THIS IS A LONELY PLACE!

HOMILY FOR THE 18^TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A)

Rev. Fr. Peter Onyekachi Ezekoka

Isaiah 55:1-3        Romans 8:35, 37-39        Matthew 14:13-21

The class’s end-of-summer-term field trip had been long in the planning. The form teacher had allowed himself to be persuaded by his pupils to fill the programme for their Day Out with exciting activities. Eagerly, the class registered for the trip which included swimming, sailing and rock climbing. During the trip, everything went according to plan until they got to the final exercise … that is, the rock climbing. The rocks to be climbed turned out to be on a mountain! As they were about to set off from the base camp café, the teacher reminded them about the challenges they were likely to face, so that they were well-prepared. As they were climbing up and up the mountain path and scrambling across the rocks, Janet quipped to her friend, Lisa: “when I finally conquer this Munro” [she was exaggerating], “I’ll be needing a gallon of water!” Panting, Lisa replied grimly: “you need to conquer yourself first, pal, because water flows down a mountain rather than up.” Upon reaching the peak, the tired and thirsty class discovered that there weren’t any pools or waterfalls to drink from. They looked expectantly at their teacher, half-hoping he would produce bottles of water to slake their thirst, but he didn’t. One of the pupils, Bob, was never known to go anywhere without his filling bottle. He piped up: “well, I’ve just got a litre of water here: hands up if you’d like some?” All the hands shot up. Janet muttered darkly to Lisa: “that won’t be enough to satisfy all those of us here.” The teacher overheard, and pointed out the obvious: “Well, that’s all we’ve got, Janet. We’d better manage with that, for this is a lonely place”.

In today’s Gospel reading, people were so keen to hear what Jesus had to teach them that they followed Him to a lonely place, a deserted place, where there was neither food nor drink to be had. The passage from Isaiah in the First Reading is addressed to those who are hungry and thirsty. And the passage from St. Paul in the Second Reading envisions a person surrounded by all sorts of problems - “troubled or worried, or being persecuted, or lacking food or clothes, or being threatened or even attacked” – while assuring us that nothing exists that can come between us and God. The disciples realized that although Christ had satisfied the spiritual hunger of that huge number of people – five thousand people! - in that lonely place, it would be practically impossible for them to cater for their physical hunger. Christ was moved with pity for the hungry masses. They were not to be sent away to forage for themselves miles from anywhere as darkness fell; rather, they should be fed, and fed right then and there. He fed each and every one of them to their heart’s content. Our Lord never abandons those who follow Him, especially when they don’t count the cost of following Him.

Today, a lot of things prompt us to see the plague of loneliness around us despite Christ being with us: He promised that “yes, I will be with you, even to the end of time” (Mt 28:20). We’ve got to admit that sometimes following Jesus can feel akin to being on a mountain climbing exercise for which we didn’t volunteer. A daunting faith experience has the capacity to dispatch us to a lonely place mentally and spiritually where it feels as though no-one understands us. Now, how far do you feel that your discipleship of Christ has somehow turned you into a loner? How often have you felt deserted by those whom you thought were your friends, whom you could rely on, who ought to be with you, who ought to be alongside you, but who have deserted you because of the choice or choices you have made for Christ? Does being abandoned make you feel tearful, tired or hungry for reassurance and companionship? Such manifestations of loneliness can feel overwhelming.

But listen to this! The Lord whom we follow even to a deserted place does not desert us. In fact, He guarantees never to desert us. He multiplied five loaves and two fish into enough to feed and satisfy a crowd of more than 5000 people; in that context, just think about what He is able to do in our lives. Our task is to master ourselves, to get our desires under control and to conquer our weaknesses, just as Lisa told Janet to conquer herself during the climb. The acquisition of self-mastery is essential, because it sharpens our senses to be alert to the needs of others … as Bob was in my story, and as the disciples of Christ were in the Feeding of the Five Thousand. Co-operating with God’s grace of discipline is key to having a seat on the green grass in order to be fed by God’s abiding presence and His generosity.

