WHAT ACTUALLY DOES BELONG TO CAESAR?

 

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

Rev. Fr. Peter Onyekachi Ezekoka

Isaiah 45:1, 4-6        1 Thessalonians 1:1-5        Matthew 22:15-21

Andrew was a little boy who was very fortunate in having loving parents who provided for his every need and spoiled him rotten! He had designer clothes, ‘must-have’ toys, and he was given pocket money every Saturday. At Christmas and for his birthdays, he got more gifts and more presents than any of his peers. Angus was a little boy who lived quite near Andrew, but he was treated very differently by his parents. Poor Angus had drawn the short straw in life. His parents couldn’t care less about him and left him to get by on whatever they could be bothered to give him. He had to wash and iron his tatty old clothes himself. Even at Christmas and on his birthdays, he didn’t receive any toys or pocket money. Now, these two little boys were friends and they used to play together. One day Angus broke one of Andrew’s toys by mistake. Andrew was so furious that he called Angus all sorts of nasty names, and deliberately demeaned him by saying that he couldn’t play with his expensive toys ever again  because there was no way Angus could afford to replace them.

Andrew’s mum happened to overhear him say this. She took her son to one side to have a word! What she said was, ‘Engage your brain, Andrew. Your dad has freely given you every single thing you have. Nothing was yours to start with. Can you name anything you have that he hasn’t given you because he loves you so much? Hey?’ She gave him one of her looks. Andrew hung his head in shame. Bullseye! Mum had got her message home. Andrew realised that all his possessions had been given to him as presents… that the nice home he was brought up in and the schooling he was having weren’t things he’d earned, things that were just his. He learnt very quickly to share his toys with Angus. Just like little Andrew, we don’t actually ‘own’ anything; nor did the mighty Caesar Tiberius in today’s Gospel reading.

In the Gospel, the Pharisees sent two parties to Jesus – the Pharisees’ disciples (rather than the leaders themselves) along with Herodians – to enquire whether or not it was permissible to pay taxes to the Roman Emperor, the Caesar. Notice the identity of the parties they sent, which clearly suggests that both were in broad opposition to Jesus. The Pharisees (the parushi who adhered to the Mosaic laws of purity) were theologically against the payment of taxes to a ritually-impure Gentile monarch, and were opposed to compromise with the Roman occupiers who had been in control since the year 6 AD. The Herodians (the party of Herod Antipas, the ruling Tetrarch of Galilee and Perea) supported politically autonomous rule over against Roman rule, but were not themselves subject to Roman taxation because of Herod. Having plotted together against Jesus from the beginning of His mission (cf. Mk 3:6), these two parties came together to trap Jesus. The Greek verb in the text is pagideuo which means to trap or to entangle a hunted animal (cf. Eccl 9:12). Here we see conflicting parties uniting in order to entangle, to incriminate Him.

Jesus demanded to see a coin of the type used to pay taxes. Doesn’t it strike you as odd that the very people who were keen on political independence and ritual purity happened to have a coin symbolic of political collusion and spiritual compromise on them? He asked his questioners: ‘whose image [head] is this?’ It was Caesar’s. Then He said to them: ‘Give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar - and to God what belongs to God’. Images of the Roman emperors were imprinted on the coins in circulation to certify who was in charge. The coins “took the face” ‘lambano prosopon’ of each new Caesar after the death of the previous one, and the coins with the former image were taken out of circulation. The image (the ‘eikon’) of the Caesar on the coin was only in circulation as long as that particular Caesar lived. Similarly, whatever belonged to the temporal and transient Caesar was itself temporal and transient.

Let’s make a comparison with what happens to what eternally belongs to God, i.e. the human soul. Even Caesar’s soul belongs to God, because the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it (Ps 24:1). Caesar had his head on a coin, but God gifted Caesar with his head, his mind, his body, his life, his soul, and with everything that he thought he owned, because God is his Creator. So, what do Caesars both ancient and modern actually own? Nothing! Nada! Zero! Zilch! Everything each Caesar ‘owns’ really belongs to God. Who, then, do you choose: God or Caesar? Do you choose the One to Whom everything belongs and is eternal, or do you choose someone who doesn’t actually ‘own’ anything and is passing, temporal? To put the question another way, would you rather choose a mass-produced product that functions but doesn’t last long, or a fine product that lasts and lasts and delivers? I’m sure you’d choose God, for everyone loves quality, longevity and performance.

Jesus refused to go down the political path in order to realise the Kingdom of God on earth, and He refused to become entangled in the ambitions of those who wanted to make him king (Jn 6:15). In the First Reading, God used Cyrus, a Persian King rather than an Israelite, to bring about the liberation and restoration of Israel. Cyrus was declared by the prophet Isaiah to be the anointed of the Lord to rebuild Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile. God chooses all sorts of people to accomplish His Will, including people from the bottom of the heap to the top, because everyone and everything belongs to Him (Deut 10:14). That is why ‘giv[ing] to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God’ means ‘giving to God that which is totally His in the first place’. Caesar actually owns nothing!

