Homily For Wednesday Third Week of Advent Year A, 20th December, 2023

Readings: Is. 7:10-14;  Ps. 24; Luke 1:26-38

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia

 

LEARN TO ACCEPT THE WILL OF GOD JUST LIKE MARY

 

As the great event of Christmas draws very near, the liturgy in a special way today, reminds us about the mysterious event of the Annunciation of the Lord, an event that marks nine months before the birth of Jesus at Christmas, recalling the very moment when our Lord and Saviour was conceived in the womb of Mary, as she responded to the revelation of God’s Good News through the Archangel Gabriel saying: I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your Word. With this response, the Word became flesh and dwells among us through a humble Virgin, thereby revealing the arrival of the long-awaited Saviour into the world as we have it in our Gospel passage today.

 

In our first reading, we heard how King Ahaz also received revelation from God through the prophet Isaiah, of the coming of God’s salvation to his people. But Ahaz refused to accept the sign, out of false humility, saying that he would not put God to the test even when the prophet had specifically said that God would give him a sign. This shows a lack of faith and disobedience from King Ahaz which is quite opposite to that of Mary who humbly accepted God’s will.

 

When compared the response of Mary to that of Ahaz, who further led the people of Judah into sin, as he did not follow or obey God’s laws. We will see that his lack of faith is indeed opposite to Mary’s total submission to God, his pride and false humility are opposite of Mary’s total humility and devotion to God.  Hence, Mary has become a role model for all of us, as her obedience and willingness to accept her role as the Mother of God and Saviour is something that all of us as Christians should also emulate in our own lives.

 

Dear friends, this year has been filled with a lot of uncertainty, sorrow and grief, challenges and trials, obstacles, difficulties and suffering all over the world. But we are consoled in today’s Gospel passage that talks about the Annunciation of our Lord and Saviour with the words of the angel, telling us not to be afraid, for we have won God’s favour. This is to make us know that the Lord has special plans for us if only we can accept the will of God and be humble and submissive to God’s will just like Mary, so we too can say in faith: “Let it be done to me according to your will”.

 

Thus, we are called to draw strength, faith and courage from Mary in her total submission to God’s will, knowing that despite all the darkness, sorrow and uncertainties in our country today. God will not abandon his people. His promise of salvation is a reality that we will surely experience. Therefore, let us entrust ourselves in humility to God just as Mary had done. Let us ask for his mercy and forgiveness as we also forgive one another. It is not time to judge people or lose faith. Rather, it is time to pray for each other as we grow stronger in faith and our love and devotion to God. knowing that he is closer to us in these challenging moments for he does not fail in his promises.

 

LET US PRAY: Heavenly Father, as the event of Advent comes to its peak, the occasion of the annunciation reminds us of your promises and plans to redeem humanity, as we listen to your words today, may we respond positively to your requests and so be filled with the joy of your presence, we ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. God bless you.

Homily For Tuesday The Third Week of Advent Year B, 19th December, 2023

Readings Judges 13:2-7,24-25; Ps. 71; Luke: 1:5-25

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.

 

DO NOT BE AFRAID FOR GOD HAS A PLAN FOR EVERYONE

 

Oftentimes, things happen in our lives that we can not explain how and why they happened. This is to tell us that we are unique and special, because, in our uniqueness, we come to realize that God has a special plan for everyone. This is evident in our readings today where we are presented with the message about the visits of the angel announcing the birth of great men giving birth by barren women in the Old and New Testament scriptures.

 

In our Gospel passage, we have Elizabeth mother of John the Baptist and the unnamed mother of Samson in the first reading. They remind us that God is in control of human history, and intervenes graciously in favour of the helpless and despised. For he knows how to guide us towards his plans for us.

 

Thus, Angel Gabriel was sent to bring good news to Zechariah, who did not believe his words. The first message of the angel to Zechariah was: “Do not be afraid, your prayer has been answered!” Up until now, most people do not know the plan of God for them and this causes fear in their lives. So, the message of the angel continues to be valid, “do not be afraid” for God has a plan for everyone and through prayers God reveals his plan for us.

 

Dear friends, the greatest plan of God is the salvation of our souls, to reconcile the heart of humanity toward their Creator, to reconstruct the fabric of human relationships and to build up a community of love and holiness. This was the mission of Samson, John and also the mission of Jesus and continues to be the most important mission and plan of God today. But, how are we contributing towards this mission? Remember, it is on this mission that we discover the purpose and plan of God for each one of us.

 

LET US PRAY: Lord God, every day we struggle to identify ourselves with your plans for us, grant that we may faithfully follow your plans and find joy in doing them no matter how difficult they may be, we ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Do have a blessed and fruitful day.

