HOMILY FOR FRIDAY OF THE THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR A.
MEMORIAL OF ST. MARTIN DE PORRES, RELIGIOUS.
HOMILY THEME: LIVING YOUR PURPOSE
BY: Fr. Cyril Akindele Osadare
HOMILY:
Readings:
Romans 9:1-5;
Luke 14:1-6
There is nothing as painful as seeing a missed opportunity or seeing a child waste a huge amount of his or her potential. Sometimes, when we watch a game like draught or soccer or scrabble and there is a great opportunity for the player to score a goal or a big point, and the player seems not seeing it, we feel like taking the place of that person straightaway for we really don’t want that opportunity to pass.
This is the mood of our readings this morning. In the first reading, it is so painful for Paul seeing his own Jewish people missing out of the great opportunity to be saved by one of their own. It could not get bigger than this for St. Paul and he was even ready to sacrifice just anything to make it happen. This is the lesson Jesus was teaching the Pharisees and Scribes in the gospel of today as well that once an opportunity to do good present itself, one must put aside all kinds of ideologies, sentiments and prejudices and grab that opportunity first. This is very important because such an opportunity doesn’t come easily like that.
My dear friends, we are invited to make the best use of any position, privilege or opportunity God is giving us to turn our own lives around for better or turn the lives of others around. It doesn’t really matter who the person is, where he comes from or which day of the week. God can send helpers to us any day, anytime, anywhere and we too can be called upon to do something anytime. May the Lord give us the grace to always respond positively to God’s call to do what is right. Amen.