Every Christian has dual citizenship of earth and of heaven. Yes, we owe civil obedience to the government of our country (cf. Titus 3:1) unless it would be contradictory to the Faith to submit; but our obedience to God encompasses our religious, civil, political, economic and social duties (Ps 89:18-28)! The leaders of this world urgently need to be reminded that their authority and powers were given to them by God specifically to be used in service of His people. All people are loved dearly in the eyes of God (Mt 5:43ff), and they are due their just rights and privileges. In the same way as citizens owe their leaders obedience (cf. Rom 13:1), leaders owe their people respect and service (Ac 10:34f). And like little Andrew in our first story (the privileged boy who learned to share his toys through the realization that they were all presents), we ought to live out our lives in the full awareness that everything we have is gifted to us by our God our Maker. May the Lord help us to conform our lives in obedience to Him, and continually to be aware with deep gratitude that He is the be-all and end-all of our lives. Amen. God bless you.

 

THE WEDDING BANQUET IS READY… INVITE EVERYONE!

 

HOMILY FOR THE 28^TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A)

Rev. Fr. Peter Onyekachi Ezekoka

Isaiah 25:6-10        Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20        Matthew 22:1-14

“Parties are what I like most / lots to drink, dead things on toast” quipped the Christian poet John Betjeman. We all love extravagant celebrations with good company and good food, don’t we! Wedding breakfasts, “big birthday” bashes and formal dinners are part and parcel of life’s enjoyable occasions. Someone generously going to the massive effort and expense of organising a banquet expects to have a huge number of people accepting the invitation to attend because they all know it’s going to be a memorably happy occasion. The celebrant hopes people will be delighted to accept and attend, but how deeply disappointing it is if positive responses are not forthcoming. People can be extremely hurt if their invitation is declined, especially if no valid reason is given - or worse, if people say they are coming and then don’t bother to put in an appearance. Friendships can be undermined and trust in each other from then on can be ruptured. In the Bible, heaven is symbolized by a banquet (Is 54:5; cf. Lk 14:15; Lk 22:16,18; Mt 26:29) and blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb (cf. Rev 19:7-9). God doesn’t want us to disappoint Him by turning down His invitation to the great feast of heaven, the Messianic banquet.

Both the First Reading and the Gospel today mirror the final, eschatological banquet. In situating the banquet on a mountain (Mount Zion) the First Reading adds some hopeful notes regarding its image:

· it is a feast for all peoples. which brings great comfort and comes with total newness

· it reflects the desire of an impoverished people for a lavish meal  

· it wipes away all tears, destroys death (cf. Rev 20:4.14) and restores hope.

The banquet of heaven is a celebration of lasting joy and victory. In the Gospel, in which Our Lord tells the parable of the Wedding Feast of the King’s Son, the first thing we notice is the abundance of excellent food, the steaks and roasts long in the planning, plus the readiness of the host to welcome his guests. Then we note the fate of those who humiliated the king by publicly dishonouring the invitation, even to the extent of maltreating and murdering the king’s servants who went out to encourage them to attend. Finally, we observe how someone brought in from the highways and byways was punished and thrown out for not being appropriately dressed for the banquet.

Now, to understand this parable a bit better, we need to be aware that it is set in the context of a Jewish custom. In those days, whenever the invitations to a banquet or a big feast were sent out, the actual date and time of the feast were not set until all the preparations (based on the number of acceptances) had come together. When everything was finally ready, servants went out to let the guests know that it was time to come. So, the parable assumes that the king had already sent out invitations, but that it was not until everything was ready that the summons had been issued. In the parable, the human king represents God the Father, and the invited guests who deliberately dishonoured the king’s invitation represent the Jewish people. Long ago, God made a covenant with the Jews (Gen 17:7) to be God’s chosen people; but when the Son of God, Jesus, came to them in Person, they reacted to Him with contempt or disinterest. The upshot was that God’s invitation was extended to everyone: the people from the highways and byways represent both the Gentiles and sinners who honoured God’s invitation (cf. Is 25:6-8). The eschatological feast of God for all people and for all nations is the Wedding Banquet of Jesus (cf. 1Cor 15:54; Rev 7:17 & 31:4).

The initially-invited guests turned deaf ears to the invitation and instead deliberately involved themselves in long-term projects. They demonstrated that they never really intended to go to the feast; one went off to look after his farm, another concentrated on his business, while the rest seized, tortured and killed the servants. You know from personal experience how easy it can be for us to be so busy with the things of day-to-day living in chronological time that we forget the things of eternity, to be so occupied with the things which we can see that we forget the reality of things which we cannot see, to hear so easily the noise and babble of the world that we cannot hear the gentle voice of God. We can be so preoccupied with making a living that we forget to make a life in God. And when forgetfulness of these crucial things becomes habitual, the consequence is the creation of a chasm between us and God.