Homily For Monday the Third Week of Advent Year B, 18th December, 2023

Readings Jer. 23:5-8; Ps. 72; Matt.1:18-24

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.

 

LEARN TO ADDRESS THE CHALLENGING MOMENTS OF YOUR LIFE LIKE ST JOSEPH

 

As we continue the preparation for the birthday of our Lord Jesus, the liturgy presents to us the events preceding the birth of Jesus and invites us to contemplate the roles St Joseph played in the life of Jesus and Mary which our Gospel passage today presents to us how Jesus Christ came to be born. A challenging moment in the lives of Mary and Joseph.

 

Mary who was betrothed to Joseph was found to be with a child; but Joseph being a man of honour and wanting to spare Mary’s publicity, decided to surely with great sorrow send Mary away quietly. He had made up his mind to do this when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit, she will bear a Son, and you shall call him Jesus, for he will save his people from sins. We can imagine the great trauma Joseph was passing through when we think about the love he has for Mary. But even in these circumstances, he intends to do the will of God.

 

Hence, we can see how this Gospel passage reveals to us the magnanimity of Joseph’s heart and soul. He wished to follow his plan, but God was reserving another plan for him, a greater mission. Joseph was a man who always listened to the voice of God, he was deeply sensitive to his secret will, he was a man attentive to the messages that came to him from the depths of his heart. He did not persist in following his plan, he did not allow bitterness to poison his soul; rather, silently he was ready to make himself available to the event of the new mission entrusted to him. This reveals to us how deep and great St. Joseph’s holiness of life was.

 

Dear friends, the challenge to every baptized Christian is to live a holy life and God cannot abandon us in this struggle. For he promised us in the first reading to stand up for us a righteous branch who shall reign as King and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in our land. He shall save the needy when they cry, the poor, and those who are helpless. Look at how the Lord helped Joseph in the challenging moment of his life, giving him the grace to cooperate with his will even when it seemed difficult, he said to him “do not fear”.

 

So like Joseph, we should not fear to face those challenging moments of disappointment, pain, sorrow, guilt, betrayals, and complex and complicated situations in our lives, for by combating them comes our victory and through the power of the Holy Spirit our souls are purified and the will of God is made manifest in our lives.

 

LET US PRAY: Heavenly Father, give us the grace to imitate the silence and holiness of St Joseph, especially in a world full of noise, iniquities and distractions. A world that encourages neither recollection nor listening to you nor one another. Grant us the grace to cultivate the inner attitude of silence and recollection in order to fully embrace the spirit of this season so as to joyfully experience the glory of Christmas. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Do have a grace-filled day.

Homily For Third Sunday of Advent Year B (Gaudete Sunday), 17th December, 2023

Readings: Is 61:1-2,10-11; Ps.: Luke 1:46-50,53-54; 1Thess 5:16-24; John 1:6-8,19-28

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia

 

THE JOY OF DISCOVERING YOUR TRUE IDENTITY

 

Every third Sunday of Advent the Church celebrates Gaudete Sunday, the Sunday in Advent season when we are called to rejoice for the coming of the Lord is very near. Little wonder the entrance antiphon of today’s Mass begins by saying: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near. Yes, On this Sunday, we put on rose vestments a colour that is only used twice in the entire liturgical year, first on a day like this when we celebrate the Gaudete Sunday and secondly on the fourth Sunday of Lent when we celebrate the Laetare Sunday. This Gaudete Sunday is named as such because we are called to rejoice in the Lord forever.

 

So, our focus this Sunday is on the theme of Joy. That is the joy of discovering our true identity which is rooted in Christ the Lord.  We can recall that for the past two Sundays of Advent our focus was on the aspects of Hope and Peace. Today’s theme of Joy ushers us into the most important disposition of the season of Advent that calls us to discover our true identity in preparation for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ at Christmas when the true Joy of the Lord will be born in our hearts.

 

As we know, human identity is one of the most important things in every society. We are often quick to identify ourselves with people or disassociate ourselves from people because of the value we hold as our identity. But the surprising thing is that most people do not know their true identity. Many people spend their entire lives without knowing who they are.

 

But this is not the case for John the Baptist in our Gospel passage today, who when approached by the priests and Levites sent by the Jews from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you? He not only declared his identity as a voice that is crying in the wilderness, he also declared quite openly, ‘I am not the Christ. And he went ahead to tell us about the identity and the personality of Christ saying: “I baptize with water; but there stands among you unknown to you, the one who is coming after me; and I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandal.

 

The most striking thing here is the fundamental question placed before John the Baptist which says: Who are you and what do you say about yourself? This is a fundamental question because it points out the fundamental reality of who we are and what we have identified ourselves with. A lot of people do not know who they are or what they have identified themselves with. A lot of people today are suffering and struggling because they do not know who they are and the identity they bear. Some have misplaced their identity with something else, some are putting on an identity that doesn’t belong to them.

