HOMILY FOR THURSDAY 7TH DAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF CHRISTMAS (1)
HOMILY FOR THURSDAY 7TH DAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF CHRISTMAS
HOMILY THEME: MANY ANTICHRISTS HAVE COME!
BY: Fr. Benedict Agbo
HOMILY: *1 Jn 2: 18 – 21, Jn 1: 1 – 18.
Today’s 1st reading is very volatile and theologically delicate to handle.
John says ‘it is the last hour and many Antichrists have come’. Who are the ‘Antichrists’? How do we recognize them? What does the Bible mean by the last hour? I do not have all the expertise to handle the exegesis. But I know that the scriptures have been surfeitly clear about lie and darkness as the two trademarks of the Antichrists -the inveterate enemies of Christ. Jesus came principally to deal with the darkness of ignorance and the darkness of sin/hatred/lovelessness. And that is why John has been poignant in emphasizing the fact that whoever says he knows Christ but disobeys his commandments (especially of love) is a liar. ‘In him was life and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it’, Jn 1: 4.
We have witnessed in recent time an unprecedented global sign of darkness. Christ says ‘You will know them by their fruits’, Matt 7: 24. Any system, government, party, structure or group that supports immorality, abortion, genocide, violence, kidnapping, terrorism, all forms of bloodshed, homosexuality, unnatural population control, etc are structures of the Antichrists. CoViD 19 pandemic /plandemic (as some have called it) and the recent events in world politics have revealed a lot of conspiracies. Anybody that denies conspiracies in a war situation is only failing to face reality. In every war situation (artificial pandemic inclusive), there must be accusations and counter accusations. Children of God must be careful to discern where the interests of our political and economic gladiators converge and diverge so that we don’t end up backing the wrong horse.
Suffice it to say that we have seen a number of unsavory alternatives.
Children of God (priests inclusive) have found themselves dangling and vacillating between the devil and the deep blue sea. Attention has been highly on the disruption of church activities and faith apparachitks. Many have gone to extremes (some taking fanatical positions in other to protect their faith and some others taking agnostic positions in other to protect their health). But be that as it may, we need to recognize as we come to the end of this embattled year, that many Antichrists have arisen and we must resist them vociferously. We will not serve their gods.
May God protect us from this dangerous sickness. May God protect us from dangerous vaccines (if any). May God protect the Christian faith so that when the chips are down we will still find faith on earth.
Happy end of year friends!
FR BEN AGBO.
