HOMILY FOR THE 11TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR A. (4)

HOMILY FOR THE 11TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR A.

THEME: WORK TOGETHER AND BE GENEROUS.

BY: Fr. Karabari Paul

“You received without pay, give without pay.”

Today, in the Gospel (Matthew 9:36-10:8), Jesus summoned the twelve and gave them authority over unclean spirits. Then, He sent them out. Remarkable is the fact that the disciples were of different backgrounds and personalities. The most amazing thing was the union of a tax collector and a zealot in the apostolic college. The Zealots were a political movement in 1st-century Second Temple Judaism, which sought to incite the people of Judea Province to rebel against the Roman Empire and expel it from Israel by force of arms. They were militants. A zealot would willingly kill the tax collector. Tax collectors worked for Rome with much exploitation and extortion of their people. But Jesus called them together.

When we are working with others, we need to be aware that everyone is different. We might need to work with people whose gifting is different from ours, or maybe their personality doesn’t fit too well with ours. Maybe the way they prefer to do things is not the way we like to do them.

Differences can cause tension. But they don’t have to. We can learn to understand other people and then adapt how we relate to them so that we can work with them effectively. God has given us all different gifts. Just as the body has many different parts with many different functions, the people who make up God’s kingdom have differing gifts with different parts to play in His plan. The Bible says: ‘The body is not made up of one part but of many…Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it’ (1 Corinthians 12:14;27). Some people are good at admin, while others are great at being up on the stage. Some people are musical, while others are great at teaching. Whatever our gifts are, we need to understand that other people have different gifts. We need to respect the fact that they might not be able to do what we can, and vice versa.

They were to be healers. Not only has the world been injured, but very many people are injured and ill. There is enough burden already. We are expected to heal and not cause more injuries. Sometimes, we glory in how much injury we have caused. We are sent as lambs while we act as wolves. Does it not give us a total sense of failure when the people who should be close to us fiercely fear us? Even Christ acknowledged in this passage that the people were already harassed and helpless. Do we have to add to their sorrows? It is about the willingness to demonstrate the love of God in our daily encounters with people who may not even have anything in common with us except that they are created in the image and likeness of God. The Gospel can never grow if it is planted by wolves because it is alien to their nature. It has to be planted by submissive labourers, and that is why they are always few.

The twelve were going to be dispensers of God’s free gifts and grace received. A Christian is a church entertainer unless that Christian has learnt to move from freely receiving the grace of God to a desire to freely give that same grace to others. It is difficult to teach this because we have put a price tag on the Gospel that was freely given to us. Every good thing we have received is from Christ and is worth being passed on, and ought to be so. We have received grace, mercy, forgiveness, healing, and material blessings. However, we have used these gifts, instead of bringing healing to our injured world, to create chains and shackles everywhere we are. And like the Dead Sea, we are always receiving but give out nothing.

In the First Reading (Exodus 19:2-6a), God gave an ageless instruction to Moses for the people Israel: “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the sons of Israel: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” Inherent in this is the call for gratitude that heals those in our previous condition of bondage, obedience to God our Sole Liberator, and love for one another. The common lot of man without God is bondage. A grateful heart with a sense of his futile and useless past can’t create prison and harbour prisoners. It has to be willingly accepted that free grace is the only thing that separates prisoners from freemen. Should we then boast other than being generous and work together? The answer to this is personal. GOD IS STILL ON THE THRONE. May God have mercy on us, heal our country Nigeria, bless and protect us all through Christ Our Lord Amen. Good morning

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