Let’s now consider the person who entered the feast without the proper attire. Jesus said: And the king noticed one man who was not wearing a wedding garment. When we want to go out on a visit, we pay attention to the dress code; don’t we? We apply appropriate dress codes according to the occasion, whether for shopping, working in the garden, going out for entertainment or for going to church. People don’t (normally) change the oil in a car in their best clothes, nor turn up for a dinner-dance in their tatty old gardening clothes. It is true that the door to the feast of the Holy Eucharist is open to everyone, of course; but when people accept the invitation and do come in, they need to bring with them a life which seeks to fit the supranatural love which has been shown to them. The door remains open to all sinners, of course, but not to sinners who deliberately continue in sin when they enter; rather, it is for the sinners to aspire to become saints and to change their lives (their wedding garments) accordingly. The grace of invitation brings with it serious responsibility. We must allow our encounter with Christ to transform us by receiving His invitation with great joy. Anyone who refuses to bring that joy in with them is, in practice, rejecting God’s invitation.

This parable is not delivering a fashion statement about the way we ought to dress when we go to Church, although modesty is certainly appropriate; rather, it has everything to do with the spirit in which we go into God’s house. The garments of the mind, heart and soul reflect the garment of the body. Are we sometimes guilty of going to Church in a bad mood, unprepared, without having carried out an examination of conscience, lacking petitions for anybody other than ourselves, and with a faulty disposition to worship Almighty God, the Creator and sustainer of the universe? Do we sometimes go to church just to socialize and catch-up on the latest news and gossip? Faults such as these indicate that we are not properly dressed in our wedding garment for the feast. Think about the atmosphere of joy and the spiritual abundance we would all enjoy if we all were to put on the proper garments and the right disposition for worship of God!

God expects us to wear the proper attire of the fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal 5:22f). He also expects us to come with the right character and backbone, like St. Paul’s disposition in the Second Reading, sharing our time and our possessions in one another’s hardship and supplying one another’s needs in a way worthy of our Christian calling. Like St. Paul, we should not be ashamed to ask for what we truly need, and it is actually a privilege for us to share what we possess. May we pray for the zeal to continue to acquire and wear the proper attire needed for the great feast in heaven. May the Lord hear and grant this petition. Amen. God bless you.

GOD’S VINEYARD IS SALVATION HISTORY

                         HOMILY FOR THE 27^TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A)

Rev. Fr. Peter Onyekachi Ezekoka

Isaiah 5:1-7 Philippians 4:6-9 Matthew 21:33-43

Here’s a question for you. How far has humanity failed to realize that human beings are only the caretakers of the earth?

Well, the simple answer is that whenever someone has ambitions to be the leader of the planet or to position himself at the centre of the universe, what follows in his wake is disorder due to a disregard of God, the creator, sustainer and owner of the earth. The Psalmist was correct when he said that the earth belongs to the Lord, and everything in it; the world and those who dwell therein (Ps 24:1). Yes, in every generation, we are only the caretakers, and in many ways, we have failed in our duty to handle the resources of the earth with proper care and attention. Our mandate from God to fill the earth and subdue it (Gen 1:28) should be understood not in the exploitative sense of kabash but, rather, in terms of harnessing and managing the earth fruitfully. Today, the cries of how our common home has been degraded remind us of our role as carers of the earth. We have to imbue our responsibility as labourers for the kingdom of heaven on earth with an ecological spirituality that acknowledges people as vines in God’s vineyard.   

In today’s Gospel, Our Lord tells the parable of how some wicked tenants planned to usurp the vineyard that was not theirs, and ultimately to possess it. According to the custom of the times, a vineyard was usually planted on tenanted land owned by a landlord. By agreement, the landlord left the cultivation of his vineyard in the sole care of the tenant(s) until harvest time, when a percentage or a fixed amount of the fruit became due to him. It is in this context that our Lord tells a story of a landlord who sent his servants in two batches to get the agreed produce from his property, but were all killed by the tenants. Believing that his only son would command their respect and get them to pay up, he sent him, but they killed him too. This situation was used by Christ to demonstrate the stubbornness manifested by the tenants (the Jewish leaders) to God (the landlord) who never stopped sending messengers to them, even His only Son, Jesus the Christ. The lesson is that no matter how often human beings try to play God, reject Him, destroy His messengers or even His own Son, God remains the rightful Landlord of the vineyard, and retains the power to end any contract with unjust tenants and install others.

Every tenant of a vineyard knows at first hand the never-ending amount of attention and fortification it requires. It is the individual tenant’s function to care for the vineyard in order to ensure that the vines produce good grapes in good numbers rather than a harvest of sour grapes. In the First Reading, Yahweh regards Israel as his vineyard - the vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel (cf. the Responsorial Psalm). He wills Israel, his own planting, to produce at least adequate grapes, but instead the harvest is of wild grapes. As punishment for the tenants’ failure to accomplish the will of God and to reciprocate His love, Israel’s dignity and respect will be diminished, just as a vineyard loses much of its value when it fails to produce good grapes. For us today, the site of ‘the vineyard’ covers three areas: first and foremost, our hearts; secondly, the kingdom of God (the Church) here on earth; and thirdly, the society in which we live. Christ entrusts us with these sites of the ‘vineyard’ and expects us to cultivate them, to care for them and to render proper stewardship to Him at the end of the day. We must be very careful to avoid emulating the attitudes and actions of the unjust tenants. There’s nothing new under the sun (Eccles 1:9) … there’s always a worm of greed busily burrowing away! Over time, these sitting tenants were tempted to assume proprietary legacy, placing themselves on a par with the unseen landlord. The tenants’ myopic opinion of their truth over against God’s truth appeared to them to be identical, which is why punishment was imposed.  

