Homily For Saturday Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time Year A, 14th October, 2023.

Readings: Joel 4:12-21; Ps.97; Luke 11:27-28

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.

 

BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO HEAR THE WORD OF GOD AND KEEP IT

 

Reflecting on our relationship with God, family and neighbours, I asked myself which one comes first, because all seem to be important. This is very vital  when we relate it to the response of Jesus to a woman in our Gospel passage today, who when Jesus was speaking to the crowd, raised her voice and said, ‘Blessed the womb that bore you and the breasts you sucked!’ But Jesus replied, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!’

 

Here, Jesus highlights that our primary relationship in life is with God. Even the deepest and most natural bonds are created within this primary love of doing the will of God. Mother and family were important to Jesus in his life and at his death, but his real family is centred around the new family relationship that is built among those who hear and keep the word of God. Therefore, our relationship with our family and neighbours is actually rooted in our relationship with God whose word is the light that guides our steps.

 

But the questions remain:  What have we been doing with the word of God we hear every day? What kind of fruit are we bearing in our family and society? How has the word of God changed our life and disposition towards our family? How has the word of God challenged and propelled us to love God and our neighbours? The answers to these questions are blowing in the wind.

 

Therefore, today we are called to be more practical and attentive towards listening to the word of God. We are called to put into action the words we hear every day. And concerning this new family of Jesus made up of those who hear the word of God and keep it, Joel in our first reading says: the Lord will be a shelter for his people, a stronghold for the sons of Israel his chosen people.

 

Dear friends, whatever we feed grows and whatever we quit feeding dies and feds away. So what are we feeding our souls with? How are we feeding on the word of God? Our society has enough hearers of the word, what we need now is doers of the word of God, men and women who will fill their lives with the word of God and from the abundance of their hearts live a life that will influence society positively. Thus, when we hear the word of God we must apply it to our daily lives because that's the only way we can feed our soul. And by so doing we become blessed brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

LET US PRAY: Lord God, we thank you for the gift of your words we hear every day, Grant that we may cultivate the habit of hearing and keeping your words, so as to become living instruments of your words in our families, societies and the world at large. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen Do have a blessed and fruitful weekend.