Believe you me, the words of the First Reading are laden with great hope. Imagine how the Israelites in exile in Babylon, enduring strife and deep distress, must have felt when Isaiah was speaking those gracious words to them. We too can spin our wheels fruitlessly in anxiety and distress until such words are spoken to us, especially if we allow hopelessness to replace the joy of the genuine hope that God gives us. God asks us today to come to the water, the Living Water who quenches our thirst, to sit on the green grass that He might feed us with His grace of abundance. This is our Lord’s invitation to us today: our acceptance of it is our ticket to self-mastery and victory. Indeed, it is well for us to keep on and on recalling that we have a High Priest who sympathizes with us in our weaknesses, who was put to the test in every way that we are and yet never sinned (cf. Heb. 4:15). O Lord, help us actively to co-operate with Your grace working within us, and to respond by looking out for each other and giving what we can to the needy. Amen. God bless you.

 

SEEING THE BIGGER PICTURE

HOMILY FOR THE 17^TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A)

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

1Kings 3:5, 7-12        Romans 8:28-30        Matthew 13:44-52

Rory was a clever, gifted and hard-working young student. He had a dream: it was to study chemistry at a top university, and he was intent on being accepted for a place in the upcoming academic year. The university he had in mind had an international reputation for ground-breaking research and development. Rory had two challenges to face: the first was to pass the entrance examination and the interview, and the second was to convince his parents that their financial sacrifice would benefit the family in the long-term when he could command a good salary. The family’s annual budget would certainly be squeezed if he succeeded in going to that university. It would cost an awful lot of money. Rory thought he was capable of handling the first challenge, but meeting the second challenge would be tough on the whole family. He knew that there was no way his parents could meet the financial requirements. The money simply wasn’t there, and the university wasn’t offering scholarships to poor students.

Rory’s parents knew how much pressure they would be under financially if Rory got a place at university, but they hid their concerns and put on a brave face since the first challenge was yet to be overcome. Rory did everything he could to do himself justice: he studied very hard, sat the exams, went through the interview, and when the results were out, he had passed with flying colours. Thrilled to bits, he rushed straight to his father, Sandy, to give him the exciting news. Sandy took a deep breath, looked his son straight in the eye, and made him a promise: “don’t worry about the cost, my boy. I will help you financially to fulfil your dream, no matter what it takes”. He went out and sold his sole asset, a plot of land he cultivated, and he deposited all the money he got for it in a bank account specifically for his son’s education. Today, Sandy loves to tell the story of how that decision totally changed the life of his family. Thanks to going through the educational sausage-machine, Rory went on to well-paid jobs that lifted the family out of poverty. Sandy had seen the bigger picture and had summoned up the courage to sacrifice all he had to give Rory the opportunity to succeed.

How many times do we miss out on God-given opportunities, either because we fail to grasp them or because we lack the courage to embrace them? In the Gospel, Jesus used the parables of the merchant and the dragnet to teach us the importance of searching for the ultimate treasure - that is, the Kingdom of God. Seek you first the Kingdom of heaven … and all these things shall be yours as well (Mt 6:33). In the First Reading, Solomon requested the ultimate gift of wisdom from God, and was rewarded for his choice. Wisdom is better than gold (Prov 16:16). Solomon realized that, even if one is perfect among the sons of men, without the wisdom that comes from God, he is nothing … with God is wisdom (cf. Wis 9:6, 9). The search for the ultimate treasure to be had on this side of eternity requires that you have a vision, requires that you see the bigger picture, as Sandy saw in Rory’s academic intelligence. Similarly, we should not simply treat our search for Christ as just another hobby of ours, but should go all out to find Him, to get to know Him and to get to know as much about Him as we can.

To be sure, there are many wonderful things in this world, and many things in which we can find loveliness - for example in the arts, in service to others, and in the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and material objects. These are all lovely: but the question of whether they help us obtain the finest pearl (‘the pearl of great price’) for ourselves is a question we cannot afford to dodge. Do they help us to look beyond these earthly comforts and see the bigger picture, which is that the Kingdom of God is real? What efforts are we willing to put in to acquire the ultimate treasure trove of heaven for ourselves? In the parable of the hidden treasure trove in the field, the man was unaware of its existence and simply came across it; but when he had discovered it, he was ready to sell everything he owned in order to make it his. In the parable of the pearl of great price, the merchant reacted in the same way: he sold everything he had in order to own it. Gaining admission to the Kingdom is worth our total sacrifice. Like St. Paul, we are confident that God will continue to make all things work together for the good of those who love Him and have been called according to His decree (Rom 8:28).

