HOMILY FOR THURSDAY 24TH DECEMBER 2020 (MORNING) (1)

HOMILY FOR THURSDAY 24TH DECEMBER 2020 (MORNING)

HOMILY THEME: GOD’S FAITHFULNESS TO HIS PROMISES

BY: Fr. Benny Tuazon

 

HOMILY: (Lk. 1:67-79)

Ninth Day of Simbang Gabi, December 24, 2020

In today’s Gospel Zechariah gives his own version of Mary’s Magnificat. Like Mary, Zechariah cited God’s faithfulness to His promises. He rescued Israel from their enemies and He fulfilled His promise of a Saviour in His Son Jesus Christ. Zechariah also recognized the role of his son, John, whose mysterious birth was a sign of what his role will be and what is to come.

We cannot question God’s faithfulness. During the time of Noah, God made a promise never to destroy man again. People were so sinful during the time of Noah that God decided to renew the earth through the great flood.

Having seen what had happened, God said that as long as the rainbow appears, He will be faithful to His promise. Today, the rainbow still continues to appear. And God is still faithful to His promise inspite of the fact that the world now is very ripe for renewal. Our world now is way worse that the time of Noah. We have abused our freedom. We have trusted more in our intelligence. Worse, we are eliminating God in our lives. If the world will be destroyed, it will not be by God but by us.

God was also faithful to His promise of a Messiah. The promise was because of the hardness of our hearts. We did not learn from the Noah event. We continue to sin. The promise was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. God’s plan was to become human, live with us, teach us, and later suffer and die for us. God gave us the greatest love of all. The Jews, on the other hand, were still waiting for the promised Messiah. For them, Jesus was not the Messiah. He was considered as one of the great prophets. But for us, Jesus is the Messiah who was promised. Tracing it from the Scriptures, Jesus embodied everything promised about the Messiah. God heard His people’s longing for a saviour. God fulfilled His promise. God is faithful.

Our response should also be faithfulness to Him. Our faithfulness will be our salvation. In our daily life, we make a lot of promises; marriage, confession, baptism, political covenants, court oaths, professional oaths, etc. Yet we break them easily. Once a lady lawmaker made a promise and was willing to resign if her statement will not hold. It did not hold but she did not keep her promise. When asked about it, she said, “I lied!” without blinking an eye. That is how easy and loose we are in breaking promises.

And we are not made accountable for them. We get away with them. So many others had done the same. They make a lot of promises to people. Once they get what they want, they do not care about honouring their word. Yes. Promises remain promises nowadays. We have lost the capacity to be honourable and faithful and gained arrogance instead.

“Faithfulness is better than success,” St. Theresa of Calcutta said. Faithfulness is a necessary virtue. Faithfulness saves.

Discover more from Catholic For Life

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading