HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF THE 5TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME [YEAR B]

HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF THE 5TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME [YEAR B]

SAINT OF THE DAY: Memorial of Saints Paul Miki and his Companions, Martyrs.

THEME: You get round the commandment of God to preserve your own tradition.

BY: Fr Deotacious Chikontwe SMA

READINGS OF THE DAY
1 Kings 8:22-23,27-30
Psalm 83:3-5,10-11
Mark Mark 7:1-13

LITURGICAL COLOUR
RED

INTRODUCTION
Good morning my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time of Year B. At the same today, we commemorate the Memorial the Memorial of Saints Paul Miki and his companions.

FROM OUR FIRST READING
Today’s first reading contains a section of Solomon’s prayer on the occasion of the consecration of the Temple which he had built in Jerusalem. He acknowledges that God has chosen to dwell in this Temple, ‘Let your eyes watch over this house, over this place of which you have said, “My name shall be there”’. God’s name was a way of referring to God’s presence. Yet, Solomon also recognizes in that prayer that the wonderful Temple he has built could not possibly contain God. ‘Why, the heavens and their heavens cannot contain you. How much less this house that I have built’. No human institution, not even that of the Temple, can contain God.

FROM OUR GOSPEL READING
Jesus makes a similar point in the gospel reading. The Pharisees and the scribes criticize the disciples of Jesus because they do not respect ‘the tradition of the elders’, with respect to various ritual washings. Jesus counters their criticism of his disciples, declaring, ‘you get around the commandment of God to preserve your own tradition’. Jesus is reminding us that no human tradition, including the most cherished of religious traditions, can fully express God’s will, what God commands.

WHAT DO WE LEARN FROM THE READINGS OF TODAY
Just as the Temple cannot contain God’s presence, religious tradition cannot contain God’s intention for our lives. The tendency to identify religious tradition with God’s will is always with us. There have been times when the church gave more reverence to its traditions than was warranted. Jesus compared his ministry to new wine which calls for new wineskins. The temptation to preserve old wineskins can be very strong. The church’s tradition has to keep growing and evolving if the new wine of the Lord’s message is to be heard afresh. We need to keep listening to what the Spirit is saying to the church.

ABOUT THE SAINTS OF TODAY
The Church today also celebrates the Feast of the Holy Japanese Martyrs, the Twenty-Six Martyr Saints of Japan, namely St. Paul Miki and his companions in martyrdom. They were all martyred in the city of Nagasaki, during a time of particularly harsh persecution and repression of Christians throughout the whole region of Japan. At that time, Japan had been a very fertile ground for the Christian faith for a few decades, and the Church was growing rapidly there with the efforts of the missionaries and the support from the local rulers accelerating the process of conversions and the growth of the Church both among the elites of the community as well as among the general population. However, oppositions against the Church and its missionaries grew, and at that time, the de facto ruler of Japan, Hideyoshi Toyotomi feared the foreign ties of the Christian missionaries, and hence, announced edicts that began restricting the activities of Christians, and in some cases, actively persecuting them.
May the Lord, our most loving God and Father, Who has always loved us and cared for us, continue to strengthen our faith, and may the intercession of the Holy Martyrs of Japan be with us always. Amen.

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