YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT; FOLLOWING DOCTOR'S ORDERS

HOMILY FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

Health conscious people are familiar with this saying which forms the central topic of our Homily. Have you ever fallen sick; and thereupon visited a medical practitioner? What was the doctor’s advice to you? Was there any concern about your eating habits? Did he prescribe to you a particular diet to be followed for a speedy recovery? The diet we take in has a most important connection with our health status. To enjoy good health, a particular diet is necessary. Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are, what you do and how you act. People who do hard jobs are inclined to eat heavy foods. People in search of fitness and weight loss pay attention to their diet. Someone who works tirelessly during the day may be inclined to taking coffee every morning for agility. A clinical nutritionist has once been quoted to have said: everything you eat becomes a part of not only your inner being, but the outer fabric of your body as well. It is also true that the healthier the foods, the better the skin. And again, the food one consumes has a great bearing on one’s state of mind and health. The truth is that we need physical food to stay healthy and alive, but it has its limitation: it does not overwhelm physical death. However, there is a meal that assures holistic health and even is able to conquer physical death. It is the spiritual food for the body and soul.

Today, the Church celebrates the solemnity of Corpus et Sanguis Christi (The Body and Blood of Christ); a feast which exposes to us the meal that takes care of our entire being. There was once this priest who after having presented a wonderful academic paper to some students got an unexpected question: why are you a Catholic? The Priest surprised at the question, gazed fiercely on the student and answered: Because of the Eucharist. For sure, this is a feast which makes us truly Catholics. This is a feast that reminds us of Christ’s invitation to come, take and eat. In this invitation is an establishment of a covenant between us and Christ and inaugurates a new covenant of adherence to Him.

Today’s readings make this vivid. There is a long tradition of offering bread and wine to close friends. Bread as we see in Melchizedek’s action towards Abraham in the First Reading (Gen. 14: 18-20) is made more spiritual and divine by Christ in the Second Reading (1 Cor. 11:23-26) who offers to the apostles His body and blood in the form of bread and wine. He furthermore insists that they do this in remembrance of him, to share this with His future followers for a continuous partaking of this meal that nourishes the soul and the body. Hence, whenever the apostles (or their authoritative representatives) perform this action with the same species used by Christ, and uttering the words of Christ, the bread and wine completely transform into the body and blood of Christ. A word that explains this mystery is transubstantiation. This word is used to explain the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, where-in at the words of consecration, the bread and wine cease to be what they are and are substantially transformed into the body and blood of Christ that what is now received at communion is the body and blood of Christ, and no longer the bread and wine. The body and blood of Christ with His soul and divinity, and therefore the whole Christ is truly, actually (really), substantially contained in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist. Yes, that is the mystery we celebrate.

Remember you are what you eat; we become what we have eaten. So, if you partake of this body and blood of Christ, you become Christ-like. He offers us Himself and assures us in John 6:51 (cf. Alleluia verse) that if anyone eats this bread that is his body, he/she lives forever. Christ constantly provides us with every material aid for our bodies and spiritual aid for our souls. In the Gospel, he quenches the momentary hunger of his listeners numbering more than 5,000 (cf. Luke 9: 11b-17) so as to direct them to hunger for the food that endures - His body and Blood. This incidence could be understood also as a foreshadow of the Eucharistic meal  on the night before he was to suffer. He taught and fed them. Is this not what we do at Mass: the liturgy of the Word and the liturgy of the Eucharist? To remain spiritually healthy then, and to receive the full benefit of the Holy Mass, the consumption of the body and blood of Jesus Christ becomes very necessary. Just as material food is a necessity for man, this spiritual food for the body and the soul is all the more necessary. The body and blood of Christ nourishes our bodies and our souls. It provides an integral salvation. One of the prayers every priest says before the reception of this Most Holy body and blood of Christ make this all the more appreciable: may the receiving of your body and blood Lord Jesus Christ, not bring me to judgement and condemnation, but through your loving mercy be for me protection in mind and body and a healing remedy.  We have indeed many lessons to learn from this solemnity.

