Homily For Wednesday, Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time, Year C, 3rd September 2025. The Memorial of St Gregory

 

Readings: Col 1:1-8; Ps. 33; Luke 4:38-44

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia

HEALING THAT LEADS TO SERVICES

The whole of Scripture reveals the compassionate love of God in its historical and physical solidarity with human suffering. This is more evident in the compassionate way Jesus carried out his activities which springs up from the love of God the Father and constitutes the basis of the Church’s liberating activity.

Little wonder in our Gospel passage today, as Jesus continued to carry out his mission of preaching, he also showed compassion and care for those who were passing through difficulties.

Thus, when he returned from preaching in the synagogue to Simon Peter's house, behold, Peter's mother-in-law was sick with a fever. This is not a minor sickness in the ancient world. A fever is not a kind of sickness that lasts for a short while, but is often a symptom of a condition that can lead to death.

So Jesus went to her, took her by the hand and helped her up. And the fever left her and she began to serve them. That evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were sick and possessed by devils and he cured them.

This clearly describes how and why Jesus came down to dwell with us and, by taking up our human nature, made it possible for him to identify himself with the struggles of humanity as he embraced us with his love, compassion and care. For he came to heal us from our sins and from all the afflictions we encountered and struggle with in this passing world.

So, when Jesus cured Peter’s mother-in-law, she immediately began to serve them, something she was unable to do because of her illness. Thus, she was able to render her service to the first Christian community. She was healed and restored with new strength so that she may again rise and take up her proper place in the community of God’s people.

Dear friends, God really cares for our well-being, He is always ready to help us in our struggles so that we can be well disposed to serve him. So whenever we are passing through difficult moments, we must not allow despair, fear or doubt to cloud our hearts.

We need to have faith in God and wholeheartedly believe in him. We need to have more faith and trust in God, and be more hopeful no matter how difficult things may be for us and whenever he restores us, it may be tempting to sit back and accept people’s good wishes and congratulations.

These should not be our attitudes; we should rather learn from Peter’s mother-in-law that healing is not just to make us well but to enable us to become active again in rendering service to God and humanity. For it is another opportunity to serve God and humanity and St Paul in our first reading says: “the Good News which has reached you is spreading all over the world and producing the same results among us”.

This is what we see in the life of Pope St. Gregory the Great, whose memorial we celebrate today, for he had a personal encounter with the Lord, which propelled his effort in spreading the Gospel message and by so doing converted more and more souls to the Lord.

LET US PRAY: Lord God, we are really sick in need of your healing and compassion. As we struggle every day to serve you and humanity, heal all our illnesses and give us grace to get up and become more active again to render more quality services to you and to our communities. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Have a favourable day. 

Homily For Tuesday Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time Year C, 2nd September, 2025

 

Readings: 1 These. 5:1-6.9-11, Ps. 27, Luke 4:31-37

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia

IN JESUS RESIDES THE POWER TO OVERCOME EVIL FORCES

From the scriptures, Jesus seems to have lived in a world of hostility and conflict between good and evil, as well as political witch-hunting, family divisions and demonic possession, just like we have it in our world today. For there is no doubt that there is an active presence of evil in the world which manifests itself in different forms. 

So every day we struggle against the malice of the evil ones, and people are doing everything they can to overcome them. But often, when children of God are confronted with evil, they don't know what to do and out of fear, they fall victim and are helpless because they are ignorant of the power and authority of God in them.

Thus, in our Gospel passage today, we heard how the people of Capernaum and even the demoniac recognised that the Divine Authority of Jesus in the world brings about victory over the evil ones. His teaching made a deep impression on them because he spoke with authority. 

And the man who was possessed by the devil shouted at the top of his voice, ‘Ah! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.’ But Jesus said sharply, ‘Be quiet! Come out of him!’ And the devil, throwing the man down in front of everyone, went out of him without hurting him at all. Astonished, they said to one another, ‘What teaching!  For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits and they come out.’

Here, the demons recognise Jesus as the power of God. And his power over the demons is a direct defeat of the evil one while the restoration of the possessed man signifies the inauguration of God's kingdom in the world. Now, Jesus has given us the gift of his presence in the person of the Holy Spirit, which God has bestowed on us in our baptism. In this gift resides the power and authority to confront evil and overcome it. 

Little wonder St. Paul in our first reading tells us that it is not as if we live in the dark, for that Day to overtake us like a thief. No, we are all sons of light and sons of the day: we do not belong to the night or to darkness, so we should not go on sleeping, as everyone else does, but stay awake and sober. For God never meant us to experience retribution, but to win salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that, alive or dead, we should still live united to him.

Dear friends, the presence of Jesus drives away every evil force. But as children of God, what is our notion about the authority and power of Jesus? Do we still have any doubt about the authority of Jesus? How much of this authority dwells in you? 

How united are we in Christ? Today, the demoniac identified the source of Jesus’ authority as divine. Have we personally identified the divine authority of Jesus in our lives? If we have not, why not ask him to manifest his power and authority once more in our lives?

LET US PRAY: Heavenly Father, we are often ignorant of the power and authority of the Holy Spirit which you gave us at our baptism, may we recognise this divine power and authority once again in our daily struggles with the evil forces in our world. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. God bless you.