Fr. Ben's homily for Thursday of the 1st Week of Advent

Fr. Ben’s homily for Thursday of the 1st Week of Advent

Theme: HOUSE UPON A ROCK!

By: Ben Agbo (Rev Fr)

Homily for Thursday December 2 2021

*Is 26 : 1 – 6, Matt 7 : 21 – 27.

The Word of God is the rock of our salvation. It is the fountain of wisdom that real believers feed upon in order to grow. Fake believers merely hear it and do not act upon it, Js 1 : 22. Jesus says in today’s gospel that everyone who hears these words and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock, withstanding all temptations and worldly pleasures. The Word of God is embedded in the scriptures and should be useful for admonition, exhortation and moral teaching, 2 Tim 3 : 16. The Catholic Church has organized it so well with 3 readings for each Sunday mass and 2 for each morning mass. The problem is that we are always in a hurry to reflect and digest its contents. And so, when temptations come, we fall like a bag of beans.

Watching the terrain of Christianity in Nigeria today, it is amazing that majority of Christians have not built their Christian lives on a rock – like foundation. We seem to have more ‘foolish builders’ than ‘wise builders’ going by Christ’s own taxonomy of builders in today’s gospel. Christianity in Nigeria is becoming more of a sensational Christianity than a life changing religion; a crusade ground Christianity where people troupe in their numbers to adoration grounds (the likes of Fr Mbakas), miracle centres (the likes of Tibi Joshuas), Crusade grounds (the likes of Adeboyes) but not retreat centres (like the Upper room, Carmelite centres, etc). I just pray for that day in Nigeria when there will come another ‘Corpenican revolution’ in religion; when people will stop running to seers and self – styled prophets who make a lot of noise full of egoistic braggadacio but begin to search for real teachers of the Word, real preachers of holiness and salvation. The Word of God says today that ‘You keep him in perfect peace, Lord, whose mind is stayed on you’, Is 26 : 3. Our house needs to be built on the rock of the Word of God not on the quicksands of ephemeral miracles.

May God bless you today!