4TH MONDAY HOMILY IN LENT — YEAR A
4TH MONDAY HOMILY IN LENT — YEAR A
HOMILY THEME: NEW HEAVENS AND A NEW EARTH!
BY: Fr. Benedict AGBO
Isaiah 65:17-21, Ps. 30:2,4-6,11-13, John 4:43-54
Pope John XXIII prayed several years ago: ‘Come O Holy Spirit and fill the hearts of the faithful. Kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created and you will renew the face of the earth’. He knew that there was a promise as we find in today’s 1st reading: ‘For look, I am going to create new heavens and a new earth… Where righteousness will be at home…’, Rom 14: 17…Where there will be, (1) Longevity, (2) Prosperity, (3) Divine favour, (4) Divine protection and (5) Peace, Is 65: 17 – 25. Imagine how the world will be when all structures of idolatry and wickedness have been dismantled; when the Spirit of love and forgiveness has been fully enthroned in human hearts; when all Christians will be one and other religions yield to Christianity; when the government of the world will be theocratic – won’t it be a new earth in the form of heaven?
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Let’s take a look at the faith quotient of this community called Galilee. It was one of the brightest communities that received the faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. He did one of his earliest miracles there in the presence of a multitude gathered for a wedding ceremony. They had a direct experience of the power of intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, her humility and the divinity of her Son. Unlike in Nazareth, his home town, faith in Jesus spread here from the ‘anawims’ (poorest) to the royalties (richest). Just imagine what happened in today’s gospel where an official was simply told by Jesus: ‘Go home, your son will live’. He believed in toto, went home and discovered that the miracle happened exactly at that hour. He didn’t insist, as many do today, in prescribing the therapy to Jesus the high priest. Although he wanted him to come and touch his sick son but as soon as Jesus told him what to do he believed and obeyed.
Faith in Jesus transforms the world. It is the elixir for new life – the only secret for the realization of the promise of new heavens and a new earth. Pope John Paul II calls it ‘the new civilization of love’. Let’s continue to spread this faith on earth believing gradually that one day this promise will be realized. For now, the earth is still trapped in the shadowed chambers of idolatry, immorality, sicknesses, premature deaths, poverty, wars and acrimonies. Only Christ’s gospel of love and peace can deliver us. May God bless you today!
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