The wicked tenants were malicious in refusing to pay their landlord what they owed, in eliminating all his servants and in killing the only son, the heir to the father’s property. They tried to usurp an inheritance that was not theirs. They were driven by malicious greed to have all the produce for themselves and greed caused them to destroy anyone in their way. Today we see on our televisions and online a procession of people possessed by an uncontrollable desire to possess kingdoms, nations, property, power, recognition and wealth, and who are ready to take out anyone standing in their way of achieving their material goals. On a much smaller scale, we too can be guilty of malicious greed, greed which leads us both to neglect the very foundation of our lives Who is God, and also to our justifiable judgement by God (cf. Mt 7:2). The context of the parable is the judgement of God. Universal salvation is not what Our Lord preached. He used the language of judgement throughout the Gospels. Christ is the cornerstone of the heavenly Kingdom, and rejection of Him brought its magnificent earthly edifice down upon the heads of the wicked tenants after His death, resurrection and ascension. While we have confidence that God’s mercy is always open to us, faith without actions is dead, and genuine trust in Jesus is evidenced through the fruit of repentance. The tenants selfishly breached their agreement with the landlord in refusing to give Him his due. Furthermore, they failed to repent of their behaviour. We might sometimes find ourselves wanting, claiming and hoarding the good things of life for ourselves without considering the needs of others. In hoarding material items for ourselves and (by extension) for our families, we can lose sight of the many who suffer as a direct result of our selfishness and/or ill-will, and incur God’s ire.  

Credible ways of helping ourselves to overcome undesirable attitudes include following St. Paul’s admonition (in the Second Reading) to fill our minds with everything virtuous or worthy of praise. Purposefully directing the mind that way will help to develop our spirit of solidarity with, and empathy for, those around us. It is vital for us to recognize that we are accountable to God for the way in which we use His specific gifts to us (1Peter 4:10f), and that whatever we have is only given to us for not just our own good but for the good of the many whose lives we should touch positively (Rom 12:6-8). We do not want to take the patience of God for granted (2Pet 3:15) or be caught up with His holy anger (Rom 1:18ff). So we pray to Jesus, our cornerstone (Eph 2:20): the stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone (Ps 118:22). The cornerstone is the first stone to be laid, the foundation stone, the primary support of all the other stones which are placed upon it and held firm by it. Jesus is the Word of God, spoken for the purpose of creation, and the Foundation of God’s new creation to help us to continually build upon Him for no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ (1Cor 3:11). Keep relying on Him for every support (Ps 46:1ff) and for victory over every temptation (1Cor 10:13). Amen. God bless you.

 

OUR ‘YES’ TO GOD

                     HOMILY FOR THE 26^TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A)

Rev. Fr. Peter Onyekachi Ezekoka

Ezekiel 18:25-28        Philippians 2:1-11        Matthew 21:28-32

What is the best way to say ‘yes’ to God? Today’s readings clarify the relationships between what we say and what we do, and between what we promise God and what we actually do to carry out those promises. In the Gospel, Jesus used the parabolic story of a father and his two sons in order to teach about the importance of keeping promises made to God and to other people. Using the content to critique the religious leaders of His day, Jesus revealed that they were failing in their service to God while outwardly being perceived as carrying it out. The leaders weren’t listening to God, and consequently their faith was stagnant. Through the story, in which actions speak louder than words, Jesus underlined how worthless are empty promises made to God and man, and how vital it is that promises are kept.

One by one, the sons were instructed by their father to go out and work in his vineyard. The first son refused to do his father’s will, but changed his mind and complied. The second son agreed to do the father’s will, but reneged on his promise and didn’t go. Of the two, the first actually did the father’s will because he was the one that did the work. Had there been a third son in that story who promised to do the father’s will and fulfilled it, he would have been the ideal example of faith, because the models of the sons are both flawed. Neither of the sons brought their father complete joy. However, Christ only needed the examples of the two sons to remind the Jewish religious leaders of the greater readiness of those at the bottom of the heap to accept the message of repentance; ‘for tax-collectors and prostitutes are making their way into the kingdom of heaven before you.’  

Let’s take a closer look at the contrasting reactions of the two sons in the context of ‘change’ to see how a mixture of the personalities is evident in each one of us. Why did the first son change his mind and do what his father wanted? He did it because he made a positive change from verbal disobedience to active obedience. As sinners, we need to make a daily examination of conscience to discern when we have (mistakenly or deliberately) offended God, and if change is necessary in order to do His will. The second son changed his mind too, but he made a negative change from verbal obedience to active disobedience. That kind of change is to be studiously avoided. In the first reading, the Lord encourages positive change, and defends his ways as fair, condemning the virtuous person who turns from His ways towards iniquity, and forgiving the wicked person who turns to Him to do what is right: if he turns from the wickedness he has committed, and does what is right and just, then he shall preserve his life. He will live for having repented. Whenever we are going to make changes in life, they had better be positive ones.