And finally… let’s consider how a pearl is formed. When a speck of sand or parasite gets into an oyster shell, the oyster reacts to the irritation by secreting a substance called mother-of-pearl to surround the intrusive element. It is this secretion that builds up and up and gradually forms a pearl. A pearl is formed out of the irritation and suffering of the oyster. A dragnet gets dirty and ripped when it’s in use to haul in indiscriminately all kinds of marine life, but nonetheless it will bring in a quantity of edible fish. Should we put up with dirt & hurt when we are striving to gain the ultimate treasure, the Kingdom of God? Yes, we should. Should we endure suffering and irritation too? Yes, we should, because when the beautiful, perfectly-formed pearl is separated out from the corruptible flesh, it is lovely and fit for a king. The ultimate treasure is the Kingdom of heaven. We Christians are determined to seek it out and to make the necessary sacrifices to gain it. And we shall succeed! Amen. God bless you.

FIGHT ON! THE GAME'S NOT OVER YET!

HOMILY FOR THE 16^TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A

Rev. Fr. Peter Onyekachi Ezekoka

Wisdom 12:13, 16-19        Romans 8:26-27        Matthew 13:24-43

In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us three parables about the Kingdom of God. The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares explains God’s patient delay of the time of judgement, and His permission for the co-existence of evil and good as a mixed crop of saints and sinners is grown. The wheat is almost overwhelmed as it grows alongside the tares, but it will be liberated with rejoicing at harvest-time. The Parable of the Mustard Seed is about the surprises of the final outcome of God’s Kingdom. The diminutive mustard seed sprouts and continues to burgeon until it becomes the biggest tree of all. The Parable of the Leaven reveals the quiet transforming power of God in achieving in us His desired end-product. The transformation may well be slow, but nonetheless it is taking place and the result will be extraordinary. The yeast acts in the flour, and the finished loaves come out of the oven with only the effects of the yeast visible. The action of the yeast within the flour is essential to produce the desired end-product. These parables do not only reveal God’s patience and transformative power working in each one of us, but they also emphasise that change and challenges are invariably associated with achieving - with getting to - the final victory. While this trio of parables serves to remind us that difficult situations have to be endured during the process of the building-up of the Kingdom, they also help us to appreciate the need for patience with the human will while the Kingdom is established.

Let me tell you a story to illustrate what I mean. Once Upon A Time, during a lockdown, when the Government pleaded with citizens to stay at home in order to stop the spread of a pandemic, Morag and her husband Hamish found themselves all alone at home and bored, bored, bored. Hamish was getting increasingly unsettled about the situation in which he found himself. ‘Let’s DO something,’ he said to Morag. ‘Anything. How about a game of Monopoly?’ Morag agreed. She went and put the kettle on to make a pot of tea while Hamish got the box out of the cupboard and set out the board. As the game progressed, Hamish became first depressed and then furious that the game was not going his way. Morag had the upper hand in the game from the start, and she revelled in it. She smiled insouciantly, sipping her cup of tea as Hamish lost a ton of Monopoly money and property. Worse, she turned the knife in the wound by taunting Hamish repeatedly about his lack of success. Hamish was so bagged-off with her provocative antics and his own dire performance in the game that he was tempted to slam down his cards on the table, finish the game there and then, and just walk away … but then realising how much he wanted to win, he recovered himself, took a deep draught of tea and got stuck back in. Patiently, doggedly, determined not to give up, he battled on in the hope of winning despite the dire situation in which he found himself. The reading from the Book of Wisdom today reveals the goodness of God who always gives us good reasons for hope.

