YEAR A: HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF THE 31ST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME (2)
YEAR A: HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF THE 31ST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
HOMILY THEME: PRIORITIZE GOD OVER ALL
BY: Fr. Evaristus Abu
HOMILY: READINGS: ROMANS 13:
YEAR A: HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF THE 31ST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
HOMILY THEME: PRIORITIZE GOD OVER ALL
BY: Fr. Evaristus Abu
HOMILY: READINGS: ROMANS 13:8-10, PSALM 112, LUKE 14:25-33
• We owe ourselves MUTUAL LOVE
• Love is the one thing that can’t HURT our fellow brethren
• Love is the answer to all Laws
• Happy the man/woman who takes pity and lends (that’s love in action)
Prioritizing is one attribute embraced by every clear thinker. Business men and women, students, those into trading and indeed every man/woman whether consciously or otherwise, prioritize their activities. To prioritize entails placing tasks or problems in order of importance so as to help deal with the most pressing or important first. It is to treat somebody or something as being more important than others. Our liturgy of the word calls us to place God over everything else. It is to value everything and everyone made by God yet value him MOST.
The call today is to follow one example, Jesus Christ who placed God before himself hence obediently did his will to the death. Today, Jesus reminds us that nothing, not even our lives should come before God as we go about our daily activities. Jesus asks from us nothing short of ‘total renunciation’, of the world and its accompaniments in view of a total attachment to him. Beloved in Christ Jesus desires we love our kith and kin, that we love those around us. Filial love, conjugal love and brotherly love are “sacred” and shouldn’t be treated any less. Yet love for God – which underlies all other types of love and animates them MUST BE GREATER.
When we love him truly, the pain of the Cross and its shame only constitute ladder rungs on which we climb, leaving the world and its corruption to Christ and his glory. Beloved, there’s no better way of following Jesus than the Cross. It is our way, our life, our liberation and in it lies the surest and safest passage to glory. He’s not a true Christian if he worships God only at his convenience; can there truly be a convenient Christian? If Jesus lived a very comfortable and convenient life, we’d have had a case to make as regards his demands from us. He took the Cross, died on it and saved us through it. All we ought to say now is, “We contemplate Jesus who goes ahead; we follow behind”.
Following Jesus my dear friends has to necessarily be preceded by reflection and planning. One ought to ask himself; ‘What is my gain/lost should I follow Christ?’ What must I put in place before going after Christ? St. Paul would have us put love in place; sincere love for our brothers and sisters which covers the whole law. Jesus put this kind of love for us in place when he accepted to tow the path of the Cross and we should follow his lead. Finally, “whoever does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple”; this what we have to put in place before following Christ – EVERYTHING! We lose the world to win heaven. We lose transient pleasures to win eternal happiness. We lose fame, power and affluence so as to gain spots beside Christ in his Father’s kingdom. When we detach ourselves from the world prioritizing God over everything the name ‘disciple’ fits us nicely. When the name disciple fits us nicely, eternity awaits us patiently. Be a disciple today!
HAPPY THE PERSON WHO LOVES, FEEDS AND EDUCATES A POOR FOLK