1. The body and blood of Christ helps us to avoid condemnation, hence, assuring our safety into eternal life. This body and blood protects our cognitive faculty, restores our physical body, and heals our spiritual soul. We must take and eat this body and blood, as Christ, the chief doctor of our souls has prescribed for us. That is the tablet for our salvation. We need to follow the Doctor’s prescription. We already know the natural consequences of not following the prescriptions of the medical practitioners here on earth: sickness is prolonged as the cure is delayed, and not assured, until it eventually leads to death. So too, there are consequences of not following the prescription of the Master and Supreme Medical Practitioner, Jesus Christ: our souls which continue to search for God experience hunger, grow weary and get dry; all these might lead to spiritual sloth and at last eternal damnation. Far be that from us.

2. Some Christians ridicule us and are filled with disbelief at what we celebrate today. We may want to consider some personal questions: Am I filled with disbelief about the real presence? Do I act to undermine the sacredness of the Holy Eucharist? Do I really believe that it is actually Christ that I receive whenever I go for communion?  The Eucharist is alive. Since Christ is truly, really, substantially present in the Eucharist, then He is alive and present in the world. It implies that the communion we receive is not a thing nor bread, but a person; for He is alive. Receiving Him with this awareness, we become more fully alive, so that we can repeat Paul’s words: it is no longer I who live but Christ now lives in me (Gal. 2:20). Christ is indeed the living bread (cf. John 6:51.57), not dead; eating this bread makes one alive forever.

3. We must also learn that Christ gives Himself to us in the sacramental form perceptible by humans. Whatever is received is received according to the mode of the receiver. What the sacramental forms of bread and wine signify and make real is the Christ who is a living, personal presence. And approaching Him is an experience of faith. Hence, Christ’s real presence is an offer of grace, and we must tap from the immensity of this divine favour. The Eucharistic meal thus signifies both Christ’s gift of himself and the individual’s response of faith; only so can we together talk of the Church’s response of herself. It is on this basis that the Eucharist becomes for us the sacrament of unity, with the Church and with Christ, “because there is one bread we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread (1 Cor. 10:17). The act of communion is an act of faith for when the minister says “the body/blood of Christ, the communicant’s amen is a profession in the presence of the saving Christ. Body and blood, soul and divinity, who now gives life to the believer. May be now, we might no longer want to forget to say ‘Amen’ as we receive Christ; not of course the sort that goes through the roof.

4. This can also be a special day when Catholics in many parts of the world show their love for Christ in the Real Presence by honouring Him in a public manner in procession. It is then a wonderful moment to show our love for our neighbours by bringing Our Lord and Saviour closer to them. The Eucharist provides the unction for our function as Christians. Come, take and eat, it is really Christ. As Christ gives us wholly himself in the Eucharist for the life of the world, we must learn to make ourselves present and to give ourselves wholly for the suffering humanity. The injunction to take and eat by Christ and the Church should not be made passive. It ought to go active by allowing others to take and eat us; that is, by emptying ourselves in love for the good of the others. That is a practical way of glorifying the Lord. If we but paused for a moment to reflect attentively what takes place in this sacrament we celebrate, I am sure that the thought of Christ’s love for us would transform the coldness of our hearts into a fire of love and gratitude. May Christ’s Body and blood never bring us condemnation but health in mind and body, leading us through this life into the kingdom of heaven which is our ultimate home. Amen. Do have a blessed week ahead. GOD BLESS YOU.

TO KNOW HIM, THE "ONE-THREE" GOD

HOMILY FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF THE BLESSED TRINITY, YEAR C

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

Firmly I believe and truly that God is three and God is one. God is three in their persons. God is one in His nature. Today is a special day that prompts us to assert once more an indispensable article of our faith as Christians. This could produce in us a better understanding of our entire Christian life. Could it not be then true that the success of the Christian life starts with a proper knowledge of God? I believe that having a wrong image of God affects to a great extent our relationship with Him, and with our fellow humans. It then means that the proper way to start relating with God is by developing a proper understanding of Him, just as the best way to be a friend to another begins from a good understanding of his/her character and temperamental dispositions. Having an inappropriate image of God might hamper our interaction with God in prayer and might also lead to confusion and unnecessary arguments about the Christian lifestyle which could result in disunity.