The game was not yet over. Hamish muttered to the excited Morag that ‘the chips may be down, but he who dares, wins’. He concentrated on getting to the end as well as he could, the end which he hoped would see him victorious. So, let me ask you: how come you and I are so often tempted to give up, even though the final whistle has not yet gone? After all, where there’s life, there’s hope! Or, with reference to the words of the servant to his master in the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, why do we tend to view or perceive events only in the present, rather than looking towards the horizon, towards the future, towards the Kingdom, with present and eternal hope? The present difficulty in which we find ourselves is just a single episode in our pilgrimage of life. No one who sees only an episode, a part, an element of a thing is in a position to judge the whole of it. We need to dig in, to battle on, to work away, and to wait patiently.

Finally, at the end of the game, to Morag’s surprise, it was Hamish who was the winner. Life is, as they say, full of surprises! Hamish won because he refused to give in to the posturing and taunting of his wife, and because he beefed up his determination. Surprises do happen, don’t they? That faith in your life that you regard as minimal, as tiny as the mustard seed in the parable, can develop into a magnificent tree the strength and size of a Californian redwood if you let God be God. Remember too how the yeast changes the character of the whole batch, transforming the flour to make the bread soft, spongy, porous, tasty and good to eat? Like the action of yeast upon flour, the yeast of grace causes an extraordinary transformation in our lives and in the world if we let it. Indeed, we should battle on and not give up because we can be confident, as St. Paul says to the Romans, that the Holy Spirit comes to help us in our weakness. He abides in us and He continues to abide with us. Victory is assured. Thanks be to God, goodness always wins in the end, one way or another. Amen, God bless you.

MAKE MY HEART BE GOOD SOIL

HOMILY FOR THE 15^TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A)

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

Isaiah 55:10-11        Romans 8:18-23        Matthew 13:1-23

In relating the Parable of the Sower, Our Lord used a picture to which every inhabitant of Palestine could relate. You need to be aware, however, that a vital point is overlooked in most translations of the Bible: there is a mistranslation of the original Greek ò σπειρων as ‘a sower’ when it should be ‘the sower’. The mistranslation matters, because Jesus was not simply using someone carrying out farm work in the fertile fields around the shore at the time to make a point. Jesus was certainly speaking of Himself as ‘The Sower’. In today’s Gospel, Our Lord had to raise His voice to make Himself heard and understood by people. He made a boat His pulpit, and He taught from it offshore, using the water to amplify His voice in order to get His message across. He, the Word of God, spoken silently for the purpose of Creation, is the teacher/preacher and the Sower/Spreader of the Word of God to people made in the image of God. Human beings are equipped not only with intellect and will, but also with varied temperaments and dispositions, and with consciences at various stages of development. The parable is about receptivity to grace, and it identifies differing environments or ‘soils’ that affect the spiritual harvest of the word of God. Our Lord, the Sower, scatters His grain generously, open-handedly, risking the loss of some of it to gain a good harvest. He identifies for us the challenges associated with the mission of the Church to spread the word of God throughout the world.

The Parable of the Sower is the only parable that Jesus explained to the apostles. In it, He identified environments into which the grain of the gospel is sown and compared them to the degrees of receptivity of the human heart. The four environments are the wayside or pathway, the rocky ground, the thorny ground and the good soil. The soil of the pathway is trodden down as hard as a pavement by the public. In this environment, the seed does not grow because it cannot grow. There is nothing there to promote growth. The rocky ground has a sufficient covering of soil to permit the seed to survive for a while, but growth is minimal. How come? Well, in some parts of Palestine, immediately below the soil is limestone. The limestone retains the rain plus the heat from the sunlight just below the surface, so in this environment the seed sprouts quickly enough. It can’t put down roots, though, because of the limestone. The thorny ground also looks good outwardly after it’s been cleared of surface weeds and thorns, but the environment is no good for cultivation. Beneath the surface remains an impenetrable chain of roots, ready to burst forth with new and unwanted growth to overwhelm and choke the life out of the seed sown in it. It is impossible for the seed to thrive. The good soil, which has been fully prepared by the Sower, is deep enough and nutrient-rich enough and attended-to enough to allow the seed to germinate, to sprout and to bear a rich harvest. The heart that invites and allows the word of God to affect the entirety of its being is represented by this environment of ‘good soil’.

