CYCLE II: HOMILY FOR MONDAY OF THE 21ST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME (1)

CYCLE II: HOMILY FOR MONDAY OF THE 21ST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

HOMILY THEME: Feast of St Bartholomew: HERE IS AN ISRAELITE – INCAPABLE OF DECEIT!

BY: Fr. Benedict Agbo

 

HOMILY: * Rev 21: 9 – 14, Jn 1: 45 – 51.

Insincerity is the mother of vices – It makes a man fake, makes his/ her relationship with God and man fake and makes his/ her entire life immersed and shrouded in ambiguities. It is the highest virus that destroys a Church and renders its priesthood empty of its power and potency. Jesus let’s us know in today’s gospel that a typical “Israelite”, represented by the biblical personality of Nathaniel or Bartholomew (as some biblical scholars think) – a bona fide child of God, is incapable of deceit, fakeness and betrayal. He/ she is a man of integrity. David Diebel defines integrity as ‘being what you said you are and doing what you said you will do’. According to Charles Colton, ‘If the devil ever laughs, it must be at hypocrites; they are the greatest dupes he has; they serve him better than any others, but receive no wages’.

There is so much insincerity in Christianity today. Our Modern day Churches breed christians who are immersed deeply in religious syncretism – ‘half Christians, half Pagans’, as Fr Osita Asogwa calls them. They go to the Church in the morning and visit the fettish shrines in the evening. They double as knights in the Church and Occult grandmasters in the night. They receive Holy Communion like Judas did with Jesus and the apostles but exchange plans with his enemies to betray their master immediately afterwards. They pretend to be Bishops, Priests and Church Overseers but their minds are fully set on the mammons of wealth and worldly acquisition. Deceit is the word!

Today, the greatest threat to security facing Nsukka people is no longer the menace of Fulani herdsmen but the menace of our own “Akatakpa” masquerade boys. On such seasons, you cannot move from ObolloAfor to Nsukka, Enugu Ezike to Nsukka or from Nsukka to Eha Alumina on bike without being molested by these hoodlums wearing dirty masks in the name of African culture. Last year at Ovoko I saw one masquerade flog an old woman who was being carried at the back of a bike. As the old woman shouted : “Eleoooo!”, I lost my moods. I was so tempted to stop and confront them but their number was too much for me to attempt to fight.Yet we claim to have a government. Another unfortunate thing is that many of them attend Churches where their priests tell them that there is nothing wrong with wearing masquerades as long as they don’t worship idols. Deceit is the word!

Unless our Church leaders come out more frankly to embrace the teachings of Christ ; unless they develop a zero tolerance for deceit ; religious syncretism, immorality, bribery and corruption, etc and are ready to face defaulters with the sledge hammer of excommunication as the early Church did, we are in for what Pope Benedict XVI calls the “dictatorship of relativity”. We will virtually rationalize everything as tolerable or at best, materials for inculturation. That word is one other instrument of deceit we must watch against in today’s Church. My Bishop, Most Rev Godfrey Onah will never seize to remind us that idolatry (igo mma) is never the same with culture (omenani). Let’s stop the deceit!

May God bless you today!

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