March 28, 2021. Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord; Year B

Readings: Is. 50:4-7; Phil. 2:6-11; Mk. 14:1-15:47

The Covid-19 Palm Has Become the Palm of Jubilation

1.     Last year’s Palms were not used on Palm Sunday because Mass was suspended on March 15, a month before the celebration of Palm Sunday. The old palms were preserved for obvious reasons. Covid-19 pandemic was so severe that the use of things like, palms, hymn books, and bulletins were suspended. The reception of the cup during communion is still suspended and the offering of the sign of peace can only be given by the wave of hands or the bowing of heads. We have learned to keep our hands to ourselves, except for family members. Attendance at Mass had dropped drastically, and those at Mass are separated six feet apart. These restrictions were to minimize the rate of infections in our parishes. Today we use the old palms to remind us of the new life slowly returning to our world as the number of those who have taken vaccines is on the rise. Today’s Palms will remind us of the new life, Christ is bringing to our world due to his death and resurrection. We who died with Him during this past year, hope to rise with Him to a new life as we banish covid-19 from our lives.

2.     At this Mass, we gather to celebrate and to welcome Christ into Jerusalem to begin his passion, death and resurrection. We must follow Jesus all the way from the joyful celebration to his cross on Calvary and finally to the resurrection. The palms we carry today demonstrate fully the importance of the suffering of Christ. During this past year, many of our parishioners contacted the virus, been hospitalized and others in and around our parish and in the country lost their lives. We have experienced untold suffering, grieve, loss of property and loved ones. Through it all we have been able to hold on to our faith, believing that Christ, who suffered for us, will lift us up to a better life again. And so, Christ’s suffering is truly our hope. The letter to Hebrews tells us that Christ, the “Son of God learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” (Heb. 5:9).

3.     Palm Sunday reminds us of the humility of Christ. The second reading expressed it thus: “Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Phil. 2:6-8). The exultation of Jesus through his humility brings salvation to the world. Christ did not shy away from suffering. He knew that there will be no crown for the world without him passing through the pain, suffering and accepting the shameful death of the cross. St. Paul tells us “Christ ransomed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree.”” (Gal. 3:13). May we not be ashamed of the Cross of Christ for it is in that cross that we find our salvation. Christ reminds us, “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.” (Jn. 12:24-25) “And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” (Jn. 12:32).

4.     The first reading explains why Christ was able to obey his Father’s will. He learned to listen to God. “Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear; and I have not rebelled, have not turned back. I gave my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.” (Is. 50:4-6). Through prayer, Christ heard his father and followed his direction. His will was to do the will of his Father. According to the letter to the Hebrews: “For this reason, when he came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight in. Behold, I come to do your will, O God.” (Heb. 10:5-7).

5.     In our Christian life, we must accept suffering if we are to enjoy life with God. We must be humble in our service to God and humanity. The passion narrative we have just heard presented us with many personalities in the life of Jesus. It showed the courage of Christ. He knew that the chief priests and the scribes were out to get him. Yet his face was set on Jerusalem. There were many acts of kindness that followed Jesus during his journey to the cross. We must note that the key to everything was his prayer. Though it seemed that God had forsaken him, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me.” He was confident in God and knew that God was with him always. “I will proclaim your name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly, I will praise you.” Let us take these words to heart today: “What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angel, or principalities, nor present height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:35-38).

6.     As we begin this journey with the Lord into his passion, death and resurrection, may we not allow anything to take us away from the love of Christ. Jesus is more than the collective will of the evil one to distract us from God’s way. The passion of Christ will surely lead to the glory of the resurrection. May God strengthen us now and always. Amen!

Rev. Augustine Etemma Inwang, MSP

March 21, 2021: 5th Sunday of Lent, (Year B)

 

Readings: Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 5:7-9; Jn. 12:20-33

The Death of a Grain of Wheat

1.     When I was young, I was very curious about things. During planting season one year, I told my mom that I wanted to plant peanuts. I got my seed and off to the garden and started planting. I wanted to see the seed grow so bad that I kept digging it up. Needless to say, I did not allow the seed to die in order to grow. My mom told me to stop digging the seed up but to keep watering the seed and give it time to grow. The lesson: if the seed does not die – germinate - it will not grow and bear fruit. This is the message of the gospel reading of today. “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.” This is the paradox of life that speaks to every situation we encounter on earth. Something must be given for something else.

2.     The first reading is about the new covenant that God entered into with the children of Israel. “The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt; for they broke my covenant.” (Jer. 31:31-32). Because that covenant was broken due to sin, God initiated a new way of dealing with his people. According to the letter to the Hebrews, “When he speaks of a “new” covenant, he declares the first one obsolete. And what had become obsolete and has grown old is close to disappearing.” (Heb. 9:13). The new covenant will need no middleman or an intermediary like Moses, it will be based on individual and personal relationship with God. “I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer will they have need to teach their friends and kinsmen how to know the Lord. All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the Lord, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.” (Jer. 31:34). This new covenant is marked by God’s forgiveness and man’s obedience to the will of God. The letter to Hebrews states that even the “Son of God learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” (Heb. 5:9).  

