Homily For Friday Third Week of Advent Year C, 20th December, 2024

 

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

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia

LET IT BE DONE TO ME ACCORDING TO YOUR WORD

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.

Here, Mary 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.

Homily For Thursday Third Week of Advent Year C, 19th December, 2024

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

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.

GOD HAS NOT FORGOTTEN YOUR HOUSEHOLD FOR HE HAS A PLAN FOR EVERYONE

Oftentimes, things happen in our lives and our family 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 every household. 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 our families. For he intervenes graciously in favour of the helpless and despised. He knows how to guide us towards his plans for us.

Thus, Angel Gabriel was sent to bring good news to Zechariah and his household. Though he did not believe the words of the Angel. 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, God has not forgotten your household for he has a special plan for you. 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 in our household.

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. Have a blessed and fruitful day.

Homily For Wednesday Third Week of Advent Year C, 18th December, 2024

 

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

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.

DOING THE WILL OF GOD LIKE ST. JOSEPH

As we continue the preparation for the birthday of our Lord Jesus, today’s 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.

Joseph 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. Have a grace-filled day.

Homily For Tuesday Third Week of Advent Year C, 17th December, 2024

 

Readings Gen.49:2.8-10, Ps. 72, Matt.1:1-17

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.

LET YOUR LIFE INFLUENCE YOUR GENEALOGY POSITIVELY LIKE THAT OF CHRIST

Today, we begin the second part of the Advent season; as we know, the Advent season is divided into two parts. The first, which runs from the first Sunday until the 16th of December, dwells on the second coming of Christ, the eschatological aspect of Advent. The second aspect, which focuses on the first coming of Christ at Bethlehem, runs from today, 17th -24th December. Hence, the best way to begin this second aspect of advent is by reflecting on the genealogy of Jesus Christ, our Saviour, as we have it in our Gospel passage today.

From this genealogy of Jesus, we can observe that generations come, generations go, great men and women come and pass on, and new generations continue to spring up as God continue to unveil his plan for humanity. Just as he revealed to Jacob in our first reading today when he gathered all of his sons and their own families, and said his parting words as he was about to die. He blessed all of his children, some more than others, and from among all of the children, Judah stood out to be the one who received a more favourable blessing.

This shows how the Lord revealed through Jacob what he was going to do for the people of Israel and humanity. Judah's kingship over all of Israel was given to David, who became the rightful king and God’s chosen one, and God promised that David’s house would rule over Israel forever, which is evident in the genealogy of Jesus.

Dear friends, this is Christ's generation, but the question that comes to mind is: our genealogy to what extent can it be traced to that of Christ? Can my way of life be linked to that of Christ and his genealogy? The things we are doing now, to what extent have they been influenced by the events of the past generations, to what extent are they influencing this present generation and to what extent are they going to influence the future generations?

Therefore, let us use this great opportunity of Advent season to open our hearts, our minds and our whole beings to the Lord. Let us return to the Lord and focus our attention on him as we renew our faith in him and play our role in his plan of redeeming humanity.

LET US PRAY: Lord God, as we open our hearts to embrace your coming, may you continue to watch over us and guide us in our journey of faith and as we struggle with the ugly situation in our world today, may the Holy Spirit, teach us what to do today, how to do them, when to do them and give us the grace to do them properly. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. May God bless and guide your ways today and always. 

Homily For Monday of the Third Week of Advent Year C, 16th December, 2024

Readings Num. 24:2-7,15-17, Ps. 25, Matt. 21:23-27

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.

RECOGNISING THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS IN OUR LIFE

In our dealings with people, we are often requested to refer to authorities in order to back up our claim to know or possess anything. And when such authority is not available, we may not be taking it seriously. Little wonder our gospel passage today, presents to us the fundamental question concerning the source of Jesus’ authority, namely whether it is divine or human. Here the chief priests and elders were more concerned to learn whether Jesus had received the proper human authorization by questioning the source of his authority.

In response, Jesus draws their attention to John the Baptist and his authority, and by so doing, he implies that the source of John's authority is the source of his as well. Thus, anyone who correctly identifies the source of John's authority will identify the source of Jesus’ own as well. Therefore the questions we need to ask ourselves are: What is our notion about the authority of Jesus? Do we have any doubt about the authority of Jesus? How much of this authority dwells in you? The crowds identified the source of John and Jesus’ authority as divine, have we identified the divine authority of Jesus in our lives? Why not ask him to manifest his power and authority once more in your life?

Little wonder we heard how Balaam, in our first reading, acknowledged the authority of God,d, saying: the oracle of Bala, am, son of Beor, oracle of the man with far-seeing eyes, the oracle of one who hears the word of God. He sees what Shaddai makes him see, receives the divine answer, and his eyes are opened. How fair are your tents, O Jacob! How fair your dwellings, Israel! A hero arises from their stock; he reigns over countless people. His king is greater than Agag, his majesty is exalted.’