 

Dear friends, Who are you? What is your identity? What is the source of your identity? Whose identity are you putting on now? Why are you putting on someone else identity? Why have you misplaced your identity? John the Baptist was very clear about his identity, he was clear that he was not the Christ. He was clear that he was not Elijah. John was clear that he was not the prophet, he was only the voice of one crying in the wilderness, making straight the way of the Lord.

 

John knew his identity and his role in God’s economy of salvation. He was clear on who he was not and who he was. He was also clear on who Jesus is. So he was able to point others clearly to Jesus as the only Savior whom they desperately needed. Therefore friends, we must truly know who we are and our true identity. For us to effectively point others to Jesus, we need to be clear about who we are. It is only when our sense of who we are before God as a Christian begins to shape how we live and what we do that we begin to play our role effectively and be fruitful. Also, it is only when we are clear on who we are in God’s kingdom, that we can effectively point others to Christ.

 

Today we are called to rejoice for Christ our true identity is close at hand.  And for those who truly desire to know their true identity, St. Paul in our second reading tells us to rejoice always, pray constantly; and for all things give thanks to God, because this is what God expects us to do in Christ Jesus our true identity, who prophet Isaiah in our first reading tells us that the spirit of the Lord has been given to him, for the Lord has anointed him. He has sent him to bring Good News to the poor, to bind up hearts that are broken; to proclaim liberty to captives, freedom to those in prison; and to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord. Dear friends, our true identity is only found in the person of Christ Jesus. All we need is to dispose yourselves for him to reveal his true identity to us and in him, we will find our true identity and our joy will be complete.

LET US PRAY: Almighty God, our true identity is found only in you through Christ your son, as we rejoice and celebrate his coming in glory, may we be filled with the joy of his presence who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen. God bless you. 

Homily For Saturday the Second Week of Advent Year B, 16th December, 2023

Reading: Sir. 48:1-4.9-12; Ps 80; Matt. 17:10-13

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.

 

EMBRACING THE MESSAGE OF THE PROPHET

 

In our societies today people often desire to hear the message from the prophet to know what God is saying as regards their situation in life. This is the disposition of the people at the time of Jesus. Little wonder in our Gospel passage today we heard how the disciples of Jesus after their experience of the Lord’s transfiguration, as they were coming down from the mountains, asked Jesus: why do the scribes say then that Elijah has to come first?’ ‘True;’ he replied ‘Elijah is to come to see that everything is once more as it should be; however, I tell you that Elijah has come already and they did not recognise him but treated him as they pleased; and the Son of Man will suffer similarly at their hand.

 

Here a reference is made to John the Baptist, the one who was the Herald of the Messiah, the one who prepared the path for the Lord Jesus as predicted by the prophets. So, Jesus mentioned how John was the fulfilment of those prophecies, and indeed, his works and ministry had prepared the path for his coming into this world. Meanwhile, John the Baptist has often been compared with the prophet Elijah because both of them have some similarities, they lived similarly, travelling in the wilderness, proclaiming repentance and the coming of God’s salvation as we heard about prophet Elijah in our first reading today.

 

Indeed, John the Baptist can be likened to the prophet Elijah sent into the world to finish the works that Elijah had once initiated. Though, John the Baptist had the spirit of the prophet Elijah, which was not the same as being the same person, both by that extension had the same ministry among the people of God, and they used the same approach and efforts to pass the message of God to his people. Both suffered because of their teaching and mission. Jesus also would face the same reality.

 

Dear friends, today we are called to reflect on the lives and mission of these two great prophets especially in this Advent season so that we too may become more faithful by following their examples and faith. We do not need to keep waiting for prophets to come again rather we should embrace the message these great prophets have for us. And their message is quite simple, they are calling us to repentance, they are calling us to love, they are calling us to make the path of our lives straight, they are calling us to embrace the Lord Jesus and the gift of salvation he is offering us this season.

 

LET US PRAY: Heaven Father, as we listen to your words through your prophets calling us to repentance, love and preparation, may we embrace your word and so prepare our hearts for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen. Do have a blessed weekend.

Homily For Friday the Second Week of Advent Year B, 15th December, 2023.

Readings Isaiah 48:17-19; Ps 1:1-6; Matt. 11:16-19

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.

 

LEARN TO TAKE THE WORD OF GOD SERIOUSLY

 

Reflecting on the disposition of humanity today towards God, I can not but ask myself questions about our faith in God who we often claim to love and belong to. This is because, despite all the articles of faith and evidence in both scriptures and historical tradition, we still do not have a good grasp of who God really is in our lives. This very disposition is always the case with every generation and this is what Jesus is addressing in our Gospel passage today when he said: to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.' For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon'; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!

