8TH WEDNESDAY HOMILY IN ORDINARY TIME (ASH WEDNESDAY) — YEAR A
8TH WEDNESDAY HOMILY IN ORDINARY TIME (ASH WEDNESDAY) — YEAR A
HOMILY THEME: “NOW IS THE FAVOURABLE TIME.”
BY: Fr. Mike Olumba
Joel 2:12-18, Psalm 51, 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2, Matthew 6:1-6.16-18
Here is a new Lenten period that begins again with its ever new invitations that come to us from the Prophet Joel, from Saint Paul, from Jesus Christ, and from the Church.
Through the Prophet Joel, the Lord tells us: “Return to me; with all your heart. Return to the Lord your God because he is tender and merciful; slow to anger and full of love.” He asks us to return to the Lord because, with time and habits, we move away from our God and from his Word. Lent is a time to come back sometimes from afar.
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Saint Paul tells us: “Now is the favourable time.” Tomorrow does not belong to us. Yesterday is gone forever! Only the present moment belongs to us. It is now that we must return to God; it is now that we must pray; it is now that we must think about sharing. This is in line with Jesus’ words: “When you give alms…”
In the Gospel, Jesus sums it all up by saying:
When you pray…
When you fast…
When you give alms…
Praying, Fasting and Giving alms are not up for dispute or discussion. That goes without saying it. They are religious acts well known to the Jews, praised and valued by Christ and adopted by Christianity. Jesus said to his people; “Here is how to do them to benefit more from them; and so that these gestures and our religious practices do not become, in short, ‘mere spectacles’ as he criticized and defined them among the Jews”.
Prayer is a way of manifesting and acknowledging that there is another power above me. Praying is talking more to God. It is submitting to Him, the Sovereign Master of our lives.
Fasting is a way of recognizing that biological life and food do not sum up everything about our existence and survival. Lightening the body by depriving ourselves of material food or too much of it and other comforts can help us listen more to the whisper of God’s voice. In addition, we need the Word to live as well as our daily bread. Sometimes, even the words coming from God or from men can save us more than material food. Sometimes we hear this phrase: “Thank this or that person for me. He gave me nothing material but his advice to me the day I had a great misfortune was what saved my life. If not for his words, I would have been lost or dead when and where I lost someone or something else.” And in the face of such misfortune, we even lose the desire and appetite to eat. Lent is a forty-day period meant to lighten the body in order to raise the spirit by listening more to the Word of God whispered into our hearts!
Giving alms/Sharing: Coming into this world, we came with nothing. The umbilical cord that connects us to our mothers is cut after birth. We are thrown into the world. But over time, we collect things, sometimes a lot of things, or too many things; material goods, wealth, and intellectual goods. Giving alms is a way of recognizing that what we call ours are in reality gifts from God, for use and sharing on the way, here below. Improving the daily life and lives of others with these goods is a praiseworthy act. Here are forty days to do good and make others happy with our time, our intelligence and our goods!
Aka ka m gbara bia n’uwa;
Otua ka m ga agba aka laghachi;
Aku na uba nke uwa bu ihe efu;
Ha niine ga esoro uwa nkea gafee;
Ha niine ga esoro uwa nkea gafee!
They are for use here below…
In a few moments, we will receive ashes on our forehead. That remind us of our mortal condition. The ashes mean that we are not all-powerful. Death, weakness and fragility mark our life and watch our steps: “We who come from the earth … must (one day) return to the earth.” We share this fragility with our fellow human beings.
The celebration of ashes (which replaces the penitential rite) is an antidote to pride; a penitential celebration that aims to bring us back before God as human beings, sinners, fragile and proud, in need of humility and holiness and subject to death. It is good from time to time, to remind ourselves that we are only passengers in this journey through life and that we must love each other while there is still time in the journey.
The formula that we will hear will take on its full meaning: “Be converted! Repent” And then: “Believe in the Gospel”. It is truly a happy good news, news that announces that: the love of God in each of us has never died. And that God loves us! He wants to save us. He wants us to be happy.
“Your ‘Father who sees in secret’:
In secret stands the Father; yet he is the one to whom nothing escapes, the smallest alms given, nor the quickest prayer said, nor the lightest fasting ever made. Our Lord is the one who knows everything about our desires, our silence, our expectations and our efforts. He sees in the secret. He will repay you” In living our life, it is his gaze that counts. The invitation of Lent is to live with this Father who knows everything, who sees everything, and who consoles us.
It is also strange that Jesus puts on the same level and defines them all as being spectacles, the acts of the street jugglers and certain acts and their actors within the Jewish liturgical celebrations: A definition that is both hard and bitter to swallow. Let us make sure that our acts are not defined in this way.
Let us pray in this Mass that Jesus accepts our deprivations and our prayers for our salvation and for peace in the world!
And may the Spirit of the Lord come to rekindle in our hearts the fire of the Father’s love-AMEN!
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