Dear friends, as we go on with our recollection of this advent season, we need to open up our hearts to truly embrace the authority of the Lord Jesus. We need to build up our interior lives around his authority. We need to be closer to God and continue to prepare ourselves physically and spiritually as we anticipate the coming of our Lord Jesus in our hearts and souls. For there, he awaits our response to his invitation to holiness and love.

LET US PRAY: Heavenly Father, in your divine authority we build our confidence and hope. May you continue to direct and guide our ways and bring our plans and purposes to a successful end, through Christ our Lord. Amen. It’s another week, wishing you the best of God’s favour and blessings.

Homily For Third Sunday of Advent Year C (Gaudete Sunday), 15th December 2024

 

Readings: Zep. 3:14-18; Ps. Is. 12:2-6; Phil. 4:4-7; Luke 3:10-18

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia

REJOICE! REJOICE! BUT HOW CAN WE REJOICE IN THE WORLD OF CRISIS, WICKEDNESS AND SIN?

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, 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.

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, and we can recall that for the past two Sundays of Advent, our focus was on the aspects of Hope and Peace. Today, this theme of Joy ushers us into the most important disposition of the season of Advent that calls us to prepare for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ at Christmas, when the true Joy of the Lord will be born in our hearts.

Little wonder prophet Zephaniah, in our first reading today, said: Shout for joy, daughter of Zion, Israel, shout aloud! Rejoice, exult with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord has repealed your sentence; he has driven your enemies away. The Lord, the king of Israel, is in your midst; you have no more evil to fear.

This message of hope and joy came at a time when the people of Israel had just returned from their long exile in Babylon, for they had faced great humiliation and suffering due to their infidelities and stubbornness, their abandonment of God, His laws and commandments. Because of these grievous sins, they were sent to exile in Babylon where they were brought low and defeated, but as the Lord remembered them and saved them once again, prophet Zephaniah called them once again to rejoice.

Dear friends, the ugly situation humanity has found herself today is quite similar to the situation of the people of Israel in Babylon and this can prevent us from rejoicing. Today, humanity has found herself in Babylon of different degrees, and it seems as if there is no hope for her restoration, and this has taken our joy away. Today, we have found ourselves in deep Babylon of sin, corruption, impurity, immorality and evil of the highest order; hence to rejoice becomes difficult.

We have found ourselves in Babylon of iniquities of the highest degree, we have found ourselves in Babylon of wars and killing of each other. We have found ourselves in Babylon of hatred as never before. People hate each other at different levels, colours, and religions, even within our families and shamelessly among married couples.

Oh humanity, we have chosen to dwell in Babylon of greediness, where one will choose to kill, blackmail and tarnish the good image of people just to have it all, I, I, I, me, me, me, is the slogan of the day, if I can’t have it no one will have it. Oh, poor humanity, why have we chosen to dwell in Babylon of immorality at the highest level in the history of mankind?

No single respect for the sanctity of the human body and soul. We dine in sexual immoralities of different degrees and we package them with beautiful names to make them even more captivating. Everything we do now must be sexy in order to gain recognition.

What is going on with us? When will this Babylon be over? When are we going to say no to these ugly ways of life? When will we say no to oppression and criminal activities? When will we say no to killing, blackmail and tarnishing of the good image of one another?

When will we say no to corruption, impurity and greediness? When will we say no to hatred and unforgiveness? When will we say yes to the life of integrity, holiness, and purity of heart? When will we say yes to goodwill and care for one another? When will we say yes to peace, love, kindness and respect for one another?

Today in our Gospel passage, we heard the people, after embracing the message of John the Baptist, asked him, saying: what then should we do? How can we begin anew? How can we say no to these ugly ways of life? John said to them: If anyone has two tunics he must share, that is charity, we must be charitable. He said ‘Exact no more than your rate, that is, a call to quit corruption, impurity, greediness and immortality. ’No intimidation! No extortion! Be content with your pay.

My dear friends, we can truly rejoice when we embrace this message of John the Baptist. We can only rejoice when we say yes to God and no to evil. We can only rejoice when we become agents of peace. And when this happens, we can now embrace the words of St Paul in our first-second reading where he said: Rejoice, always rejoice in the Lord; I repeat, what I want is your happiness. Let your tolerance be evident to everyone: the Lord is very near. Fear not, but let the peace of the Lord reign in your heart. Remember, the birth of Jesus is the reason why we are rejoicing.

LET US PRAY: Lord God, we thank you for the gift of your love and joy as you call us to rejoice today in preparation for the coming of your Son, our Lord Jesus; help us to do away with our ugly ways of life that prevent us from obtaining your true Joy. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Happy Sunday.

Homily For Saturday, the Second Week of Advent Year C, 14th December 2024. The Memorial of St. John of the Cross

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

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.

THE LIFE AND WORK OF PROPHETS

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, saying: 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, who was 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. This is what we see in the life of St. John of the Cross whose memorial we celebrate today.

He is one of the great doctors and mysticists of the Church who truly understands and embraced the authority of Jesus and so inspires in our soul, how 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: 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. Have a blessed weekend.