HOMILY FOR FRIDAY (23/08/2024), 20TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME B
{EZEK 37: 1-14; MATT 22:34-40}
We continue to see the powerful nature of God. God is almighty and can do whatever He will. However, he expects us to play our roles as his children and as shepherds so that our functions and talents will not be removed.
The first reading presents the aftermath of the prophesy on shepherds who fail to carry out their duties and of course the people of God who think that God owes them. But today we see again God telling the prophet that He can raise flesh from stones and dry bones to worship God and this is what happened in the first reading. This tells us that whenever we fail to carry out our functions with the love of God in our hearts, we stand the risk of losing that opportunity God gives to us. This is why Jesus needed to answer the Pharisees who came to test him: Jesus gave a straightforward answer, quoting directly from the Law itself and startling his listeners with his profound simplicity and mastery of the law of God and its purpose. He cites the first sentence of the Jewish Shema prayer (Dt 6:4-5) “…Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.” Then He adds its complementary law (Lv 19:18): “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus combines the originally separate commandments and presents them as the essence of true religion. We are to love our neighbor as our self because this is a way to love God: God gives us our neighbors to love and be loved by, so that we may learn to love Him. As shepherds, we must love because God who is the chief shepherd first loves us and loves us to the end. The question is how do we love God and our neighbor?
How do we love God? There are several means by which we can express our love for God:
a) by thanking God daily for His blessings and expressing our gratitude by obeying His Commandments;
b) by being reconciled with God daily, confessing our sins, and asking His forgiveness;
c) by acknowledging our total dependence on God, presenting our needs before Him with trusting Faith;
d) by keeping friendship with God, daily talking to Him in prayer and listening to Him in reading the Bible; and e) by recharging our spiritual batteries through participating in Sunday Mass, receiving Jesus in Holy Communion, and leading a Sacramental life.
How do we love our neighbor? Since every human being is the child of God and the dwelling place of the Spirit of God, created in the “image and likeness of God” and saved by the precious Blood of Christ, we are giving expression to our love of God by loving our neighbor as Jesus loves him, and by loving Jesus in our neighbor. This means we need to help, support, encourage, forgive, and pray for every one of God’s children patiently, without discrimination based on attractiveness, responsiveness, color, race, creed, gender, age, wealth, or social status.
PAX VOBIS
Catholic Diocese of Ilorin, Kwara State,
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