Friday, June 19, 2020

Fr. Michael Osatofoh Eninlejie, MSP - Homily for Saturday Week 11 Ordinary time - June 20, 2020


SATURDAY 20TH JUNE 2020
MEMORIAL OF THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
2 Chronicles 24:17-25, Luke 2:41-51
With the celebration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus yesterday, immediately following it is that of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It is a devotional name used to refer to the interior life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, her joys and sorrows, her virtues and hidden perfections, and, above all, her virginal love for God the Father, her maternal love for her son Jesus, and her compassionate love for all people. The virtues of love, patience, understanding  and many others which are seen in Jesus, can be traced to his mother who nurtured him. Mary is a true model of motherhood. She took care of her home, raised her son and never complained. Instead of making troubles because of the situation around her, Luke 2:19 tells us that she treasured all the troubles and pondered them in her heart.
In the gospel reading of today, we see a scenario that many of us cannot be calm about in our time. I am very sure many mothers today will beat up a child who they have been looking for after 3 days and he asked why they were looking for him. Mothers cannot reject their children easily even those who are causing troubles in the family and are constituting nuisance; they will still accept them when they think of the 9 months or more that they carried them in their womb. Mary showed many qualities of a good woman and mother which we are to emulate today.
What causes many troubles among families is because of talking when we are not supposed to. The major times Mary is said to have spoken in the bible are basically her conversation with the angel at annunciation, and her intervention at the wedding in Cana. It is not that there was no trouble with Joseph her husband and Jesus her son, but she treated issues gently and calmly. We need such virtues as Christians. Mary is immaculately pure, gentle, patient, kind, loving, meek, peaceful, humble, and so on. The litany of the Virgin Mary lists it better. God could not have chosen her if she was otherwise. We ask for her intercession today that she will help us so that we too can have a heart like her. God help us. Amen
Fr Michael Osatofoh Eninlejie MSP

No comments:

Post a Comment