Homily for Monday of the 34th Week in Ordinary Time Cycle I

Theme: PHYSICAL VS SPIRITUAL FITNESS!

By : Ben Agbo (Rev Fr)

Homily for Monday November 22 2021

*Dan 1 : 1 – 20, Lk 21 : 1 – 4.

“The steward gave them only fruits and vegetables but after 10 days they looked healthier than the boys that ate a lot of fatty foods”. Sorry I have to begin from this point of view because of my hackneyed interest these days in health and spiritual matters and the connection between them.

The Bible has always made it loudly clear that ‘man does not live by bread alone but by the Word that proceeds from the mouth of God’, Deut 8 : 3 & Matt 4 : 4. Consumerism is the 1st principle of physical and spiritual retrogression. And it is scandalous to find a number of our so called learned men and women struggling for junk food in public gatherings nowadays. When we form the habit of eating and drinking carelessly, we are likely to die carelessly. Modern medical science and dietetics have discovered that more than 70% of health problems people have today are related to bad dietary habits. Many, especially the bourgeoisie class tend to eat and drink a lot of junk food and alcohol – exquisite delicacies prepared with toxic preservative chemicals in form of canned foods and snacks which have the potency of causing a number of cancerous diseases. These days, people like to eat a lot of fried rice and chickens, red meat and ice cream without checking the cholesterol and sugar content of what they eat especially at their older age. To eat what is pleasurable is one thing but to eat what your body needs is quite another.

In today’s 1st reading, the children of God opted for mere fruits and vegetables rather than feed on the King’s cultic meal full of exquisite delicacies. But at the end of 10 days, they were found looking more fit health wise than the rest. And more importantly, they were found more intelligent and spiritually perceptive than the rest of the Babylonian Youths of the noble class. This is also the case in the spiritual life as we find in today’s gospel. The poor who make offering to God from their meagre resources hit more mark in the econometrics of spiritual blessings than the rich who offer from their abundance. David says ‘I will not offer the Lord a sacrifice that costs me nothing’, 1 Chron 21 : 24. This is why Jesus praises the widow’s mite in today’s gospel. According to Eric Fromm, ‘It is not he who has much that is rich, but he who gives much’. If there is anything I find most reasonable in tithe theology it is the fact that it encourages freewill donation and Christian giving according to one’s resource level. The healthy principle here is the theory of ‘excess avoidance’ – it is neither healthy physiologically nor spiritually to entertain wastes. We experience a lot of indigestion, especially at old age when we have a lot of junks and useless garbages in our digestive system. When we minimize our physical intakes then shall we have more to share with the less privileged and then we shall have less ‘pot bellied christians’ (except those who are naturally made to be fat) physiologically and spiritually.

May God bless you today!