Fr Peter Ireorji, MSP - Homily from Saturday, February 9, 2019

In never ending love and compassion which we all experience in Jesus’ ministry as portrayed by Mark 6:30-34, Jesus discloses the need for every Christian worker to go on a retreat-a time to rest in the Lord, a special time to meditate on His works, His grace and goodness, time to receive His word and will in our daily lives. He modeled to us that spiritual energy and strength can be with us in special times of prayer to the Father, in times of solitude when we communicate to Him and bring up to Him our frailties and what impede us from doing our work for Him. Going on a retreat means, going closer to God and the more we draw near God, the more we learn about Him, the more we have of Him and the more we are able to serve Him; the more we will see Him do incredible things and the more we will crave to be involved in His work. Being alone with God renews us, nourishes, energizes and prepares us to do more work for Him. Shalom!

Fr Peter Ireorji, MSP - Homily from Friday, February 8, 2019

Basically, the root of every fear is the assumption that we are not loved, not really-really loved. We’re afraid of being open and honest with others because they might take advantage of it to hurt us. Heb 13:1-8, describes the various ways that we act in love, and then it points out that by relying on the help of God who is love, we have nothing to fear. Overcoming fear takes faith. It takes faith to “let brotherly love continue” when the brother is irritating us and we’re afraid of getting hurt again. It takes faith to “not neglect hospitality” when we’re tired of unpleasant people and we’re afraid of what our kindnesses might lead to. When we do everything “in love”, we do it in Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He will not abandon us in our needs. The risks we take for the sake of love keep us safely in God’s protective care and helpfulness. Our loving deeds won’t always produce the results that we’d like to see, and we surely will get hurt when we courageously love everyone unconditionally, but this is not what matters — not really. What matters is that God works everything out for good. If what we’re afraid might happen does indeed happen, he will turn it into a blessing. That is the generosity of his love for us. Shalom!

Fr Peter Ireorji, MSP - Homily from Thursday, February 7, 2019

In Mk 6:7-13, Jesus, after a night in prayer, selected twelve of his followers for a special mission of intimacy with himself. He gave three reasons for this mission: 1) to be with him; 2)to go out and preach the good news; and 3)to have authority to cast out demons and to heal. Then Jesus sends them out two by two and gives them authority over unclean spirits. Therefore, all their power and authority came from him and the twelve travels light. As Jesus’ ambassadors, they preached repentance. All this they did in union with Jesus and by his power because “they were with him.” Likewise, our efficacy as his disciple depends on our union with Jesus –being with him – and that requires prayer, penance and recollection. We have all been called like the Twelve to serve God in faith, hope and charity. But we should all be aware of our great dignity because we have been called to be children of God and heirs of heaven. This call should not make us proud, but very humble, because it is all God’s work, not ours. It is a gift. God is being and life, while we are nothingness and death without him. How authentic am I in following the Lord as a Christian? Shalom!

Fr Peter Ireorji, MSP - Homily from Tuesday, February 5, 2019

We may tend to give up and lose heart especially when our prayers remain unanswered for a period of time. We may sometimes accept defeat and stop praying. We may lose faith. The miracles of Mark 5:21-43, call us to continue to hope even if there are times in our lives when our prayers do not seem to be answered. If we persevere and have faith like the woman and Jairus, we too can obtain from the Lord what seems impossible. For He is indeed the Lord of all impossibility. Today, let us continue to believe, pray and depend on Jesus. With our trust in Him, He will bring us to a state of utter confidence in the Father’s power to rescue and sustain us even in our darkest hour because Jesus is the leader and perfecter of our faith. Shalom!

Fr Peter Ireorji, MSP - Homily from Monday, February 4, 2019

Our impression of “being possessed” always has been close to a physical invasion of someone’s body by evil spirits, such as what we see in the movies. But reflecting on Mark 5:1-20, brings us some thoughts that being possessed by spirits can also transpire in more subtle ways than what we see in Mark as in the man from the tombs. We can also be possessed when the spirit of selfishness overtakes our inclination to be more giving and generous, when the spirit of bias and prejudice sets aside our sense of fairness. Being under the control of the evil one could flow into our affairs as a community when control and dominance take over our spirit of empowerment, when we make the letter of the law preside over the spirit of love and mercy…when we abuse the authority that is provided for by our position in community…when we circumvent and hide the truth by using God’s Word to suit the desires of our lustful hearts for power and control…when we knowingly side with what is wrong to achieve transient glory and success and conceal our shortcomings. When we are overcome by what is evil, all that we desire is the flesh and the world, its power, its pleasures and influence. Jesus is ready and willing to free us from anything that binds us and that keeps us from the life God has prepared for us, from His love, His mercy and grace. Shalom!

Fr Martin Eke, MSP - Homily from 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time year C, Feb. 3, 2019

Homily of Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C

The first reading tells us about the call of Prophet Jeremiah. God called Jeremiah to prophecy to the Jews at a time many political and religious leaders turned away from God, from truth and from justice. Jeremiah prophesied the fall of their city into the hands of the Babylonians. The political and religious leaders not only rejected Jeremiah and his message, they tried to kill him. Chapter 38 of the Book of Jeremiah narrates one of the plots to kill Jeremiah: The princes “took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern. There was no water in the cistern, only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud. Now Ebed-melech, an Ethiopian, a court official in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the cistern… said to [the king], ‘My lord king, these men have done wrong in all their treatment of Jeremiah, the prophet, throwing him into the cistern. He will starve to death on the spot...’ Then the king ordered Ebed-melech the Ethiopian: ‘Take three men with you, and get Jeremiah, the prophet, out of the cistern before he dies.’ Ebed-melech took the men with him, … and they pulled him up by rope out of the cistern” (Jeremiah 38:6-13).

