HOMILY FOR MONDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF EASTER (2)
YEAR A: HOMILY FOR MONDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF EASTER
HOMILY THEME: OUR HOPE KEPT ALIVE
BY: Rev. Fr. Jacob Aondover ATSU
HOMILY FOR MONDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF EASTER
HOMILY THEME: OUR HOPE KEPT ALIVE
BY: Rev. Fr. Jacob Aondover ATSU
HOMILY: READINGS: ACTS 2:14.22-33, PSALM 16, MATTHEW 28:8-15
Our first reading today avails us the following lessons: firstly, Christ was delivered up and subsequently underwent the cross according to the eternal plan of God. The cross therefore was no accident (Acts 2:23). This implies and rightly so that, the cross is not some kind of emergency measure taken by God when everything else had failed. It is part of God’s very life and it was by him that Jesus was sent. The cross would then be like a window in time allowing us to see the suffering love which God has for us. In alliance with this love, Jesus suffered betrayal, humiliation and death to save man. Today we rejoice, because this love is victorious, our Lord is risen, Peter testifies to this fact and we all are called to do same.
Acts of the Apostles stresses the resurrection as the final proof that Jesus was indeed God’s chosen one. It is often times referred to as the Gospel of the Resurrection. It underlies the fact that, without the resurrection, there would have been no Christianity at all. The courage and convincing preaching of Peter and the apostles was a consequence of the resurrection. After Jesus’ death, they were bewildered and broken; their dream had gone and their lives shattered. The resurrection of Christ changed everything, it turned them from cowards to heroes. We are challenged today to foster the preaching about the resurrection and never look upon it as a calendar event happening annually.
For the truly Christian, all Sundays are the Lord’s days and every day of the Lord should be observed as resurrection day. This being the case, we may never limit our discourses about the resurrection to the period of Easter only. That so, we, like the guards who upon being paid went about telling people that Christ was not risen but stolen by his apostles; may go out witnessing to the resurrection, the basis of our faith, the reason why we are Christians.
The resurrection of Christ should help cast off doubts about our afterlife from our minds; it should add meaning to our worship of God and propel us now more than ever, to live righteously in order to rise with Christ when our earthly sojourn is ended. We may do well never to forget that we are walking, trading, working, playing, schooling etc, with the risen Lord. Indeed, we are conquerors, for Emmanuel is with us now a glorified saviour.
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