3.     During Lent we acknowledge our need for God by dying to ourselves so as to live a new life of grace. We must be the grain of wheat that must let go of its life so as to bear bountiful fruit to feed the hungry of the world. Forgiveness is the new law written in our hearts. God’s forgiveness is the new thing that God is doing in the world. Hence, Isaiah tells us “See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it.” (Is. 43:19). This is reechoed in Hebrews, “For I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sins no more.” (Heb.8:12). We die to ourselves each time we forgive hurts done to us even as we bear fruit that will endure.

4.     We feel differently when we experience forgiveness either from God through the sacrament of reconciliation or personal friendly forgiveness. This is a liberating, exhilarating and transforming feeling. It is the grain of wheat in us dying to give life to the world. God the Father died in sending his Son into the world. The Son became the grain of wheat when he gave his life on the cross and was lifted up so that we may look at him and live. “And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” (Jn. 12:32). At our baptism, we died to sin, like the grain of wheat, and rose up to share eternal life of grace with God. When we go to confession, we pray with the Psalmist, “A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me.” (Ps.51:12-13). We die to our pride, confess our sins and receive God’s forgiveness. We become a new creation and begin to inject goodness, kindness and forgiveness to our world.

5.     So dear friends, like the Greeks who went to see Jesus in the Gospel, let us seek the company of Jesus during the remaining part of this Lenten season. May we not be afraid to die to ourselves. This means letting go of the past and embracing the here and now. We must die to ourselves if we are to live for Christ. What is holding you back? Past hurts, strangulating relationship, broken heart or relationship, lack of motivation, failed marriage or death in the family? Could it be sickness of parents and loved ones? Are you stuck in the past and find it difficult to let go and let God? We will not experience a new life with Christ if we do not die to ourselves. Yes, it may be hard to move on. But who said it will be easy? It was not easy for Christ. Look at Him in the garden of Gethsemane. “He was in such agony and he prayed so fervently that his sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground.” (Lk. 22:44). Yet He died to himself so that we may have life in him. “For our sake God made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Cor. 5:21). May God give us the grace to die to ourselves so that we may live for God and others. Amen.

 

Rev. Augustine Etemma Inwang, MSP

March 14, 2021. Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year B

Readings: 2 Chr. 36:14-16; Eph. 2:4-10; Jn. 3:14-21 

Our World is Loved by God So must We Love Our World 

1.     Who among us could lay claim to God’s love? Do we deserve his love? “If you, Lord, mark our sins, Lord, who can stand? But with you is forgiveness and so you are revered.” (Ps.130:3-4). According to St. Paul in the second reading: “God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ – by grace you have been saved –, raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 2:4-7). Adam and Eve disobeyed God and chose their own path and abandoned God’s covenant. St. Paul writes “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all because all sinned.” (Rom. 5:12). Sin entered the world due to the manipulation of Satan and caused such ripple effects that brother rose up against brother and killed him. Jeremiah captured the collective heart of humanity prone to evil: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9). Hence, “When the Lord saw how great was man’s wickedness on earth; and how no desire that his heart conceived was ever anything but evil, he regretted that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was grieved.” (Gen. 6:5-7). 

2.     To this world, God sent his Son. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (Jn. 3:16). Many people in the world today do not believe that God cares about the world or even loves us. I remember a couple who came to the office to begin their marriage preparations. During the prenuptial investigations, I asked if they intended to have children. Their answer was an emphatic ‘No’. I asked why and they told me that they would not think of bringing a child into this messed-up world. For them, God had departed from the world and there was nothing good in it anymore. In sympathy with them, I would say that it is easy to find fault with our world in its present condition. If we are to be a little melodramatic, we may even say that God does not care. Why not? The world is such a corrupt, dangerous and sinful place. We hear, in the News, everyday about war and insurrection in nations of the world. There is hunger, greed, deceit, betrayal, abortion, infidelity, broken families, murder, accident, sickness, covid-19 pandemic, death, riots, revolts and police brutality everywhere. Our world is not different from the world of the first reading where “All the princes of Judah, the priests, and the people added infidelity to infidelity, practicing all the abominations of the nations and polluting the Lord’s temple which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.” (2 Chr. 36: 14). We sometimes feel like shouting, stop the world and let us out!

3.     And yet, those who are disappointed with the world and her creator, are told: “For God so loved the world”, not only that God loves the world, He gave his beloved Son, not to condemn the world but so that the world might be saved through him. I am sure God knows that mankind has abused his gift of free will. God knows that we tend to put ourselves first in all things, that we are self-centered, egoistic and manipulative. He knows that we lie, cheat and hate. Mankind is indeed the reason for the ugly state of our world today. God could leave us to perish, and form a new people, if he so wishes, yet he said, “With age-old love I have loved you; I have kept my mercy toward you. I will restore you, and you shall be rebuilt.” (Jer. 31:3-4). Again, “For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned. And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; but you spare all things, because they are yours, O Lord and lover of souls.” (Wisdom 11:24-26).