Everyone who has a personal relationship with God ought to be someone who says yes and does yes. God’s Commandments ought to be observed and His Will carried out judiciously. The right thing to do is to ensure that promises made are promises kept: keep all the promises you make to God (Eccl 5:2). To make a promise is to make a commitment. Whatever your lips utter you must be sure to do, because you made your vow freely to the Lord your God with your own mouth (Deut 23:23). Each one of us is guilty at some time in life of making a promise and failing to keep it. Our sacramental life challenges us to keep the promises we make to God. Remember that our Baptismal promises are to be kept! Couples to be joined in Holy Matrimony have no problems in saying ‘yes’ to take each other ‘for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health’ on their wedding day, but may find it increasingly difficult to keep their promises to each other through the ups and downs of life. Priests have no problem with saying ‘yes’ to God at Ordination, but may find it increasingly challenging to observe the incessant demands of their vocation as the years roll by.

Living out the Christian life consistently well is admittedly a struggle. Broken promises lead to broken relationships. People are left with broken hearts when marriages fail and promises are broken. When promised prayers for people going through a hard time fail to be offered, heaven is not stormed. We all know people who have promised to walk alongside us through thick and thin, only to see them melt into the mist when we need a leg up. Equally, we all know that there have been times when we ourselves are guilty of having let people down. Those feelings of remorse should move us to start keeping our promises Big Time!

The trail of broken promises that we leave behind adversely affects both our personal relationship with God and our everyday dealings with one another. One of the major causes of making empty or unfulfilled promises is the lack of the virtue of self-control, and specifically the mastery of what comes out of our mouths: sin is unavoidable when there is much talk, but whoever seals his lips is wise (Prov 10:19). One way of ensuring that our promises are credible is to resolve to think through carefully what we mean to say before we speak, because it is better not to make promises than not to keep them (cf. Eccl 5:5). To achieve this end, we constantly require the gift of God’s grace to guide us. Let us pray for the grace of obedience to God in all things, and for the grace of discernment when it’s better to keep our own counsel than to speak. Amen. God bless you. 

HAVE I NO RIGHT TO DO WHAT I LIKE WITH MY OWN?

HOMILY FOR THE 25^TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A)

Rev. Fr. Peter Onyekachi Ezekoka

Isaiah 55:6-7         Philippians 1:20c-24.27a        Matthew 20:1-16

HOMILY FOR THE 25^TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A)

Rev. Fr. Peter Onyekachi Ezekoka

Isaiah 55:6-7         Philippians 1:20c-24.27a        Matthew 20:1-16

HAVE I NO RIGHT TO DO WHAT I LIKE WITH MY OWN?

Everything that we receive from God is gifted to us freely from the abundance of His grace, and is not earned or deserved by anything we can possibly do. Grace is the free gift of God which radiates His generosity and enfolds the recipient. It is impossible for anyone to merit the grace that God offers gratuitously. In earthly terms, we have to get a job in order to get paid and put food on the table, but in heavenly terms - out of God’s sheer generosity - we are favoured by His free gift of grace, and fed in the Holy Eucharist. The difference between ‘labour’ and ‘favour’ is highlighted in today’s Gospel reading. Labourers are paid according to the hours put in and the work done, for the labourer deserves his wages (Lk 10:7). Labourers can lay rightful claim to financial reward for their labour, but no one can lay rightful claim to God’s gratuitous gift of grace. Why not? Because God’s thinking is not restricted, as human thinking is: your ways are not my ways, says the Lord (Is 55:8).

In the parable of ‘the labourers in the vineyard’, Jesus identified three groups of labourers: the first was employed at daybreak, the second during the day, and the third in the late afternoon. When it came to payment time at the end of the working day, the landowner paid all of them the same amount. The first group grumbled over the level of pay they received, even though it was what they had agreed to work for. The landowner’s response was to tell one of them: I am not being unjust to you…have I no right to do what I like with my own? Even if those labourers who had toiled throughout the day perceived themselves as being done down, their payment for the day’s job was a proper day’s wage for a proper day’s work. Their first problem was that they focused only at the reward.

‘The first will be last’ if the Christian’s concern is rooted in getting a reward out of God at the end of earthly life, rather than in spending one’s life in devoted service of God for love of Him because of Who He Is. Now, consider this! In the parable, there was an agreement between the landowner (God) and the first group (the apostles) for payment of a denarius. A denarius was worth a full day’s pay. There was no agreement between the landowner and the second group about the actual amount they would be paid, but simply a word of trust that they would be given a fair wage. There was no contractual agreement between the landowner and the third group, nor was there any word of trust about what they would receive. Those in the second and third groups, who were engaged later, needed work and pay just as much as the first group, of course. That’s why they willingly left the landowner to fix the amount they would receive. Our primary concern in serving God on earth in His vineyard should not be the size of the reward we will receive from Him in eternity. ‘The first will be last’ would apply if the size of the reward were to become the sole aim of someone’s Christian service. Here we see a paradox, because earthly rewards make a person financially richer on earth, but demanding heavenly rewards of God (instead of appreciating the enormous, undeserved privilege of serving God and of loving Him for His own sake) makes their soul poorer.