There is this famous story of six blind people. They were meant to feel an elephant, an animal none of them never came in contact with. They were expected to touch the elephant since this discovery could only be made with their sense of touch. Then should they give a name to what they felt. The first person approached the elephant from the side and thereupon felt himself standing against a broad and very solid object; and thus said it was like a wall. He tried to climb it but failed. The second person also approached from the side but well forward and thereupon felt the elephant’s tusk, which appeared round, smooth and pointed; and thus concluded it was like a huge spear. Out of fear, he pulled back. The third person approached from the front and thereupon felt the elephant’s trunk, which moved and squirmed as he touched it; and thus concluded as he drew back in fear that it was like an enormous snake. The fourth person who was small in stature approached and came in contact with one of the elephant’s legs, which was so thick that he could barely get his hands around it; he thus concluded it was like a tree. He withdrew from it for fear of hurting himself. The fifth person came and accidentally touched one of the elephant’s ears, which began to move back and forth creating a draught, and thus concluded it was like a fan. Not happy with cold, he pulled back. The sixth person then came and approaching from the rear touched the swinging tail of the elephant; and then concluded it was like a big rope. He abandoned it since he had no use for ropes.

The six of them shared their discoveries with one another. A long and loud debate followed, but as each of them stuck rigidly to his own finding, they didn’t come to a clear understanding of the image. Each of them had a piece of the truth, as it were, but none of them wanted to merge those findings with the others’. If only they did that, being open to analyse within themselves their individual findings, they could have arrived at the true picture of the animal. Those findings conditioned also their individual reactions to the elephant. None of them also persisted to discover more parts of this elephant. At the very first finding, they all had some fears and drew back.

Now, we can be like these blind people. At the end of the day, we might be able to grasp little bits of the mystery of God, and what he is like. Over the years, various cultures and races have had their ways of understanding the divine revelation of God. Many religions and belief systems emerged as a result of their perception of God. But for us Christians, once upon a time, God saw the confusions that men have had as regards his image, and deemed it fit to reduce Himself and to become part of us, so that we can be lead to the perfect understanding of God. This was the special and ultimate revelation in Jesus Christ, who came in our own lowly form so that the blind might see (Luke 4:18) and that he might lead us to the indisputable discovery of the Three-in-one God (the Trinity). The revelation of the Blessed Trinity then was a very important goal of the creative power of God the Father in Creation, the redemptive power of God the Son in Incarnation, and the vivifying power of the God the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. As human beings who understand things better through perception, if we need to know and understand God, then we must embrace the Son who have lived like us, and among us. How do I know the Trinity? The answer is: embrace the Christ.

Christ is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15); and like the Second Reading (Rom. 5:1-5) says: by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, we are declared righteous and at peace with God. To know the Father, we need the Son. To know the Holy Spirit, we need the Son. In 1 Cor. 1:24, Christ is the power and the wisdom of God. And so, the First Reading (Prov. 8:22-31) personifies wisdom, and in a very close attention to it, one could hear Christ speak as that Wisdom of God who lives eternally with the Father and who was there before creation. In the Gospel (John 16: 12-15), the inseparability of these three persons is clearly shown. The Holy Spirit is the person gift of the Father and the Son who leads us to the complete truth and does not do say anything that is not taken from the Son. Christ is the way. Again, these readings reveal the activities of the triune God. The first informs us of the wisdom of God the Father who creates in an orderly manner with the divine purpose of salvation. The second tells about the work of God the Son, Jesus Christ who redeems us by leading us towards justification, and thereby glorifies the Father with it. The Gospel speaks on the work of the Holy Spirit who brings to completion the work of the Father and the Son by leading us to the complete truth. Hence, we believe in a God who lives as one and works as one.  

Back to the allegory of the blind men. Some times, we may act like those blind people. Is it not true that our points of disunity as Christians might be as a result of our individual blindness and the obstinacy towards being open to the findings of others like those blind people where? Is it not also true that we could be our own problem, in the sense that the image of God stands very perfect before us, but due to our blindness, we choose always to relay it the way we feel like? It cannot also be true that we fail to grasp the revelation of God due to the fears we have. If this holds true, it then implies that God wishes us to approach Him not in fear but in love to discover who He truly is. It also means that when we find ourselves in the process of discovering God, and along the line experience any sign that could stir fear in us, the solution is not to leave Christ and run away, but to stay with Him for in Him is rest and serenity.

To get it right, we need to be frank about our individual inspirations and ecstatic findings about God with open hands and minds to accept and understand one another. To get it right then, we need to embrace God gently and with all sense of calmness without fear. To get it right, we need to come together like the Three persons in one God; living and working together in unity, listening to one another in joy, complementing one another in love and being open to the presence of God in all of us. May the Blessed Trinity break every chain of division among Christians today. Amen. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. God bless you.

