

The picture of robes made white by being washed in the blood of the lamb is paradoxical. This paradox can be a way of saying that this victory and purity were won in the power and at the cost of all Jesus did for men in his life and death. They are martyrs who have given up their lives for the sake of Christ. The clothing of all believers colours white, which stands for purity and perfection. It means that the person has no spot of sin, evil or corruption in him. When the Bible speaks about the blood of Jesus Christ, it speaks not only about death but also about his life and death. The blood of Christ stands for all the redemptive acts of Christ in his life and deeds. The blood of Christ cleanses all sins (1 John 1:7) and redeems us (Ephesians 1:7).

The desire of every one of us is to be among these saints that are in white robes. It is the wish of every Christian. To be counted as one, we need to live the life of blessedness. It will be pitiable if our names are lost to Sheol in death after we have lived luxuriously on earth. We need to be in the great number of saints that are marching on and singing honourable hymns to our God. The feast of All Saints reminds all of us of our double citizenship and of the need to struggle that we become citizens of both. May we be reinvigorated for a life worthy of sainthood. Amen. God bless you.

YOU SHALL NOT MOLEST OR OPPRESS AN ALIEN

HOMILY FOR THE 30^TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

A woman had told the story of how a man she called her husband molested her. It started with the man beating and insulting her, and telling her she had nowhere else to go. It came in the form of drugs he introduced to her and supplied her with to keep her from getting sick. Whenever he wants to force the woman to go against her own will, he would withhold the drugs until he got what he wanted. He constantly talked to her in a manner that made her constantly lose her self-esteem. She had a son who was got out of wedlock, and who the woman had tried not to disclose her past she considered shameful. This man would always threaten his wife whom he molested with this secret that if she resists him in whatever means he would disclose it to the boy; and that was the last thing the wife wanted. She had no one to lean on. She kept on managing.

The man also physically abused this young boy that he wondered if really he was his father. Due to the woman’s character which she swore to protect, she managed and covered these misdemeanours. This man would always portray himself to visitors as a quiet and gentle man that no one thought of him in that direction. These happenings led the boy to several suicidal attempts as a result of his health. He was diagnosed as having lobe epilepsy as a result of the trauma in the hands of his father. When the woman saw that she was about to lose her son, she was pushed to seek for help. She went out of herself, disregarding the shame she always had, disregarding the name she always protected, and went to a spiritual director and counsellor. She encountered God and her life and the Son’s life changed for good. Surely, the man had to face the law. How often do we suffer because we are silent, silenced by many forces, silenced by empty threats, silenced by the fear of the unknown and the fear of shame?

The First Reading (Exod. 22:20-26) of today starts with a clear assertive statement: you shall not molest or oppress an alien? It continued: you shall not wrong any widow or orphan. The question becomes: who is an alien, widow and orphan? Aliens are foreigners who live in the midst of Israel and enjoy certain rights. Since they do not enjoy full rights on a par with Israelites, they are often victims of oppression. And so, aliens are the people living more or less permanently in a community other than their own. Widows are the women who have lost their husbands. Orphans are the persons who have lost their parents. Hence, they can all be termed the weak members of the society. However and extensively too, the weak members of the society can also be persons who face one form of abuse or the other, those who have no one to report to or to hear them out, those who are under threat, those who suffer silently yet wish to come out from such, those who have been traumatized by one thing or the other.

There is a much larger way we can explain who an alien is, and this brings me to our lead story. An alien can be one excluded from certain privileges and opportunities and who has been denied certain rights. An alien can be one who has been estranged from realizing himself, suffers degeneration and inhuman treatment, and fearful to break the bonds that imprisons him/her. He dies slowly yet no one knows what he suffers within himself. He comes out and portrays that he is ok, yet goes inside and suffers insomnia. Many have lost their lives through such alienation. Indeed, many of us have suffered from various cases of molestation, oppression and abuses, and in such occasions, we become aliens to ourselves, aliens to our esteem, aliens to our vocation, aliens to our profession, aliens to our life aspirations, and aliens to our visions and ambitions. Many have fizzled out of existence as aliens to themselves not realizing their God-given potentials. It is true that a true Christian is one who loves everyone sincerely and does not support any form of molestation and abuse, neither does he/she practice it. But it is much truer that a truly strong and just society provides and cares more for its weakest members. Come to think of it what happens then when the Church participates in dealing with her weak members and inflicting pains on those whom she ought to fight to defend?