It’s important to remember that each one of us is going to be held accountable for the kind of heart we develop during our lifetime. Is it going to be obdurate, proud and secular, like the hardness of the wayside path; superficial, insubstantial and shallow, like the stony ground;  deceptive, delusory and delusional, like the thorny ground; or soft, cultivated, nourished and nurtured, like the rich ground? Just as the Lord makes the rain and the snow to fall down to water the earth and does not return to the heavens until it accomplishes its purpose (Is 55:10), so too, the word of God falls on every heart. The good heart that we want to develop is tender towards God, and it is recognisable because it actively does three things: it listens, it understands, and it obeys. The good heart is never too proud to listen to God; it is open to the Word and walks trustingly and consciously in it throughout the day, every day. The good heart makes sure it understands the gospel, takes it on board and puts it into practice in its daily life. The good heart obeys God by putting the word of God into action. That is how the good heart produces a plentiful harvest.

In Prov 4:23, the writer admonishes us to keep our hearts with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. He was absolutely correct! Together with God, we are the farmers, the cultivators, of our hearts. To keep our hearts with all vigilance and to guide our hearts away from losing the see on the first three ‘soils’ entails each one of us in discovering how best to make our heart fertile enough for the seed sown in it by God to sprout and bear a harvest. The knowledge and experience of the farmer, and how he goes about cultivation, determines to a great extent the fertility of the farmland. So, let me ask you: as the farmer of your heart (and by ‘heart’, I mean your soul, including your whole personality), have you discovered the way to fertilise and enrich it? What are you growing in your heart? Today there are so many distractions that can mar your heart, that can limit your progression towards eternal bliss, that can limit the degree of beatitude to which you can attain. You have free will, and your choice of newspapers, magazines, books, websites and social media reflects how superficial you are (on rocky or stony ground) or how subject to illusion in terms of “the cares of the world and the delight in riches” (Mk 4:19) you are (on thorny ground), or how open to God’s grace you are through the Church and the Sacraments (in rich soil). What stuff you gather from these publishing sources, and how they affect your heart, really matters, both in the present moment and in eternity. A true way of taking care of your heart is to embrace the Word of God…to allow the word to speak to you in the very depth of your heart. Search the scriptures, for in them are treasures for eternal life (Jn 5:39). Ensuring a great harvest involves great commitment! Each one of us must devote a significant amount of time to reading, absorbing, meditating upon and obeying the Word if we want to produce the rich harvest of the good soil.

And finally… the Parable of the Sower reveals Jesus’ assurance to us that, despite the challenges connected with the sowing of the seeds - the wayside, the stony ground and the thorny ground - the harvest will ultimately be plentiful. There is more than enough good soil to assure a harvest of thirty-fold, sixty-fold or a hundred-fold from the widely- and generously-flung grain. A rich harvest at the end is guaranteed, even though through their own choice, not every person ends up contributing to it. Not everybody ends up in Heaven via Purgatory. When we apply this sharp truth in relation to Isaiah in the First Reading and to St. Paul in the Second Reading, we discover why every word from the mouth of God accomplishes its purpose, and why the whole of creation groans for the revelation of this rich harvest; that is, for the final fulfilment of the Word of God. 

Let me conclude with this prayer: Lord Jesus, make my heart into good soil: when it is hard, break it to dust so that your Word may be sown in it; when it is cold, warm it so that your Word may sprout and grow in it; and when it is choked with the cares of this world, disentangle it and free it so that it may mature to produce the harvest of beatific vision. Amen. God bless you.

 

REVEALED TO MERE CHILDREN

HOMILY FOR THE 14^TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A)

Rev. Fr. Peter Onyekachi Ezekoka

Zechariah 9:9-10        Romans 8:9, 11-13        Matthew 11:25-30

Every generation, including ours, has its privileges. These privileges are accepted and taken advantage of by some, and are ignored or abused by others. There is no greater privilege afforded to us than that of knowing God personally, and of ploughing on in the hope of seeing Him face to face because He is the One who leads us to the Father. That privilege has been afforded to all generations of the past 2000 years by Jesus Christ Who, in putting an end to the eschatological mediation, is simultaneously the sole mediator of the New Covenant (Heb 9:15; 12:24) and the revealer par excellence of God to humanity. No one can go the Father except through the Christ (Jn 14:6). Looking at some of Jesus’ contemporaries, we find among them (cf. Mt 11:16-27) those who declined to accept the astonishing privilege afforded to their generation. Christ described these people as petulant and childish.