THEY BEGAN TO SPEAK IN DIFFERENT TONGUES

HOMILY FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF THE PENTECOST, YEAR C

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

The feast of Pentecost which we celebrate today is an age-long feast which has a Jewish background. Its importance for Christians stems from the fact that it is the birthday of the Evangelizing Church. Many scholars and theologians agree to this fact. So we wish a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the missionary and Evangelizing Holy Mother Church. Pentecost is a Greek term which simply means “the fiftieth” day. It is an Isrealite-Jewish festival; one of the three listed in Ex 23: 14-17 (Passover, Pentecost and Feast of Tabernacle). It was called in there the feast of Harvest (Ex 23: 16), where the celebration of the first fruits of the crops sown takes place. In Ex 34:22, it is also called the feast of weeks. It is so called because it fell on the fiftieth day, a week of weeks, after the Passover. In Lev. 23: 15-21, the feast is reckoned by counting 7 weeks from the beginning of the grain harvest (cf. Also Deut 16: 9-12, Num 28:26-31, Chron. 8:13). It was simply a very important feast. In Judaism, the feast received two major significances: a) An agricultural feast with no historical motif during which two loaves were offered in gratitude to God for the ingathered harvest. b) The giving of the law to Moses on Mount Sinai, having a historical motif. The Pentecost became then the anniversary of the giving of the Torah, even though this motif did not appear until the Christian era.

This feast was a holiday for all and the crowds on the streets would be greater than ever. This would explain why God would choose this day for the manifestation and outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ. And this is the fiftieth day since the Easter Sunday.

According to the Acts of the Apostles, the Pentecost Day was very remarkable for the early Christian community. The Holy Spirit proved His presence and power both audibly and visibly. The visible sign was the tongue of fire that rested on each one of them. The audible sign was the noise heard as a result of the powerful wind from heaven. Added to these signs was the gift of speaking in other tongues. The disciples had an experience of the power of the Spirit flooding their beings such that they never had before.  Perhaps, on this day, the most remarkable event was the Gift of being understood by varied nationalities as the disciples only spoke their one language.

The Scripture was clear: And they began to speak in other tongues (cf. Acts 2: 4). The gift of Tongues is no doubt one of the spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Cor 12: 8- 11). It is technically regarded as glossolaly. But what happened in Acts 2, we must say is not glossolaly. What is it then? The root of the word had diverse meanings in the Greco-Roman society. What the English versions of the Bible calls tongue is the translation of the Greek γλώσσα. Γλώσσα in the Ancient Greek usage could have three different meanings.

l As an organ of speech

l As the language of a people

l As an unintelligible sound uttered in spiritual ecstasy

We see these meanings reflected in the New Testament writings. The use of this word by Luke in the Acts is not exactly the same usage by Paul in his Letters. Even its usage in Acts 2 has even a different context with that of Acts 10 and 19. 

On the day of Pentecost, glossais simply denotes language of a people. Hence, when it was said that the disciples spoke in other tongues, it simply meant that they spoke in other languages. However, it does not even mean that they were speaking other languages, but that by the power of the Holy Spirit, they were understood in all languages by every nation (Parthians, Asians, Capadocians, Romans, etc). The Holy Spirit became their translators. That was the work of the Spirit; the gift He gave to the disciples so as to reach out to all nations. The glossais of Pentecost is described more precisely as a divinely prompted speech understood by every foreigner. It was intelligible to all those present, for they were heard declaring the wonders of the Lord (cf. Acts 2:11).

But, for what purpose did the Holy Spirit unite the whole human race by way of language on the day of Pentecost? This event reminds us of the story of the tower of Babel (Gen 11) in which all mankind was divided due to language/tongue diversities. This lost unity was restored on the day of Pentecost and is preserved in the Church. Through the outpouring of the Spirit, the Church is empowered to address herself to all nations and to be understood by them. Hence, the outpouring of the Spirit renders the Church articulate in preaching the gospel. Peter’s speech was the first proclamation. The Church now has as her prerogative the preaching of the Gospel, showing her commitment to Jesus Christ with the help of the Holy Spirit. By this, the Church becomes the sign of unity for all human race, breaking down all walls of separation between peoples and bringing them together in one body in Christ.

