YEAR A: HOMILY FOR MONDAY OF THE 4TH WEEK OF LENT (2)
YEAR A: HOMILY FOR MONDAY OF THE 4TH WEEK OF LENT
HOMILY THEME: NEW HEAVENS & A NEW EARTH!
BY: Fr. Ben Agbo
HOMILY: * Is 65 : 17 – 21, Jn 4 : 43 – 54.
Pope John XXIII prayed several years ago : ‘Come O Holy Spirit and fill the hearts of the faithful. Kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created and you will renew the face of the earth’. He knew that there was a promise as we find in today’s 1st reading : ‘For look, I am going to create new heavens and a new earth…where righteousness will be at home..’, Rom 14 : 17…Where there will be ; 1. Longevity, 2. Prosperity, 3. Divine favour, 4. Divine protection, and 5. Peace, Is 65 : 17 – 25.
Imagine how the world will be when all structures of idolatry and wickedness have been dismantled ; when the Spirit of love and forgiveness has been fully enthroned in human hearts ; when all Christians will be one and other religions yield to Christianity ; when the government of the world will be theocratic ; when there won’t be such fearful epidemics as we have today ; Won’t it be a new earth in the form of heaven?
Let’s take a look at the faith quotient of this community, Galilee, mentioned in today’s gospel. It was one of the brightest communities that received the faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. He did one of his earliest miracles there in the presence of a multitude gathered for a wedding ceremony, Jn 2. They had a direct experience of the power of intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, her humility and the divinity of her Son. Unlike in Nazareth, his home town, faith in Jesus spread here from the ‘anawims’ ( poorest) to the royalties ( richest). Just look at what happened in today’s gospel, where an official was simply told by Jesus : ‘Go home, your son will live!’ He believed in toto, went home and discovered that the miracle happened exactly at that hour. He didn’t insist as many do today, that Jesus must come and touch his sick son but as soon as Jesus told him what to do he believed.
Faith in Jesus transforms the world. It is the elixir of new life – the only secret for the realization of the promise of new heavens and a new earth. Pope John Paul II calls it ‘the new civilization of love’. Let’s continue to spread this faith on earth believing gradually that one day this promise will be realized. For now, the earth is still trapped in the shadowed chambers of idolatry, immorality, strange sicknesses, premature deaths, poverty, wars and acrimonies. Only Christ’s gospel of love and peace can deliver us.
May God bless you today!
