HOMILY FOR PALM SUNDAY YEAR A. (1)

HOMILY FOR PALM SUNDAY YEAR A.

THEME: THE TRAGEDY OF OUR DOUBLE CONFESSIONS OF FAITH!

BY: Benedict Agbo (Rev Fr)

Matt 21: 1 – 11.

A. DUAL CONFESSIONS.

Christ came into Jerusalem with such a charming aura of dignity and splendour. He had hitherto through his teachings and miracles won the people’s admiration and reverence. They did not waste time to sing him ‘Hosanna’ just like people do when they witness great miracles happening in many churches and adoration centres today. But the paradox of contradiction was soon to come and the same people who cried ‘Hosanna’ will cry ‘Crucify him’. This is the tragedy of Confession without conversion, Christianism without Christianity, Baptism without Repentance, Eucharistic Communion without regeneration.
The parallel between the Palm Sunday, Corpus Christi and our various traditional masquerade celebrations stands out clearly for sober reflections. Before Christ came into Jerusalem something happened; people were expected to surrender their properties, money and time and profess their loyalty to Christ. He went to one of the rich men who had a dignified but modest means of transportation – the donkey and borrowed it gloriously. He didn’t actually ask for permission but only dropped an information to the owner if he asks: ‘The master needs them and will return them back shortly’. Yes, because Christ is actually the owner of everything we think we own. Even if a community is donating their land for Church building, Parish house or School, Christ will return them back directly with his blessings of civilization, deliverance, freedom and prosperity. What of the loyalty they professed? Did they really mean it? Did they actually mean to enthrone Christ as the Messiah? When a people claim to have enthroned Christ but few months after, go ahead to perform another ceremony to enthrone ‘Omabe’, ‘Odo’ or ‘Akatakpa’, do they really mean what they are saying?

*B. CONTEXTUALIZATION*
It is the tragedy of this duality of confession that makes the Church arrange a bifurcation in today’s Liturgy – a Liturgy that presents 2 gospels with 2 contradictory confessions; The ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’ and the ‘Crucify him’ from the same crowd of people in few minutes interval. For me there is no better contextualization here than what we still do in the above mentioned ceremonies where many Christians pay allegiance to Jesus Christ and to their traditional idols and deities at the same time. The real war that Christianity has to fight is the ideological war, cf 2 Cor 10: 4 – the war to enthrone a new culture of worship in our community . The traditional community had a culture that you cannot easily separate from their religious beliefs (‘Omenala’ – traditional culture and ‘igo ma’ – Idol worship have therefore become synonymous. While the Government is busy struggling to build the roads to bring us civilization, the Christian Churches are also struggling to build a new faith in the people. It is unfortunate that we have allowed the devil to continue to remain in people’s minds and psyche through old barbaric practices like the ‘Oriokpa’ or ‘Edi Omabe’ masquerade cults. Our young men are insisting on clinging to these cults of violence with their armed robbery / extortion mentality of brutality.
* Few years ago, a Senior Seminarian of Nsukka diocese was stopped on the way and flogged mercilessly by these hoodlums. All his efforts to explain that he was a Seminarian on apostolic work fell on deaf ears. When the Seminarian fought back in self defense thinking that he had Christians around him who could stand in his support, he met his waterloo as one of the onlookers just came out and carried a huge piece of stone and broke his head.

But the good news is that Christ has entered Jerusalem. As my Bishop, Most Rev Godfrey Onah often says ‘the gospel has reached our people’s door in Nsukka, but like Malaria drugs penetrating the blood streams of its victims, what we are seeing now are initial reactions and resistance’. Our boys have accepted the Christianity, the sacraments, the gospel values, etc but they still want to exhibit their old nature. When they come into our Corpus Christi procession, they still want to jirate and block the ways as they do for Omabe and Odo masquerades but this time around with no weapons and no extortion of money.
In Europe, Christianity had to take over the people’s primitive and unhealthy cultures and retain the good ones. Even the present day celebration of Christmas on 25th December was a take over of the traditional celebration of the pagan feast day of the Roman Sun god. Ours is only starting. Christianity should take over our culture, our politics and our entire life. Let our professors, elites, politicians, knights, etc know it that Christ has entered Jerusalem. Christ has come to take over our unhealthy primitive cultures (in Nsukka, the Odo, the Omabe, the Adoro, the Lolo Uhere, the Ugwuagu, etc must go). There is no need joining us in shouting ‘Hosanna filio David’ If only you will say: ‘Crucify him’ a minute after!