The first group were envious of the other men because, in human terms, they saw men who had done a lot less work than them getting the same pay, the same reward. This is where their second problem lies: Envy. Their complaint emanated from envy, because the generous landowner had paid all the labourers the same: why be envious because I am generous? Envy is the fourth deadly sin, and can shut us out of the Kingdom of heaven. It causes the first to be last (cf. Mt 20:16). A credible way of fighting envy is to recognize the abundance in God who gratuitously offers people what they each deserve. We are each unique! And our God-given favours and blessings are all connected to our uniqueness. Our perfect beauty then blossoms when we each starts living with our own uniqueness. You now see why there’s then no need to be envious of another person’s uniqueness, for whatever you perceive as success sprouts from people’s uniqueness.

With regard to the landowner's method of payment, Labour Unions today are not going to adopt this parable as their charter or mission statement. They will reject, for instance, any move to make a level 16 (executive) worker earn same amount as a level 11 (shop floor) worker. Children would moan that it was “not fair” if their peers got the same pocket money as them without putting in the same effort to help out with household chores. Students would protest if every one of them were automatically given A-grades for their work, regardless of their efforts. Apply these examples to discerning the difference between human thinking and divine thinking, and you’ll see how radically God’s ways differ from our ways.

Here’s a more serious task for you: think about those critical moments and chains of events in life that prompt human beings to question the justice of God, as did the labourers who were called first. Those critical moments and chains of events remind us that in no way is God’s generous gift of grace confined to the bounds of the human mind. God is ‘the landowner’ in the parable, and everyone is invited to accept His offer to work for Him in His ‘vineyard’, on earth. He actively seeks out and calls people to work in His mission of love. The Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost (Lk 19:10). Isn’t that a marvellous gift of grace! Now, to paraphrase Isaiah’s message in the First Reading, that ‘His thoughts are not our thoughts, His ways are not our ways’, we have a warning here against expecting God to act in the same way as people do. And realistically, this warning could be made clearer in difficult times when we are faced with feelings of hopelessness.

Isaiah was preaching to a people struggling with feelings of hopelessness and darkness, as we ourselves can be. In the face of hopelessness and darkness, the prophet reassures the people that God is still to be found and still near and encourages the people of God to turn back to the Lord (Is 55:6). The Responsorial Psalm consoles us that, The Lord is close to those who call Him (Ps 145:18). Here we are faced with yet another paradox! At one moment, we sense that God is so close to us and His abundant graciousness towards us is so overwhelming, that we seem to be looking straight into the blinding light of the sun. The next moment, He is so close to us that it seems as though He has His hands over our eyes and we can see nothing but darkness. In such moments, we do not badger God with our petitions and requests; our thoughts are absorbed into the presence of God because they fade into insignificance in the experience of receiving the free gift of His grace. Rather, we simply rest in peace and wonder, loving God because of His glory. We pray for the grace of perseverance in the truth that God is truly near to us, even in those circumstances beyond our control Amen. God bless you.

 

THE MORE YOU FORGIVE, THE STRONGER YOU BECOME.

HOMILY FOR THE 24^TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A)

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

Sirach 27:30 -28:7        Romans 14:7-9        Matthew 18:21-35

Forgiveness is the giving up of one’s right to return hurt for hurt, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth (Ex 21:24; cf. Mt 5:38-42). Today is Forgiveness Sunday. It was on May 13^th 1981 that an assassination attempt was made on the life of Pope St. John Paul II (“the Great”) by Mehmet Ali Agca. As the Pope was entering St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City, Agca shot the Pope four times, causing him severe injury plus massive blood loss. The assassin was apprehended immediately and was sentenced to life imprisonment by an Italian court. Following the shooting, the Pope asked people to “pray for my brother...whom I have sincerely forgiven.” In 1983 Agca had a private audience with the Pope, who continued to keep in touch with Agca’s mother and brother, whom the Pope described as his brother. In June 2000, at the request of the Pope, Agca was pardoned by the Italian President, Carlo Ciampi. The Pope was strong; he was able to forgive.

In the parable in today’s Gospel, the king was similarly strong – strong enough to be able to forgive the servant the much he owed. His servant, however, was weak: he lacked the strength to be able to forgive his fellow servant even the little he owed. As a result, the first servant received a severe punishment from his master. It was Peter who asked Jesus how often an offender can be forgiven: As often as seven times? (Mt 18:21). Now, the thinking of the time was that God’s forgiveness did not extend beyond three offences, and that He would exact punishment for a fourth. Yahweh had spelled out a series of condemnations on nations whose transgressions numbered at least three (Amos 1:3-13; 2:1-6); as man could not be more gracious than God, it followed that forgiveness was necessarily limited. In that context, Peter probably assumed that Our Lord would commend him for being big-hearted in expanding the limit to ‘seven times’. To show that forgiveness ought, however, to be limitless, Jesus used hyperbole to extend the number to 77 times or (as some versions of the Bible have it) 70 x 7 times. In other words, heaven places no limits on love, forgiveness and mercy. Our Lord is from heaven, and He is speaking the language of heaven. He is preparing us for how we are to be in eternity. To drive home the point, Jesus told the parable of the unforgiving servant, beginning ‘the Kingdom of heaven may be compared to …’