The Gospel reading tells us about the rejection of Jesus. The Jews did not want to hear the message of truth, love, mercy and justice Jesus preached. They disdained him by asking, “Isn’t he the son of Joseph?” Joseph was a carpenter. Carpentry was a trade that was for the hoi poloi (the common people). Then, “They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. But Jesus passed through the midst of them and went away.”

The cruel manner with which the detractors of Prophet Jeremiah and Jesus tried to do away with them, shows the extent of cruelty men and women go to reject truth and justice and silence the messengers of truth and justice. Religious and political histories are awash with several examples. However, on our own part, are we humble enough to accept uncomfortable and bitter truth, or do we reject truth, disdain and destroy the messenger? Also, God calls each one of us, as Jeremiah was called, to be prophets of truth and justice wherever we find ourselves. However, we are warned by the first reading to gird our loins because, often, messengers of truth and justice are resisted and persecuted. Sometimes, they pay the ultimate price. Even at that, we stand on God’s promise, “They will fight against you but not prevail over you, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.”

The second reading from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians tells us that prophetic message bears fruit in the hearts of those who are rooted in love. St. Paul explains what love is, and what love is not: “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, love is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

This spiritual exercise might be helpful. Let us pray with the above passage.

Lord, I pray that:

My impatience be replaced with patience;

My unkindness be replaced with kindness;

My jealousy be replaced with admiration;

My pomposity be replaced with humility;

My inflatedness be replaced with lowliness;

My rudeness be replaced with gentleness;

My selfishness be replaced with selflessness;

My quick-temperedness be replaced with calmness;

My bitterness be replaced with delight;

My resentment be replaced with love.

Grant that:

I may have the courage to accept all truth;

I may have the heart to bear all things;

I may have the faith to believe all things;

I may have the confidence to hope all things;

I may have the strength to endure all things.

Amen.

Fr. Martin Eke, MSP

Fr Martin Eke, MSP - Homily from 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time year C, Jan. 27, 2019

Homily of Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C

When the Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity, they were faced with the reconstruction and the restoration of their temple and city that were destroyed by their captors. Nehemiah was their governor and Ezra was their priest. While the structural reconstruction and restoration was going on, Ezra led the people to a religious restoration. Religious restoration was necessary because the Jews were exposed to the worship of other gods in Babylon which produced a generation that did not properly follow the Covenant between God and their ancestors. A major part of the renewal of the Covenant was the reading of the Book of the Law to the people. The assembly was made up of young and old. Ezra read the word of God to the assembly from morning to midday. When the people heard of the story of God’s relationship with their ancestors, and how they, themselves, had violated the Covenant and disconnected themselves from God, they wept in sorrow and repentance.

In the same way, we, also, need to look back at our journey with God. An honest reflection will help us to see God’s faithfulness, and our unfaithfulness, and our disconnection from him. At the beginning of a new year, a resolve to renew our Covenant with God, reconnect and have a closer relationship with him should be of primary importance.

While the first reading invites us to renew our Covenant with God and reconnect with him, St. Paul, in the second reading invites us to examine our relationship with our fellow human beings, see how far we have disconnected from one another, and reconnect with those we have disconnected from. We cannot reconnect with God while we are disconnected from each other. “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:20-21).

The second reading says, “As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit. Now the body is not a single part, but many. If a foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand I do not belong to the body,’ it does not for this reason belong any less to the body. Or if an ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye I do not belong to the body,’ it does not for this reason belong any less to the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God placed the parts, each one of them, in the body as he intended. If they were all one part, where would the body be? But as it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I do not need you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I do not need you.’ … So that there may be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same concern for one another. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.”

Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso (Buddhist spiritual leader) says, “We must recognize that the suffering of one person or one nation is the suffering of humanity.” Division, disunity, tribalism, racism, discrimination, rejection, fighting, killing, segregation, and supremacy disconnect us further and further from one another and cause more and more suffering to many people and entire humanity.

St. Paul continues, “Now you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it. Some people God has designated in the church to be, first, apostles; second, prophets; third, teachers; then, mighty deeds; then, gifts of healing, assistance, administration, and varieties of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work mighty deeds? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?” Individuals, groups, societies, races, nations, countries are gifted differently for the benefit of everyone and all humanity. Unity, justice, acceptance, harmony, understanding, collaboration, sharing, cooperation and peaceful coexistence make God’s gifts bear much fruit for the benefit of everyone and all humanity.

The Gospel calls us to continue Jesus’ mission, that is to bring good tidings to the poor, proclaim liberty to captives, bring recovery to the blind, and set the oppressed free. Jesus’ mission will not be possible if we are disconnected from God and if we are disconnected from one another. Jesus’ mission will continue, successfully, if we breakdown all dividing barriers and fill up separating gullies; reconnect with God, and reconnect with one another. Then, we will be able to see the poor, the captives, the blind and the oppressed, able to reach to them, and able to minister to them.

Fr. Martin Eke, MSP