Fr. Martin Eke, MSP - Homily for the Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time Year B - June 27, 2021

 Homily of Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B, 2021

Wisdom, 1:13-15, 23-24; Psalm 30:2, 4-6, 11-13; 2 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15; Mark 5:21-43

 Job 1:21, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” John 14:3, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.” By these two passages and similar ones, we believe that our life and death are in God’s hand.

 But the first reading states, “God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living. For he fashioned all things that they might have being, and the creatures of the world are wholesome, there is not a destructive drug among them …” (Wisdom 1:13-14). We can infer from this passage that killing and slaughtering of human beings, wars, genocides, holocausts, killing of the unborn, and all kinds of destruction of human life are not God’s making but the work of the devil and his agents. The first reading, further states, “But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world …” (Wisdom 1:24). Unfortunately, many people have embraced the vices that lead to the culture of death from the devil, instead of the virtues that lead to the culture of life from God. We pray for the conversion of the agents of the devil who inflict our world with the culture of death.

 Another kind of death that is caused by the devil is spiritual death, which is why St. Paul writes in Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death.” Jesus advises us how to save ourselves from spiritual death. According to the Gospel of Mark, when Jesus began his ministry, his first words are, “Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). In John 6:29 Jesus says, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” If we stop listening to the devil and falling into sin, but believe in Jesus and obeying his commands (the gospel), we will surely be saved from spiritual death.

St. Paul admonishes us in the second reading, “For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). Jesus differentiates himself from the devil in John 10:10, “A thief [the devil] comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”

Jesus, in the Gospel of today, shows that he came that we may have life and have it more abundantly. The woman who was afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years wanted her life back. She spent all that she had and suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors but got no cure. She reached out and touched the clothes of Jesus. Her faith was so great that power came out of Jesus and cured her. “Immediately her flow of blood dried up;” and she got her life back.

Jairus, a synagogue official, also, reached out to Jesus and invited him saying, “My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live.” “While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official’s house arrived and said, ‘Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?’ Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official, ‘Do not be afraid; just have faith’” (Mark 5:35-36). Jesus put out those who were weeping, and who ridiculed him, and those who caused commotion, and healed the girl.

No doubt, our world is hemorrhaging from the culture of death. We are all hemorrhaging from killings, insecurity, inhuman treatment, uncertainty, fear, anxiety, hunger, sickness, and various kinds of hardship and crises. We pray for our own healing and the healing of our world. In our prayer and Eucharistic celebration, we reach out and touch Jesus as the woman did. May he respond with his healing power. We are inviting Jesus to our helpless situations, as Jairus did. May he visit us, put out those who ridicule God’s wonderful creation, those who cause commotion, and those who bring hardship and agony on people. May he wipe our tears, heal us and our world. May our world experience sanity. We entrust our life and death only in God’s hand. May our faith in him not be shaken. Amen.

 Fr. Martin Eke, MSP

Fr. Martin Eke, MSP - Homily for the Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time Year B - June 20, 2021

Homily of Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B, 2021

 Job 38:1, 8-11; Psalm 107:23-26, 28-31; 2 Corinthians 5:14-17; Mark 4:35-41

 It is a common human behavior, especially for us believers, to ask God questions in our grieving. Often, we hear some people say, “You should not question God.” Questioning God while grieving is a form of prayer in as much as we entrust every moment of the situation into God’s hand. If we question God with faith, he will surely respond to us, no matter how difficult the situation is.

 Many Psalms questioned God. For example, “How long, Lord? Will you utterly forget me? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I carry sorrow in my soul, grief in my heart day after day? How long will my enemy triumph over me?” (Psalm 13:2-3).

 Jesus questioned God while he was hanging on the cross, “And at three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:35).

 We read in the first reading Job’s lamentation and questions to God. Job cursed the day he was born and questioned, “Why did I not die at birth, come forth from the womb and expire? Why did knees receive me, or breasts nurse me? … Or why was I not buried away like a stillborn child, like babies that have never seen the light?” (Job 3:1-16). Also, in chapter 30:20-21, Job lamented to God, “I cry to you, but you do not answer me; I stand, but you take no notice. You have turned into my tormentor, and with your strong hand you attack me. You raise me up and drive me before the wind; I am tossed about by the tempest.”

 The first reading is God’s response to Job. The reading says that “the Lord addressed Job out of the storm …” That is, God responded to Job in Job’s storm and assured Job that he is the Lord over his storm. God assured Job that he was in control despite his storm.

 The gospel is Jesus’ disciples experience of a storm. “A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up. Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. They woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ The wind ceased and there was great calm. Then he asked them, ‘Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?’” (Mark 4:37-40).

 Storms in our life distress us, as in the case of Job; or terrify us, as in the case of the disciples of Jesus. Sometimes, we do feel that God is silent as in the case of Job; or that Jesus is ‘asleep’ as in the case of the disciples. The readings teach us that God is neither silent nor asleep. He is in control. The wind and the sea obey him, as the disciples later testified.

 Today’s Psalm also testifies about the sailors “who sailed the sea in ships and traded on the deep waters, saw the works of the Lord and his wonders in the abyss. … Their hearts melted away in their plight. … They cried to the Lord in their distress, from their straits he rescued them. He hushed the storm to a gentle breeze, and the billows of the sea were stilled” (Psalm 107:13-29).

 We are like Job. We are like the disciples. We are like the sailors.  We are distressed in our various storms. We are terrified by the violent waves breaking over our boat. Our hearts melt away. We lament. We ask questions and search for answers. Sometimes, we think that God is punishing us. Sometimes, we think that God has abandoned us; that he is ‘sleeping.’ We do not understand what is happening to us. We ask, “Why me?” “What have I done wrong?” “What is my sin?”

The first reading tells us that God addressed Job from “out of the storm.” He does the same to us. He addresses us out of our storm; but often we do not listen. Rather, our attention is on the waves of the storm; a clear sign of lack of faith. With strong faith, let us turn our attention to God, and cry to him as the sailors did. He stilled the sea for them. May he do the same for us. With strong faith, let us turn our attention to Jesus as the disciples did. He rebuked the wind and there was great calm. May he do the same for us.

St. Paul encourages us in the second reading (2 Corinthians 5:14-17) that we should not be ruled by distress, or fear, or doubt, but that we be impelled the love of Christ. By that, old life passes away, and we become new creatures. May these words be fulfilled in our life. Amen. 

Fr. Martin Eke, MSP