Furthermore, the glossais experienced by Peter in the house of Cornelius (Acts 10:46) and that experienced by Paul in Ephesus (Acts 19:6) are prophetic in context. When these people spoke in tongues, the author added that they also prophesied. But, how is prophesy connected to speaking in tongues? To answer this question, we must go to the Old Testament antecedents of the gifts of tongues. In Numbers 11:25-29, the Spirit descended on the seventy elders selected by Moses and they prophesied, but it was for that moment. In 1 Sam 10:5-19, during the anointing of Saul as king by Samuel, he was shown the sign that the Spirit of the Lord rested on him through the character of prophesy; he became a changed person. Again, in 1 Sam 19:20, the Spirit of God came upon Saul’s men and they prophesied. These episodes might allude to the view of glossais as the uttering of unintelligible sounds which would develop into the technical term glossolaly as momentary experience prompted by God when one is in spiritual ecstasy. It is not manipulated and does not come all the time.

Under the impulse of the Holy Spirit, this same ecstatic experience appeared in the early Church but in a higher form as Charisma; the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is most certain that this would be the charisma experienced by Peter and Paul in the Acts. However, in that era, there was an experience of aberrations regarding this gift, probably as a result of people’s thought about it as the best of gifts. No wonder, Barclay William observed: There was in the early Church a phenomenon which has never completely passed away. It was called speaking with tongues...what happened was that someone in an ecstasy began to pour out a flood of unintelligible sounds in no known language (Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles). From this, any fake uttering of unintelligible sound cannot be regarded in the strict sense as speaking in tongues. The best we can call it in Barclay’s words is: speaking with tongues (babbling).

To prophesy denotes to speak in the name of God; glossolalia then is an inspired utterance. The practice of babbling became so rampart that Paul had to warn that if one speaks in tongues and there is no interpreter, he should better speak to him/herself (1 Cor. 14:28). And indeed speaking in tongues (in the context of spiritual ecstasy) is meant to communicate a divine message. The person who has the gift of glossolalia as the gift of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:8-11) is simply an instrument. In this sense, glossolalia is prophetic. Due to this confusion that arose in the Corinthian Church, and still does arise in ours today because of the aberration connected with glossolalia, Paul had to write to correct them. Every prophesy has a message which is given in an intelligible language. Since then, speaking in tongues can have a connection with prophesy. And Paul means to say then that it has to be intelligible. That was why he did not greatly approve of glossolalia without intelligibility because he preferred, which is rightly so that a message should be given in a language that could be understood.

Hence, whereas Luke in the Acts (except Acts 2) favoured the character of glossolalia in the context of prophesy, Paul in his Letter to the Corinthians added that glossolalia has to be intelligible. It is then conceivable that Luke’s outlook had been influenced by Paul’s critic of the glossolalia in 1 Cor. 14:2-19, comparing their incomprehensible sounds unfavourably with the edifying words of prophesy. This points greatly to an effort to inaugurate a mission that would cross all language barriers, which is the emphasis of Pentecost event. Acts 2:11 brings it out better: they were declaring the wonders of the Lord. What is then prophesying if it fails to declare the Lord’s wonders? Hence, prophesy and speaking in tongues has an inseparable connection; intelligibility, prompted by God, and must accompany with it certain message.

Do we still experience today the aberrations of the gift of tongues that Paul witnessed in the Corinthian Church? Could it not be true that whenever one corrupts the gift of God, the implication is that he/she takes the place of God and arrogates to him/herself of being able to practice that which comes only from God? We must continue to allow the Spirit to dispense his gifts to us and not imposing ourselves on Him. Remember, Paul made the Corinthians to understand that love is the greatest virtue (cf. 1 Cor. 13). Love disposes us to keep the commandments of Jesus; for Jesus has said in today’s Gospel reading: if you love me, keep my commandments. It is His wish that we love Him and to allow the Paraclete to dwell in us (as the Second reading exhorts: Rom 8:8-17), to use us as He pleases, and to enkindle in us the fire of His love. We continue thus to pray him to make us cooperative with the Holy Spirit who comes to renew the face of the earth. ♫Send forth your spirit O lord, that the face of the earth be renewed♫ (Psalm 104:30). May He renew His gifts in us, renew our Church, and renew the beauty of our world which we desire to preserve and enhance. Amen. HAPPY FEAST DAY AND MAY GOD BLESS YOU.