WEEKDAY HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF THE 6TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME (1)

WEEKDAY HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF THE 6TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

THEME: THE PROLIFERATION OF EVIL!

BY: Fr. Benedict Agbo

HOMILY: * Gen 6 : 5 – 7 : 10, Mk 8 : 14 – 21.

People do not seem to be able to learn from history. We are still contributing to the river of evil and corruption that has its source in the fall of our 1st parents. When the Lord saw the proliferation of wickedness on earth, the Bible had no other way of communicating that than to say that he regretted creating man ( this is just anthropomorphic language). God cannot regret but he was disappointed with man’s use of his freedom in the perpetuation of evil. Remember that the generation of people we saw at the time were descendants of Adam and Eve, Cain, Seth and Noah. It was an inordinate mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly with a preponderance of the bad. God had to do a weeding. And the instruction to the good ones was to: Enter the ark!

Today’s 1st reading is yet another account of the fall of man. When the multiplier effect of evil takes over creation in astronomical levels, when the ‘descendants of Cain’ outgrows the ‘descendants of Seth’, so to speak, a mop up operation becomes imminent. God has to do a kind of weeding of the bad from the good. Sometimes, I cannot stop getting alarmed at the rate at which Muslim terrorists proliferate ( of course they do no form of family planning), gradually taking over the population of Europe, America and even Nigeria. Just imagine what will be the fate of Nigeria if terrorism and Islamization is not checked. As Fulani herdsmen routed Benue, Southern Kaduna, Borno and other places in the South West of Nigeria. Suppose they are allowed to take over the South East, killing our men and raping our women, a new breed of human beings will be generated. And a repeat of the Turkey experience happens. When the people of God allow corruption to grow gradually and cooperate with an evil government, what do you expect God to do? The story of Noah and his family is also the primitive story of God’s plan B of human redemption. Righteous people were warned to go into the Ark. The rest wallowed on in their sins until the flood came. As Thomas Jefferson warned : ‘Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom’. People are bound to perish when they are not vigilant.

Jesus warns us in today’s gospel that we must beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Herodians. Evil has the capacity of growing like yeast. The yeast of the Pharisees is hypocrisy and disbelieving Christ ; propagating more of useless man – made traditions and ceremonies than the true worship of God. The leaven of the Pharisees were the meaningless traditions of men found in the name of religion – still found even in our Christian churches today. They were a hypocritical lot who honoured God with their lips but their hearts were far away from him. The yeast of the Herodians was immorality and wickedness ; the kind of selfish materialism and consumerism we see in Nigerian politicians today.The Herodians had scant belief in God. God played little or no role in their lives. They were men who believed in their material wealth than in divine providence. They loved vicious pleasures than virtues. Remember how Herod was tripped by the immodest dressing and dancing of young Herodias’ daughter and wasted the life of the man of God, John the Baptist.

Today we are still faced with the hypocritical lives of many of our pastors and priests, the corruption of many of our politicians who waste our scarce resources with very exorbitant wages and allowance while the nation claims to be in recession. Do you still not understand? Everything starts with our compromise and failure as christians to exercise our franchise and oppose a bad government.

He has an uncanny way of doing his mop up sanitary operation from time to time when corruption grows too wild from generation to generation. So, you better enter the Ark! St Francis’ prayer was : ‘O God give me the courage to change the things I can, the serenity to accept the things I cannot change and the wisdom to know the difference’. As God saved the future of the human race by saving Noah and the righteous believers of that time, so is he still ready to intervene in the Nigerian situation if we do the needful : pray seriously for good leaders, vote wisely, protect our votes and challenge our leaders to be accountable for their stewardship/campaign promises.

May God bless you today!
FR BEN AGBO.