4.     God insists that the world is loveable and should be saved by no other person than his only Son. That instead of destroying the world, His Son should give his life on the cross as a ransom for many so as “to gather into one the dispersed children of God.” (Jn. 11:52). Just like he used the pagan king Cyrus of Persia to set the children Israel free from bondage and enabled them to restore the temple in Jerusalem, He now sends his Son, out of love, to sacrifice his life, out of love, to redeem us from damnation and ensure that we have abundance life of grace with him. “I came so that they might have life and have it abundantly.” (Jn. 10:10).

5.     So dear friends on this fourth Sunday of Lent, let us resolve to love the world that God loves. Instead of causing darkness, let us bring about light and make that light shine for all to see. Let us pray that the world may be a better place beginning with us. Let us stop blaming God for the ills of the world but see rather, the role we have played in creating a messed-up world so that we may be part of the cleaning process. Lent is about acknowledging our need for God and the need to deepen our relationship with God and others. We do this through a committed life of prayer, almsgiving, fasting and abstinence. Lent reminds us that nothing is ever impossible for God to do in our lives. Let us open our minds and hearts to God in our world and celebrate his presence and goodness even in the midst of sin. For “Where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through justification for eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 5:20-21). May God bless us now and always. Amen.

Rev. Augustine Etemma Inwang, MSP

March 07, 2021. Homily for the Third Sunday of Lent; (Year B)

Readings: Ex. 20:1-17; 1 Cor. 1:21-25; Jn. 2:13-25

Stop Making my Father’s House A Marketplace.

1.     The first reading this morning presents us with the 10 Commandments – the Decalogue. This law of love from God, we are told, was written by the finger of God. “When the Lord had finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the commandments, the stone tablets inscribed by God’s own finger.” (Ex. 31:18). St Thomas Aquinas defines the law as “Ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has care of the community, and promulgated.” Therefore, this law was given for the proper direction of the people of God. “The Decalogue must first be understood in the context of the Exodus, God’s great liberating event at the center of the Old Covenant. Whether formulated as negative commandments, prohibitions, or as positive precepts such as: “Honor your father and mother,” the “ten words” point out the conditions of a life freed from the slavery of sin. The Decalogue is a path of life: If you love the Lord your God by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, then you shall live and multiply.” (CCC 2057). The gift of the Commandments is the gift of God himself and his holy will. In making his will known, God revealed himself to his people.

2.     The full meaning of the ten commandments will be revealed in Jesus Christ. Therefore, when he was asked which was the greatest commandment in the law, Jesus replied: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the laws and the prophets.” (Mt. 22:37-40). The commandments: “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this sentence: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13:9-10).

3.     The Gospel reading is seen as the violation of this law of love, which provoked righteous indignation from Christ. Why this action? How could Christ have been so angry as to destroy things, beat people and knock down their tables and spill their money? We are told that Christ arrives at the Jerusalem Temple for the Passover. The Temple had been under construction for 46 years. To gain access into the Temple one had to pay half a shekel. But if one comes from outside Jerusalem, from Rome or other places, you will have to convert your money to shekels. But those working in Bureau de change were bandits. They charged more than was expected, thereby, cheating the people of God and making it difficult for them to have access to God. This was stealing in the name of God. There were too many abuses, corruption and manipulation going on in the temple of God. And Jesus could not stand it. Jesus had to clean his Father’s house and restate the purpose of the sacred space reserved for the worship of God. My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have turned it into a marketplace. Isaiah the prophet reminded us of the universal call for all people to come to the house of the Lord. “Them I will bring to my holy mountain and make joyful in my house of prayer; Their holocausts and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” (Is. 56:7).

4.     On this third Sunday of Lent, we need some house cleaning. If the Lord comes into our heart, our home, or our Church, what condition will he find them in? Don’t you think some cleaning needs to be going on as we speak? If the Lord came to do an inspection of your heart today what will he find? Will he find anger, bitterness, hatred, lust, immorality, unforgiveness, jealousy, pride, arrogance, laziness, gluttony, indulgence, or deceit? We may hide these indiscretions from people, but our hearts are open before the Lord. What about our spiritual poverty? Will the Lord have any need to call you to pray more? Will he remind you that you are lacking in charity? What about your sacramental life? When did you make use of the sacrament of reconciliation last? Don’t you think you need to approach his throne of grace and ask for forgiveness? Perhaps you do not pay attention in church or you do not help to keep the church clean. What do you think he will say to you then? How respectful are we in Church? Do we see in church a place to fraternize and renew our friendship with one another, or a place to deepen our love for God and one another? May be Christ is asking you to look at your anger. What really infuriates you? Are you upset when the poor are abused and deprived of the basic necessities of life, just because they have no voice? Do you stand up and speak for them? Are you upset with the way people use God to further their own ends?  Dear friends, Christ wants to help us clean out the mess and the clutters of our lives. He wants to change us into men and women who keep the commandment of love. May we never turn his house into anything but a house of prayer. Be blessed.

Rev. Augustine Etemma Inwang, MSP