Homily For Thursday Fourth Week in Ordinary Time Year A, 5th February, 2026. The Memorial of St. Agatha

 

Readings: 1Kings 2:1-4.10-12; Ps. 1Chr. 29; Mark 6:7-13

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.

FINDING JOY IN THE MISSION OF OUR SALVATION

The rebellious nature of humanity has always kept us away from responding to God's invitation to Life of love, holiness, faithfulness and integrity. Hence, humanity has always failed to understand the true ways of God, its creator. However, God has not stopped caring and stretching his hands of love towards us. In every generation, God always sends messengers to remind us of his love and plan for humanity.

This is exactly what we have in our readings today. In the first reading, we heard David instructing Solomon, his son, saying: " Be strong and show yourself a man. Observe the injunctions of the Lord your God, following his ways and keeping his laws, his commandments, his customs and his decrees, as it stands written in the law. And in our Gospel passage, where Jesus sent his twelve disciples, the foundation of the future Church community, to do exactly the same work of evangelisation that he had been doing.

 Hence, he gave them authority over unclean spirits and instructed them to preach repentance, that radical conversion towards the vision of the Kingdom, and they were to anoint the sick and heal them. These three activities cover the whole nature of the human person: spiritual, mental and physical. Healing and wholeness, health and holiness. In this mission, they were instructed to travel lightly, bringing only what they needed. No food, money, or even a change of clothes. They will not need these things because they will be taken care of by the people they serve.

So in this Gospel, Jesus is preparing his disciples for a task ahead. He lets them experience the nature of their mission, the challenges, obstacles and dangers which await them. He gave them the guidelines about the mission and sent them out. So, they succeeded because the power of God was working in them. The message entrusted to the disciples by Jesus is to offer peace and announce the coming of God's kingdom. This same message of peace and justice, forgiveness and healing has been entrusted to the Church down the centuries.

Now it is our turn to witness it. The disciples returned with joy. We will experience that same joy when we do what the Lord wants because, our joy is rooted in our identifying with Jesus, not in what we do. So the source of our joy should be our status in heaven as beloved sons and daughters of God, and not on our success over the evil forces or the things of this passing world.

Thus, the Lord has entrusted to us an awesome responsibility and privilege to carry the message of God’s love, peace and mercy to the world. Unfortunately, many of the disciples have to face rejection and persecution from the people, who, through their rebellious attitude, have refused to believe in God even though he has always been so patient, loving, caring and forgiving.

 This is what we see in the life of St Agatha of Sicily, whose memorial we celebrate today, for Agatha, who, from her very early years, was notably beautiful. And because of her love for Jesus, she dedicated her life to God as a consecrated virgin. But this did not stop men from desiring her. One of the men who desired Agatha was Quintianus, and because he was of a high diplomatic ranking, thought he could force her to turn away from her vow and so force her to get married.

His persistent proposals were consistently turned down by Agatha. Hence, he sentenced Agatha to prison in a brothel to see if she would change her mind. But noticing that Agatha was enduring all the torture with a sense of cheer, he commanded that she be subjected to a worse form of torture; he ordered that her breasts be cut off.

Dear friends, today we are reminded about the condition and nature of our mission, calling humanity to repent from our sinful and rebellious attitudes to embrace the compassionate love and care that God is offering us. As disciples of Christ, we have received a lot from God without payment; we should learn to give without expecting a reward. Therefore, we must offer to others these same gifts which we have received.

We are to show love to people, forgive, help the needy and share with one another the gifts God has blessed us with, and if our love and care are rejected, we should offer it as a sign for the judgment day. Remember, your kind gestures today can turn someone's life around now or later and by so doing we extend God’s divine compassion to rebellious humanity.

LET US PRAY: Heavenly Father, as we are reminded about the condition and nature of our mission for which you sacrificed a lot to save us from our rebellious and sinful attitudes, open our hearts once again to repent and embrace your compassionate love and care for us. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Peace be with you.