HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF 4TH WEEK OF EASTER. (1)
HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF 4TH WEEK OF EASTER.
THEME: THE CLAIMS OF CHRISTIANITY VS OTHER RELIGIONS!
BY: Benedict Agbo (Rev Fr).
Ss Philip & James:
* 1 Cor 15: 1 – 8, Jn 14: 6 – 14.
The most important message of Christianity is that Jesus is the ‘Messiah – God – made – man’; the Word tha
(RNS2-oct27) Afternoon prayer at the St. George Church in the historic Assyrian Christian town of Alqosh in the Nineveh Plain of Iraqi Kurdistan. Locals adhere to the Chaldeon Catholic religion. The town was nearly overrun by Islamic fighters earlier this summer, when Peshmerga forces withdrew their forces, abandoning the Christian town. Photo by Jodi Hilton
HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF 4TH WEEK OF EASTER.
THEME: THE CLAIMS OF CHRISTIANITY VS OTHER RELIGIONS!
BY: Benedict Agbo (Rev Fr).
Ss Philip & James:
* 1 Cor 15: 1 – 8, Jn 14: 6 – 14.
The most important message of Christianity is that Jesus is the ‘Messiah – God – made – man’; the Word that was made flesh and dwelt among us, died among us and rose from the dead. St Paul summarizes it in today’s first reading as the message ‘that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures’ and appeared to all the apostles including him. The time has come when the great religions of the world need to be brought into a dialogue table in search of the truth just like journalists are trained to do. Islam and Christianity as two main waring religions in Nigeria need to be evaluated prima facie viz a viz the claims of Jesus Christ and Mohammed and all the claims of other world religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Eckankar, Rosicrucianism, Grail Message, etc and our own African Traditional religion must be brought to the dialogue table. And so when Jesus says as in today’s gospel: ‘ I am the way, the truth and the life’, we need to understand him more clearly.
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Jesus is the Way to salvation – the way to life eternal. Jesus will save you if you know and believe in the gospel and live it out truly. Paul says ‘the gospel will save you only if you keep believing exactly what I preached to you’. And that is where the problem arises in Christianity – have we actually kept on with the accurate teachings of the apostles? The practical assurances are there that ‘whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself and even greater works’. What works did Jesus do? What works did his apostles do? What works did Mohammed (and indeed other religious founders) do? And what works did their followers do? We need to study all these and come up with our conclusions today on who claims authenticity. But for the avoidance of doubt, we need to understand that what we see today in our Churches are actually not perfect copies of Christianity but are more like parodies. According to Gilbert Keith Chesterton, ‘Christianity is not a failure but has never really been tried’. Well, I won’t say ‘never’ but mostly hasn’t been tried even 2000 years or more after the death of Christ.
A pastor once said that ‘The level of our success in Christendom is a function of our degree of surrendering’ and I think he is very right. It is a function of our degree of knowledge and faith in the power of God as revealed to us in Christ. Christian faith does not just work automatically as we find in other religions like the ATR but is predicated on our faith and praxis. The truth is that Jesus becomes a healer for you, for example, according to the extent you allow him to be. He feeds you in the Eucharist according as you believe that he is there. He is the Way , the Truth and the Life. We need to understand him more and configure our lives more perfectly into his ways. May God bless you today!
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