 

Here Jesus made us know that the problem with this generation is that we have failed to listen neither to the message of John the Baptist nor that of Jesus. No doubt that John’s uncommon lifestyle made people accuse him of having a demon, while Jesus’ habit of eating and drinking with sinners affected his reputation among the Jews. But Jesus made us know that his generation finds reason to take offence at both John and himself.

 

So, Jesus compares those who are rejecting his message to children in the marketplace who cannot decide whether they want to play a wedding song or a funeral song but can’t get the people to dance when the tune is piped.  For they played their pipes, and expect others to dance; they beat their breasts in lamentation, and expect others to weep. They complain if others do not comply with their demands. To such a company Jesus refers to as evil generation in which he and John the Baptist found themselves. Just as in our generation today, some people have refused to repent when challenged by the teachings of John the Baptist and some people also refused to join the celebrations of Jesus and do not take his message seriously.

 

Dear friends, why have we failed to take the Word of God seriously? Why have we failed to embrace the article of faith made available for us by the Lord in our scriptures? Why do we take for granted the signs and messages the Lord is giving us this Advent season and always?  Today in our first reading we heard the Lord saying through prophet Isaiah: “I, the Lord, your God, teach you what is good for you, I lead you in the way that you must go. If only you had been alert to my commandments, your happiness would have been like a river, your integrity like the waves of the sea”. So let us not be like market people who pay no attention to the message the Lord has for us.

 

LET US PRAY: Heavenly Father, enkindle in us once again the fire of your love, so that we may embrace your message and become your great servants dedicating our lives and service to loving you and our neighbours. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.  Do have a lovely day.

Homily For Thursday the Second Week of Advent Year B, 14th December 2023. The Memorial of St. John of The Cross

Readings Isaiah 41:13-20; Ps ,145; Matt. 11:11-15

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.

 

HE WHO HAS EARS TO HEAR LET HIM LISTEN

 

The ears as we know are one of the very important organs of the human person. This organ consists of the pinna which aids the human ability to hear. It is a gift from God through which we have the faculty of being able to perceive sounds and recognize something in an auditory way. To exercise the faculty of this organ effectively we must learn to use it to listen attentively to information. The world no doubt is full of noise, echoing different things in our minds through our ears.

 

But how are we using these organs? How has this organ helped us in our spiritual life in this noisy world? How have we managed the noise in our lives,  in our families and in society which distracts us from listening to God? What are the things we hear or listen to? The Word of God we hear every day how has it developed our relationship with God and our neighbour? Hence Jesus ends our Gospel passage today by saying: If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen!’

 

Here, Jesus is referring to our ability to listen to God's Word and act on it even amid this noisy world. Jesus was making this comment while referring to the mission of St. John the Baptist as his herald to proclaim his coming into this world and to prepare the path for him. He revealed to all of us the truth about God’s love for us. So, referring to the role of John the Baptist in the mission of the Lord, Jesus said: I tell you solemnly, of all the children born of women, a greater than John the Baptist has never been seen; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he is.

 

Thus, we can say that the persons who seek to gain some spiritual insight into what Jesus is saying will have that insight increased when they listen, whereas whoever does not listen to Jesus will end up in spiritual ignorance. To avoid this, we are reminded through prophet Isaiah that the faithful people of God would not be forsaken or abandoned, for God still loves us despite all the terrible and sinful things we do if only we could listen to him.

 

Dear friends, by listening, hearing and following Jesus, we grow in familiarity with his voice and hear him more. And by so doing we make Jesus the light of our lives placed on the lampstand to give light and insight to our souls as individuals, family and society, illuminating all the darkness around us. Therefore, we are called to put our ears into positive us and be submissive just like John the Baptist and so cultivate the habit of listening to God and one another. This act of listening to God is one of the virtues of John of the Cross whose memorial we are celebrating today.

 

St. John of the Cross is one of the great doctors and mysticists of the Church who truly listens and embraces the Word of Jesus and has inspired our soul, to continue to be in love with the Lord, he said:  What more do you want my soul and what else do you search for outside, when within yourself you possess all the riches, delights, satisfactions, and fullness of the kingdom of your beloved whom you desire and seek. Therefore, be joyful and glad in your interior recollection with him for you have him so close to you. Desire him deep within your soul, and there adore him. Do not go in pursuit of him outside yourself for he is deep with you.

 

 LET US PRAY: Heavenly Father, our ears are gifts from you, help us to use them properly. And as we carry out our activities today, may our ears through the intercession of St. John of the Cross hear the consoling words of Jesus guiding and directing us towards the light of his presence. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Remain blessed.