HOMILY FOR FRIDAY OF THE 6TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR I. (1)

HOMILY FOR FRIDAY OF THE 6TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR I.

THEME: Anyone who loses his life for the sake of the kingdom of God, will save it.

BY: Fr. Diotacious Chikontwe SMA.

*READINGS OF THE DAY*
Genesis 11:1-9
Psalm 32:10-15
Mark 8:34-9:1

*LITURGICAL COLOUR*
GREEN

*ABOUT OUR FIRST READING*
In our first reading today, we heard the story of the building of the Tower of Babel, a great tower that man planned on building and which supposedly would rise to reach the Heaven itself. Back then, probably just a few generations since the Great Flood of Noah, mankind had once again flourished and rebuilt the civilisation and the communities that had been completely destroyed and eradicated by the Great Flood, which God sent into the world to cleanse it from all the wickedness of all the sons and daughters of man, which was so great that except for Noah and his family, no one else deserved to be saved.

*ABOUT THE GOSPEL READING*
Many of the sayings of Jesus are not immediately clear to us. It is as if Jesus wants us to reflect over what he says and to tease out what he means. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus says, ‘anyone who wants to save his life will lose it’. What could that mean? Perhaps Jesus is saying that if we seek after our own happiness we will lose it, we won’t find it. Happiness comes to those who seek for something else. What is that something else? Jesus goes on to say, ‘anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will find it’. Jesus seems to be saying that if we put himself and the gospel first in our lives, we will save our lives, we will find true happiness.

*CONCLUSION*
The way to the fullness of life is to seek the Lord and his gospel first. To the extent we live as the Lord calls us to live we will find happiness, a joy which is a sharing in the Lord’s own joy. Living as the Lord calls us to life will mean relating to others in loving service, and that will often entail renouncing ourselves, dying to ourselves so as to live more fully in love towards others, towards the Lord present in others. Self-renunciation is not an end in itself. It is in the service of that greater love that Jesus gave expression to in his life and in his preaching and teaching. When we love in this way, when we allow the Lord to live out his life of love in and through us, then we will enter into the Lord’s own joy, which is a joy that is not of this world and that nothing in this world can take from us.
Happy weekend everyone!

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