In today’s Gospel, which contains an excerpt of Jesus’ proclamation of His Messiahship, our Lord offers thanksgiving and praise to God the Father for what has been revealed to ‘mere children’ but remains hidden from ‘the learned and the clever’. It’s clear that these ‘mere children’ are not the same as those childish children referred to at the beginning of the chapter in Matthew. To understand who these ‘mere children’ identified by Jesus are, a comparison of them with those referred to as ‘learned and clever’ may be helpful.

The learned and the clever are those who are blinded to God’s truth, blinded to God’s will of bringing salvation through His Son Jesus, and blinded to the fact that Jesus was-and-is the Messiah, the mediator and the revealer of the true nature of God the Father to us. In the economy of salvation, Jesus is God-as-He-is-for-us – He reveals the fullness of God as far as we can grasp Him with our limited human understanding. Those who choose instead to rely solely on intellect and brain-power are, as St. Paul said, darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart (Eph 4:18). He goes on to say that they have become callous and have given themselves up to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of uncleanness. And who were these ‘learned and clever’ people in the context of today’s Gospel? They were those religious leaders and scribes who perceived themselves to be the lords and masters of the Law. They found it unreasonable to accept that God had chosen to come to them in a lowly manner, born in Bethlehem and raised in the Northern hamlet of Nazareth rather than in the capital city of Jerusalem, a humble tradesman. 

And so, they looked down on Jesus. I’m afraid, we repeat their errors when we today look down on others because of where they come from, how they appear, and what they do (their jobs). Not one of them was prepared to pick up and run with the fulfilment of the prophecy before their very eyes that your king comes to you…humble and riding on a donkey (Zech. 9:9). Seeing themselves as wise, intelligent, self-satisfied, and resting on their glittering abilities and achievements, they become blinded to what was really going on. The revelation of God eludes anybody who is ‘puffed up’ by their knowledge (1Cor 8:1) because know-alls tend to put love, mercy and charity on the back burner. I hope that, by cultivating the virtue of humility, we will all continue to do our utmost to avoid finding ourselves in that group so that we do not forfeit heaven.

The mere children are those who genuinely place their full trust in God. Because they willingly and deliberately surrender themselves to His will (1Jn 2:3-6), they are receptive and teachable, and they grow in holiness. They are the ones to whom the secrets of the Kingdom of God are revealed (Mt 13:10-11), because they not only accept the revelation of God through Jesus with a listening ear (Lk 11:28) and an open heart (Eph 1:18), but they go on to act on it (Jas 1:22). They are the ones who, in the words of St. Paul in the Second Reading,  possess the Spirit of God. They live in grace because they surrender their Pride and their self-will in favour of God’s Law and do what God wants of them. And who exactly are ‘they’? These ‘mere children’ are the ‘little children’ (Jn 13:33) – the disciples of Jesus. Seeing themselves correctly as those in need of God’s mercy, and relying at every moment upon God’s grace, they humble themselves and make themselves obedient to the teachings revealed by God (Jas 1:21). They imitate Jesus, their Lord and their God (cf. Jn 20:28) who is meek and humble in heart (Mt 11:29). without looking down on people, they relate with all peoples as they would with anybody.

And finally… it is the heart rather than the head that is the home of the Gospel. The gifts of intelligence and brilliance do not shut someone out of God’s Kingdom; what does exclude a person is the sin of Pride, involving the misuse and twisting of these gifts. The burdens of dullness of intellect or plain stupidity do not admit someone to God’s Kingdom; what does admit a person is the grace of humility. A person may be as wise as Solomon, but if they lack humility, innocence and a childlike heart, they shut themselves off from the possibility of entering the Kingdom of God. As we meditate on these words and make them our own, we pray that we may become one of these ‘mere children’ of whom our Lord Jesus spoke. Amen. God bless you.