YEAR C: HOMILY FOR THE 14TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (7)
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.
YEAR C: HOMILY FOR THE 14TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
HOMILY THEME: THE PEACE OF CHRIST
BY: Fr. Cyril Unachukwu CCE
HOMILY: To be a Christian is to be on a mission and this mission consists in the proclamation of the reign of the Kingdom of God and of the everlasting presence of the peace which God has given to us in Christ. This Kingdom is open to and available for all peoples of the world and this peace is our lot as long as we remain attentive and positively responsive to the message of Christ proclaimed by His disciples of every tribe and race and in every season and time. May the peace of Christ be with you; Amen.
God’s plan and design has always been for the peace of all of His creatures. Men and women on their part, at different points in the history of our journey with God, have rejected God’s priceless gift of peace, especially through sin and the rejection of God’s plans and purposes. Every sin is a disruption of the peace both of the individual and of the community of God’s sons and daughters. Every sin is a rejection of God’s purposes and plans.
God, however, never abandons us for He knows how helpless and powerless we are, even when we deceive ourselves with the fiction of the sufficiency of our human strength that is in itself empty and futile; always in yawning need of help from above. This was the story of the Israelites, having tasted the catastrophic inefficacy of human strength and plans without divine assistance and the state of great unrest and individual and communal disquietude and also the painful experience of living in exile for many years that resulted from sin and disregard for God, God mercifully intervenes anew in their story as we read in the First Reading of today (Is 66:10-14); “for thus says the Lord: now towards her I send flowing peace, like a river, and like a stream in spate the glory of the nations.” God’s impartation of peace signals the end of anguish and anxiety and the beginning of an integral flourishing which transcends human comprehension. The reign of this peace is the clearest sign of the reign of God’s Kingdom and of the presence of God in our midst which is fully manifest in Christ, “For He is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility” (Eph 2:14).
In sending His disciples out on mission in the Gospel Reading of today (Lk 10:1-12, 17-20), Jesus made known to us what should be our innermost disposition and first reaction to all those we meet; “whatever house you go into, let your first words be peace to this house.” Peace is the very fruit of an encounter with the Word of God borne out of conversion.
This involves first and foremost peace with oneself and then peace with fellow creatures and, most importantly, peace with God. It is quite unfortunate that there are individuals or groups who are not interested in peace. They take away their own peace by their actions and they do everything possible to disrupt the peace of others and for sure they are never interested in building peace with God. On the other hand, as Christians, we are called to make our personal and communal contributions to the consolidation of world peace. This is made much more easy and possible when one encounters Christ in His mysteries and “becomes an altogether new creature” (Gal 6:14-18). To be new creatures is to be ambassadors of peace wherever we find ourselves. The first step to being an ambassador of peace is first and foremost to be obedient to God and to His commands. The second step is to be attentive to the message of Christ and to follow His examples at all times. The third step is to always respond positively to the promptings of the Holy Spirit Who is the principle agent that leads us to peace. The fourth step is to listen to the Church as she continues to guide us, in God’s name, through the Path of Salvation. By so doing, we connect ourselves to the Triune God Who is the only fount and source of peace. This is very essential because at the end of our journey on earth, the deciding factor will definitely be how much at peace we are with God, with our brothers and sisters and with ourselves and how much we contributed to the consolidation of peace in the world; “do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you; rejoice rather that your names are written in heaven.”
“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace, where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.”
Happy Sunday;
Fr Cyril UNACUKWU CCE
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