Homily For Tuesday Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time Year A, 12th September, 2023

Readings: Col. 2:6-15; Ps. 145; Luke 6:12-19

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia

 

LEARNING FROM THE PRAYER LIFE OF JESUS

 

In the scriptures, it is obvious that Jesus spent a lot of time in prayer especially in every important event in his mission. He does nothing without prayers. This is evident in our Gospel passage today where we heard how Jesus after deep prayers called from among his disciples twelve apostles, whom he called and chosen to continue his work of evangelization and mission towards the salvation of humanity, for he needed to have people who will be entrusted with this mission.

 

So, each one of us like the apostles are called by name into a deep personal and intimate relationship with Jesus in order to be sent to bear witness of him in the world. Prayers and absolute commitment are necessary quality for this mission. That is why Jesus did not choose people because of what they were. Rather, he chose them for what they could become under his direction through prayers.

 

But one of the greatest problem is that we don’t often surrender our plan and mission to God’s will through prayers. So the question that comes to mind are, Will I pray? Will I stop praying? Will I care? Will I risk? Will I let the Lord to lead me in prayer? These are questions of great demands which every true disciple must constantly reflect throughout his life, in order to be aware of the seriousness of the commitment required of everyone of us as disciples of Jesus. Little wonder St. Paul in our first reading today says that we must live our whole life according to that of Christ whom we have received, for we must be rooted in him.

 

Dear friends,  prayers is the key to evangelization and evangelization is the very nature and essence of the Church. And Jesus gives us the mandate and the commission to evangelize, that is, to announce the Good News to all the nations and to spread the Gospel to every creature. This commission is shared by all those who are baptized both priests and lay faithful. Everyone has a particular responsibility to share in the work of proclamation of the Gospel. Today, we should ask ourselves, how have we proclaimed the Gospel to the world? What efforts are we making to ensure that the mandate Christ entrusted to us is carried out effectively in our generation?

 

Therefore, prayer is very essential especially at this moment when the world is confused, because we have removed God out of our daily lives. Prayer is the key at this time when we have placed our hope in the activities of the human person who seems to have taken the place of God. Prayer is the key at this time when our governments, scientists, doctors, lawyers, professors and even pastors assumed the place of God, which of course have brought about the ugly situation we are facing in our societies today.

 

Hence, we are reminded once again about our very mission which is rooted in prayers, for it is time to take this mandate very seriously, because it is our responsibility to fulfil our promises to God and ensure that the Christian faith is preached and sustained in the world and by so doing save humanity once again from sin, death and destruction.

 

LET US PRAY: Lord God,  without prayers in our lives we are lost in this world, for a lot of us are confused because we have cut ourselves off from You our cornerstone, as we come back to you once again in prayers, may we learn from the prayer life of Jesus and his teaching and by so doing draw humanity back to You once again. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Do have a favourable day.