In the parable, observe how the other servants were stricken by the action of the wicked servant. God’s true people are always stricken when they see people suffering, mistreated, abused, or downtrodden, because God saw that all things were good when He created them (Gen 1:3ff). Cruel and mean treatment always troubles the Christian because it is demonic. Satan and his minions are at work. It could be argued that the unforgiving servant was legally in the right in casting his fellow man into prison because he couldn’t pay his debt, but the question is whether he acted morally, having been forgiven his own unpayable debt. What he did was just, according to the law of the land, but it was not holy according to the law of heaven. The question of how we as Christians meet the demands of justice and holiness continues to confront us. Ignorance of the law is never accepted in court as an excuse for breaking the law. The same holds true in divine law. When faced with an issue with legal implications, it is necessary for us to ask ourselves, ‘what does the law of the land say about it?’ and then, ‘what does divine law say about it?’ If the answers differ, the law of the land may seriously bump up against Our Lord’s teaching (cf. Jer 29:11). Any act that is deemed to be just in secular law but sinful according to divine law is not going to be identified as a good moral act. Let’s have a look at how the other servants reacted to the wicked servant’s action. What they did was to take the matter higher; they took it to the king himself. They didn’t sit back quietly and let evil thrive. They did something about it. They didn’t allow legalism combined with oppression to destroy someone. They wanted mercy and compassion and moral justice to be shown. They gave us a model to follow.

In the end, the unforgiving servant ended up destroying himself. After he’d been pardoned, he failed to pardon someone else. He was thrown into prison until he fulfilled conditions impossible to meet – in other words, never. Not forgiving someone is comparable to drinking poison, and then hoping it will kill someone else! A heart that does not forgive, a heart that refuses to forgive, poisons itself.  Exhorting us to forgive, the Wisdom writer of the First Reading reminds us that God’s forgiveness and mercy are effected when we forgive one another’s sins. Forgiveness is an expression of holy love for the other person, because it indicates that the God-given humanity of the offender is far more important than their sinfulness. As a Christian, you know the value of the person to God. Judas valued Jesus at 30 pieces of silver, but God values each one of us because He created us in His own image (Gen 1:27), He never forgets us (Is 49:15), He loves us no matter what (Jer 31:3), He died for us while we were still sinners (Rom 5:8) and He redeemed us by His Blood (1Pet 1:18f).

What can you do whenever you find it hard to forgive someone? Here are some suggestions:

1) Be thankful: When someone has done something which you find hard to forgive, give thanks to God for the experience, because it has made you grow in grace. Oprah Winfrey said: ‘true forgiveness is when you can say, thank you for that experience.’

2) Wish them well: A sign that forgiveness has started in you is when you genuinely wish the person well for God’s sake, even when you are hurting from what they have done.

3) Work on your mind. Remember that the wicked servant intended to pay and begged for patience, as we do too whenever we say, “Forgive us our trespasses …”. Our Lord is the eternal Judge, and He is telling us: “vengeance is mine”.(Deut 32:35; Rom 12:17ff).

4) Move forward: Bearing a grudge holds you back. Don’t you want to move forward? The truth is that unless you deliberately let go, forgive the offender, forgive yourself, forgive the situation and accept that it’s over, you cannot move forward. It is only when we pass on God’s mercy to others that God’s mercy grows in us.

Here on earth, forgiveness is hard because it runs contrary to human nature. One strong reason why we must forgive one another is that when we forgive, we will have discovered that it brings us God’s peace and tranquillity. There is guilt in every heart, but God’s mercy is passed on when we imitate Him in holy love. We must be forgiving and merciful, not merely to fulfil a protocol, not merely to display good manners or to ‘be nice’, but to transform us as it transforms others.

We ought to apologize when we should, and forgive those who hurt us even when they have yet to ask for forgiveness. They may never do. Forgive them simply because it is holy to forgive. Forgiveness is an unfamiliar language because it comes from heaven. When we forgive, we discover that we have set two prisoners free, one of whom is ourself. May the Lord help us in our struggles to be instruments of His limitless compassion and forgiveness for all of us on earth. Amen. God bless you.

IF HE LISTENS… YOU HAVE WON BACK A BROTHER

 

HOMILY FOR THE 23^RD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A)

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

Ezekiel 33:7-9        Romans 13:8-10        Matthew 18:15-20

Today’s readings are on the theme of reconciliation. The dictionary definition of ‘reconciliation’ is ‘the re-establishment of friendly relations’ with people. The function of reconciliation is to restore peace and harmony to a relationship. In the Gospel, Our Lord outlines a sequence for the Apostles (the leaders of the Church) to follow when tackling the thorny problem of fraternal correction. Is that sequence relevant for us today? Of course it is! In Our Lord’s sequence there are three logical steps:

1. Dare to Reconcile

2. Dare to Discipline

3. Dare to Pray

Dare to Reconcile

The first step in dealing with a perceived offence is to make a discreet step towards reconciliation. This is done by the person offended against going to see the offender about it on his own; if your brother does something wrong [the original text states here ’against you’], go and have it out with him alone, between your two selves (Mt 18:15). This initial step has to be taken gently. It precludes disclosing matters to others and publicly rebuking the offender when he has yet to be spoken to privately. Why? Because the offender is first and foremost our brother or sister in Christ. It is also essential to maintain confidentiality from the outset,  because people are sometimes unaware that they have done something that offends. If the attempt to effect reconciliation is made public at this stage, then the parties involved may take up entrenched positions: the Christian must not quarrel, but must be kind to all (2Tim 2:24).

