CATHOLIC HOMILY FOR 6TH TUESDAY OF EASTER –YEAR B

CATHOLIC HOMILY FOR 6TH TUESDAY OF EASTER –YEAR B

HOMILY THEME: ADOPTING THE PRAISE STRATEGY

BY: Fr. Karabari Paul

‘But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God…suddenly there was a great earthquake.’

When we are feeling overwhelmed by our circumstances, the last thing we often feel like doing is praising God. But it is the first thing we should because praise gets our attention off ourselves and onto God’s miraculous power. Jehoshaphat faced an army he had no hope of defeating. He didn’t know what to do. But He went into the battle with worship leaders at the front of his army singing, ‘Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever’ (2 Chronicles 20:21). While they were praising God, his enemies destroyed each other while he looked on in amazement.

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In the First Reading of today, when Paul and Silas praised God in prison, their chains broke, and the doors opened (Acts 16:22-34). They didn’t ask how come God didn’t prevent the attack on them. If it was necessary to praise God who couldn’t prevent such an attack. The problem is that we focus on our circumstances and use them as canon for judgement. What happens to us doesn’t reduce the place of God. When we shift our focus from our conditions to the greatness of God, then we will begin to understand certain things that happen to us are meant for higher grace and God’s glory. We need to start to acknowledge the power of praise and choose to worship God regardless of how we feel. We can praise God too little, but we can never praise Him too much. David writes, ‘From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised’ (Psalm 113:3), and ‘I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.’

Peter wrote that challenges come so that ‘the proven genuineness of your faith, of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire, may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed’ (1 Peter 1:7). When we face a challenge, we can praise our way through. Because of the challenge, our faith is strengthened, and that is something to praise God about. Whatever we are facing right now, let us keep praising God through it all.

Faith is like the film from an old-style camera: it’s developed in the dark. Dark days make us lean on God. The truth is, if our faith was never tested, we wouldn’t be motivated to draw closer to Him. Hymn writer Edward Mote wrote: ‘When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace…When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay. On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand.’ It is easy to praise God when life is going smoothly and everything is ticking along nicely. But it is during the dark days that we discover the true strengths of our faith and where our trust really lies: in ourselves, in others, or in God.

When the days feel as dark as the nights, here is a Scripture you can stand on: ‘Let the one who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on their God’ (Isaiah 50:10). Job lived a good life, but he still lost everything. Troubled and perplexed, he cried, ‘He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; he has shrouded my paths in darkness’ (Job 19:8). Job could see no way through or around the situation. Then he discovered that when you can’t find the reason, you can trust the relationship. ‘My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you’ (Job 42:5). When he made that discovery, everything changed: ‘The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part’ (Job 42:12). It’s never too late or too dark to see God’s light shine into our lives and praise Him. The dark prison room of Paul and Silas couldn’t discourage them from praising God and it shouldn’t stop us too. GOD IS STILL ON THE THRONE. May God bless and protect us all through Christ Our Lord Amen. Please, stay safe. Good morning.

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