God hates oppression. There is a divine involvement in oppression. God makes an option for the poor. There is no double ways about it. God gives Israelites condition of allowing them dwell in the land of promise. In the oracle of Jeremiah 7:6, the Lord says to the people: if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place...then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever. The Lord was hot on Israel in Ezekiel 22:7, the reason being that they treat father and mother with contempt, the sojourner suffers extortion in their hands, the fatherless and the widow are wronged. There are more strict laws in the Bible to ensure the protection of the poor. In Leviticus 19:10, the Lord instructs that the vineyard owners must not strip their yards bare neither must they gather the fallen grapes. These ones are t o be left for the poor and for the sojourner. In Deut. 24:14, there is an instruction never to oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns.

The divine involvement in oppression becomes harder if the person oppressed cries out to God. If ever you wrong them and they cry to me, I will surely hear their cry, my wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword, then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans (Exodus 22:23-24). That woman got her help because she went out of herself. When we cry out to God, he surely responds. In the parable of the persistent widow, Jesus asked a very direct question and will not God give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night? (Luke 18:7). The Psalmist confirms it in his psalmody: in my distress, I called upon the Lord, to my God I cried for help. From his temple, he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears (Psalm 18:6). When Job suffered and wanted to lose his feet, Elihu rebuked him and his three friends and reminded them of God’s way: that God hears the cry of the poor and the afflicted (Job 34:28). In Gen. 4:10, the voice of the poor Abel cried to the Lord from the ground, and he heard it.

What is it that can lead us to molestation and oppression others? It starts from our ego. It starts when we fail to control our thirst for self-importance. It starts when we see ourselves as gods to be worshiped. It starts when we see others as nothing. It starts when we forget that we too have our limitations and mistakes. It starts when we believe and convince ourselves that the whole world must revolve around us. It starts when we view our fellows as items for merely satisfying our pleasures. It starts when we see people around as instruments for massaging our ego. If we try to control the early beginnings, then we stand on a better plane to fight against the oppression of the poor, the strangers and the aliens; then will these cases of physical, emotional and sexual abuses rampart in our society be drastically reduced until they are ceremoniously annihilated.

The catalyst to enhance such control is LOVE. This is what Jesus summarized in the Gospel (Matt 22:34-40) as the greatest of all the commandments. It is dual: the love of God and the love of neighbour. Love must be derived from God and extended to man. One who loves God keeps his commandments. One who loves his neighbour does not molest or abuse him/her. Love is divine. Love does not molest, does not threaten, does not intimidate, does not bear grudges, does not frustrate. Love uplifts, saves, elevates and enlivens the spirit. We must dare to love. In love are many challenges. However, love anyway. One last thing: do well to use this week to apologize to that person whom you have molested, oppressed or abused. As you do this, may love accompany you and may this week be filled with love for you from God and from your neighbours. Amen. God bless you.

WHAT DOES CAESAR OWN?

HOMILY FOR THE 29^TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

A little boy was very fortunate to have had parents who provided everything he needed and even more. During the festive seasons, such as Christmas, the boy was sure to get more gifts and presents from the dad. He had all he wanted. He had clothing, toys, and some cash to buy ever he wanted. He really looked up towards such seasons. However, there lived another boy in the neighbourhood who was simply the opposite. The parents cared little or less, and constantly exhorted him to manage whatever they had. He would simply wash his old cloths and iron them during the festive seasons. Nothing whatsoever differentiated the festive seasons from the normal seasons. These two boys were friends and always played together. One day, the poor boy mistakenly spoilt a toy belonging to the rich boy. The rich boy was so embittered that he called his poor friend demining names, adding that he should stop handling his toys since he was sure that he could not have one. The mother of the rich boy who was at an insignificant corner heard this and hushed her son adding: how many of what you have do you think are really yours?  And that is the likely question I have employed as the topic of my reflection today: what actually does Caesar own? How many of what Caesar has does he think belongs to him?

The Gospel (Matt 22:15-21) of today provides us with a leverage for answering the question. The Pharisees and he Jews who listened to Jesus speak to them in parables (the parable of the two sons, the parable of the tenants, and the parable of the wedding feast) must have felt deeply insulted that they sought for ways of having strong evidence for his arrest. So, two parties were sent to Jesus –the disciples of the Pharisees and Herodians– to inquire whether it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not. The type of parties sent suggests a clear mischief and insincere desire for the question.  Pharisees and the Herodians are never friends. They were in opposition. The Pharisees were the orthodox Jews who were against the payment of taxes, especially to a foreign king because it would bring about an infringement to the divine right of God. The Herodians were the party of Herod, the king of Galilee, whose power came from Rome, and thus insisted vehemently on taxation. They had come together because they had now a common enemy –Jesus. One can imagine how their differences were forgotten in a common hatred for Jesus and a common desire to destroy him.

