FR. BEN’S HOMILY FOR THE 3RD SUNDAY OF EASTER YEAR C (3)

FR. BEN’S HOMILY FOR THE 3RD SUNDAY OF EASTER YEAR C

THEME: WE ARE WITNESSES TO ALL THIS!

BY: Ben Agbo (Rev Fr)

HOMILY FOR SUNDAY MAY 1 2022

*Act 5 : 27 – 41, Rev 5 : 11 – 14, Jn 21 : 1 – 19.

A. PREAMBLE
It is normal for all lovers to fall in love and fall out of love depending on the level of emotional maturity and the quality of their love. But when love becomes spiritual (as St Paul explains in 1 Cor 13 : 4 – 7) it does no longer come to an end. Even when lovers fall out of love, they can chose to return to love. As divorce is the greatest tragedy of marital love, backsliding is the greatest tragedy of Christian love. And that is why the story of Christian love (epitomised in Peter’s love story with Christ) is always characterized by the dialectics of calling, falling, recalling and returning.

B. I’M GOING FISHING!

Human beings are full of this tendency, especially in moments of confusion, to always return to what is a familiar habit. After the whole hogwash of the crucifixion, death and ‘purported’ resurrection of Christ, Peter just woke up one morning and told his colleagues: ‘I’m going fishing’. And they all followed him. They went back to ‘fishing fish’ when Jesus wanted them to be ‘fishing souls’. Chai! What a tragedy! It is not good to be idle BUT it is worse to work without faith and worst to be doing the work of the Lord without the Lord of the work.

Of course, they laboured all night and caught nothing until Jesus came to provide spiritual guidance. He asked them mockingly at the Sea of Tiberias: ‘Lads, have you caught any fish? ( ‘Umuegualu’ put in Nsukka dialect, ‘unu akutagwo azu obu?’) Let’s not say that the Lord was not happy that they left their praying camp at the Upper room for the sea. I just think, to say the least, that the Lord was both interested in their prayer life and occupational life. What a union of the sublimely spiritual and the profusely mundane! What a melange of the loftiest of divinity and the lowliest of humanity. I can’t help imagining how Peter, at that moment, struggled with his half nakedness in a bid to put on his clothes as soon as he saw that it was his master Jesus.

C. A TOAST AT PETER!

Immediately after they had breakfast that fateful morning, Jesus began to woo Peter to profess his everlasting love for him. Jesus knew that Peter loved him very much emotionally (using the Greek word ‘Eros’); this was well expressed during the great confession at Caesarea Philipi, Matt 16: 16 – 19. He also loved him seriously like a brother and friend (using the Greek word ‘Filia’); this was well expressed at his profession of fidelity during the last supper, Matt 26: 37. But he needed Peter to love him permanently (using the Greek word ‘Agape’); this was what happened in today’s gospel at the sea of Tiberias, Jn 21 : 15 where Jesus had to call Peter 3 times to reprofess his love 3 times after he had denied him 3 times.

We all face a lot of crises of immaturity in our love relationships; couples confess so much love for themselves on the altar of matrimony, but as soon as the stress of daily work mounts, bills accumulate, sicknesses set in, family intrusions arrive and conflicts of interest aggravate, those who said I DO begin to say I DON’T ANYMORE. It is all due to what Bishop Michael Eneje of blessed memory calls the tendency to ‘love what we like’. According to him, holiness begins when we begin to ‘like what we hate and hate what we like’.
*According to the American psychologist, Eric Fromm, ‘Mature love says “I need you because I love you”; Immature love says “I love you because I need you” ‘.

D.TIME FOR TRIALS WILL COME

Trials will come when we try to ‘feed his lambs’ both sacramentally and existentially. Trials will come when we try to preach his Word to his people without compromise. Trials will come when we try to speak truth to power – when we try to speak to the ‘Sanhendrin’ as the apostles did in today’s 1st reading.

The apostles came to another level of faith after their post resurrectional encounter with Jesus and so began to witness after Pentecost. It was the appearances of the risen Lord that strengthened their faith not the mere testimony of the women nor even the empirical evidence of the empty tomb. Having seen him face to face, they now understood the reason why the tomb was empty.
They had to stand firm enough even to resist the old ecclesiastical traditions. They had to challenge the Jewish Sanhendrin – the institution of the O T priesthood. There was an ecclesiastical conflict in today’s 1st reading between the old and the new Church when the apostles told them resolutely that they must obey God rather than men. It was a new ecclesiological level of witnessing: that God raised Jesus to be our Lord and Saviour… And WE ARE WITNESSES TO ALL THIS…We and the Holy Spirit! It was an advanced level of witnessing when according to Gamaliel’s intervention it became clear that ‘Anyone fighting against them was fighting against God himself’. They were glad to have the opportunity even to be flogged and suffer humiliation for the sake of his name. It all ended in praise (but not as worldly politicians will say it after winning an election through dubious means). It ended in martyrdom. When we grow mature in spirit, we learn to love what we do not ordinarily like (as Jesus demanded from Peter) and we will be his witnesses! Happy Easter once again, beloved friends!