It’s important to let the accused person have his say in order to discover the likelihood of his being innocent, guilty or the accusation not provable. He has to be given the opportunity to defend himself. If he isn’t allowed to give his side of the story, then the division between the parties will probably deepen. If the object of the dispute happens to be personal, then the chances of reconciliation may evaporate unless both accuser and accused watch what they say. Taking this initial step is in itself an act of charity, and is a prerequisite for making a material offering to God: if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go: first be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift (Mt 5:23f). The matter must not be left to fester.

If the first step fails, and an unwillingness on the part of the offender to reconcile remains, then the second step is for the person trying to effect reconciliation to make another attempt, this time accompanied by one or two witnesses. This is to make it clear that the one seeking reconciliation genuinely wants it, and that the one being approached to reconcile is a loved brother or sister in Christ who is wanted back in the fold, in the Church. The presence of witnesses is necessary to ensure that the matter under dispute is explored objectively rather than subjectively.

If the second step fails, then the third step is for the matter to be reported to the local Church community. Why? Because if the issue is so serious that it cannot be sorted out at ground level, then the community needs to be alerted in order to pray together to find a solution as a matter of urgency. Scandal-mongering needs to be prevented from happening among the faithful (who are not in possession of the full facts) and potentially from spreading into wider society. Our Lord’s purpose in setting out these three steps is to keep sin and division in check before they have the chance to wound the faith community, the Church. All three steps must be followed in love. St. Paul reminds us in the Second Reading that love is the one thing that cannot hurt our neighbour.

Dare to Discipline 

Disciplining (in the sense of imposing one or more sanctions) is only to be actioned when the three steps to reconciliation have been attempted and have failed. Jesus said: if he [the brother in Christ] refuses to listen to the Church, treat him as you would treat a Gentile or a tax collector (Mt 18:17). To understand what Our Lord meant, we need to know how Jews at the time of Jesus treated Gentiles and tax collectors. Although the Temple had a special court for Gentiles, Jews avoided contact and intermarriage with Gentiles. Tax collectors, whether Jew of Gentile, were reviled because of their financial exploitation of the people and their collaboration with the Roman occupation. The point of discipline is to separate out the unrepentant offender from the faithful, to quarantine him until he is willing to reconcile. He is not banished from the Church, and the door is left ajar for him to return. After all, Christ came to call sinners to repentance (Mt 9:13; Lk 5:32). It is not the healthy that need the doctor, but the sick (Mt 9:12 Lk 5:31).

 

The Church witnesses to the love and mercy of God. Just like the prophet Ezekiel, who was entrusted with the mission to call the people to repentance, the Church is tasked with preaching repentance to the world. With her arms always open wide to accept repentant sinners, the Church’s power to bind and loose is given by Our Lord in the context of reconciliation. It’s the duty of the faithful to act in love and mercy towards each other, and to be humble enough to be eager to reconcile.

Dare to pray

The prayer of the Church is powerful and enhances her unity. The power of the Church to effect reconciliation relies heavily upon her communal prayer: If two of you on earth agree to ask anything at all, it will be granted…for where two or three are gathered in My Name, I shall be there (Mt 18:20). If an acknowledged sinner refuses to accept and tackle his guilt in response to the humble request of the Church, then he is to be excluded until he is ready to repent and be reconciled. He is not to be abandoned but, rather, to continue to be lifted to God in prayer because heaven rejoices over one repentant sinner (Lk 15:10). Surely, Correction is not easy. It is always challenging, and usually a risk of losing what little friendship is left. As a community of faith, we have to do our best to correct, and so to save one another in love from falling into sin and error. This has to be done via strict observance of the procedure laid out by Our Lord. This procedure reveals that correction is not an exercise in proving the wrong to be wrong, and the right to be right. It is rather an exercise that seeks to motivate, to inspire, to love, and to find what seems to have been lost.  

Finally, how disheartening it is for us to be offended against. We can be tempted to walk away from someone because we do not want to be hurt again and again. If, on the other hand, we have hurt someone, whether wittingly or unwittingly, we can be tempted to tell ourselves that we are in the right and they are in the wrong, or that our sin isn’t as bad as they are making it out to be! When we are pushed by God’s grace to go to Confession and embrace reconciliation, how often the devil immediately swoops in to steal that grace. How often have you felt as though you are swimming along in peace and harmony, when all of a sudden you remember an ugly moment that plunges you into feelings of rejection and distress? It is then that you need to immerse yourself in prayer for healing and deliverance. Make an effort to give the peace of God another chance to come to you and fill you today. Never forget these comforting words: if you O Lord should mark our guilt, who would survive? (Ps 130:3). May the Holy Spirit continue to enliven your soul and spirit (cf. Heb 4:12) towards praying and working for harmony with others. Amen. God bless you.