The tax demanded to be paid was called a poll tax. This tax had to be paid by every male person from age 14 to 65, and every female person from age 12 to 65. Matthew was also writing in a time when the Jews were forced to continue paying their taxes even when the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed, that the money would be channelled to the temple of Jupiter in Rome. So, every core Jew would be firstly inclined never to agree to such payment that would suggest reverence to another god. Thus, the evangelist had to narrate this story to encouraging his brethren to act from the famous answer of Christ: Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God. Here, Jesus lays down a solid principle. Every Christian has dual citizenship; of the earth and of heaven. Every Christian owes civil obedience to the government of his country. The Christian is a man of honour and thus must be a responsible citizen. Failure in good citizenship is failure in Christian duty. St. Paul tells Titus to remind Christian to be subject to rulers and authorities and be obedient and ready to do whatever is good (Titus 3:1). We owe the kings our respect. The Christian has a duty to the Caesars of this world in return for the privileges which the rule of Caesar brings him, such as electricity, good roads, water, security, employment, etc. Every Christian is also a citizen of heaven. He must also observe his Christian duties and must dictate with his conscience where the boundary of both citizenships lies. Fear God and honour the emperor, Peter (1 Pet 2:17) said.

Jesus demanded that he be given a coin and simply asked a question: whose image is this? The question led him to the conclusion that since the coin had the stamp of Caesar’s head; it should go back to Caesar. In the ancient times, such stamps on coins were signs of kingship. Every king had his. So, it was always the first sign that power had changed hands. When another king comes, he brings out his own coinage. And that brings me to the vanity of what Caesar actually owns. It is something which lives as long as the Caesar lives. The coins are changed with the change of kingship. So, that which Caesar owns is transient, unnecessary, and temporal. But what God owns is long-lasting, necessary and eternal. Thus, which option stand better; the one which passes away or the one which does not pass away? Money may belong to Caesar but human beings belong to God, just as money is the creature of man as man is the creature of God. The actual final logic will boil down to the fact that everything belongs to God because even the intelligence man uses is offered to him by God.

The first Reading (Isaiah 421.4-6) helps to clarify this point well. Every king belongs to God. God is free to use any king to accomplish his mission. The oracle of Isaiah regards Cyrus as an anointed king of the Lord, the Liberator of Israel. Cyrus is a Persian King. Persia rose as the world power after Babylon. And so, a Persian king is an anointed, not an Israelite. Persian religion was dualistic; there was a god of light, responsible for the good, and a god of darkness responsible for evil. But Isaiah insists that one God created both light and darkness (45:7). So, nothing belongs to any other god, but only the one true God. The central concentration of this oracle is that Yahweh is the creator of all, and so everyone belongs to him, regardless of race. It is Cyrus who will grant the decree to rebuild Jerusalem after it was destroyed by Babylon. He is God’s anointed (45:1). The idea that God’s purposes can be achieved through pagan kings was favoured by some other prophets. Jeremiah declared Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian to be the servant of God (Jer. 27:6). Thus, it is God who makes kings. He uses whosoever he desires. He now uses Cyrus to bring about Israel’s restoration. And so, every king belongs to him, including Caesar. Caesar belongs to God. Therefore, even when Caesar may claim that the coin belongs to him, we are sure that God created heaven and earth, and so owns both Caesar and the money.

To go back to our lead story, we find out that nothing actually belonged to the rich boy. He is answerable at that stage to his parents and all he possessed was because of his parents. So, the credence goes to his parents, and if there should be any form of boasting, the parents ought to spearhead it. Nothing belongs to Caesar because Caesar is answerable to God, not to himself. We are answerable to our maker. We ought not to live our lives as if we are not answerable to God, for everything belongs to Him. This is also a lesson for the kings of the world. To live like a king who is answerable to God, there must not be any abuse of power. No king should maltreat or deprive those he/she is ruling of their rights and privileges. The position of kingship is the position to serve with no selfish desire overshadowing the common good. Even as people owe you obedience and submissiveness because you represent God (cf. Rom. 13:1), you owe them respect and service because they are God-made (cf. Gen. 1:23). Therefore, giving to Caesar what belongs to Caesar is giving God what actually is answerable to Him, because everything belongs to God. When you make donations for the good of your community or the Church, you must know that you are doing it for God. When you do your work judiciously in your office, pay your taxes, does not take bribes, pay your burial levies, etc., you must realize that it is to God that you do it. May the Lord help us to continually realize that everything belongs to Him, and never to any human being. Amen. God bless you.