2nd Homily for Palm Sunday, Yr A 2023: *A DISCIPLE’S TONGUE!*
* Is 50: 4 – 7, Phil 2: 6 – 11, Matt 26: 14 – 66.

*A. PREAMBLE*
At the 1st homily for today, we presented the greatest Christian tragedy facing the Church of today as the tragedy of double tonguing ( double confession). A Christian cannot use the same lips to sing ‘Hosanna’ and shout ‘Crucify him’ thereafter. So also, a Christian cannot use the same tongue to bless God and curse his fellow human being thereafter. The same body we use to receive Christ in the Eucharist cannot be used for fornication; and remain the temple of the Holy Spirit.
The 1st reading challenges us today with the suffering servant paradigm: ‘The Lord has given me a disciple’s tongue, ear… I offered my back to the smitters…For the Lord God helped me and I have not been confounded’.

*B. PACIFISM*
Pacifism remains the best ideology for Christian warfare, even though I do not believe it is the only one. The years of crusade and inquisition are for me, the darkest years of Church history – the ugliest sides of Christendom that has made courageous Popes like St Jn Paul II say sorry on behalf of the Mother Church for past mistakes of her members. The truth is that rifles and bullets do not look good in the hands of priests and bishops because ‘our weapons of warfare are not carnal but are mighty through God to destroy strongholds’, 2 Cor 10: 4 – 6. The strongholds of idolatry, Islamic Jihads, pagan masquerade violence, youthful exuberance of cultism, etc are better destroyed by the weapons of love and grassroot evangelism ( eg Block Rosary Crusade). As Martin Luther King Jnr proposed: ‘To our bitter opponents we say : “We shall match your capacity to inflict injury by our capacity to endure suffering”.

*C. HUMILITY*
In today’s 2nd reading, we are told that Christ Jesus although he was God and mightily strong, emptied himself and became humbled on the Cross, Phil 2: 6 – 10. It was only after the soldiers had decimated him and arraigned him on the Cross that one of them confessed: ‘Truly, this is the Son of God’, Mk 15: 39. According to Fulton J Sheen, ‘God has the power to write straight in crooked lines’. And that’s why Jesus allowed Judas in today’s gospel to do his worse. He had to drink the bitter cup of suffering first before achieving redemption for mankind. The greatest message of Christianity lies in the beauty of the Cross before the crown – suffering before glorification and crucifixion before resurrection.

RELATED: HOMILY FOR PALM SUNDAY YEAR A

*D. CONCLUSION*
As I welcome you to this year’s Holy Week celebration, I invite you to the boardroom of spiritual dialogue with the Word of God summarized as follows;
– Betraying Christ like Judas did should not be our stock in trade.
– Denying Christ like Peter did should not be our habit.
– Running away at the face of danger like the apostles did should never be our culture.
– Passing wrong and unobjective judgments like Pilate (the politician of the bible) did should not be the attitude of our own rulers and politicians.
– Favouring the wicked, example releasing Barnabas and suffering the innocent Jesus as the Jews did should not be our tradition as Nigerian people.

Remember that we deserve our fortunes and decide our destinies by the choices we daily make. According to Franz Fanon, ‘Every generation out of relative obscurity, has an obligation to either fulfill its mission or betray it’. Let’s take note of the following truisms;
– If we choose to continue to worship the idols that our forefathers worshipped in ignorance, we remain in bondage and suffer under culpable ignorance.
– If we choose corruption to remain as our way of life in Nigeria by choosing a corrupt President or Governor, we would remain in poverty since a criminal can never be able to take care of our economy.
– If we choose examination malpractice (EXPO) to become our lifestyle in Nigeria and continue to employ the less intelligent ones to be the teachers and lecturers in our Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Institutions, then our children will remain in ignorance.
– If we choose cults of violence, masquerade and secret cults for our children, we will continue to face the tragedy of untimely deaths.
May God give us the disciple’s tongue to speak gently to our opponents, the disciple’s ear to listen calmly to the Word of God and every superior advice and the disciple’s heart to show love and forgiveness to our neighbours. Happy Holy Week celebration!

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