|
Homely
for the 30th Sunday A, October 23, 2005 (Mission Sunday)
"By this all will
know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another"
(John 13:35). As missionaries of Christ, our everyday mission
is to love one another as Jesus loved us. As we begin this Eucharist,
let us acknowledge our failure to love our brothers and sisters
as Jesus loves them.
My brothers and Sisters,
As we celebrate today the mission Sunday in the Catholic Church,
I would like to start by a short story you know certainly, a story
about how we can be externally disciples of Jesus but not ready
to imitate him in our daily lives. I would like each one of us
to say what he or she could have done in this situation:
One Sunday morning, two thousands people were gathered in a church
to celebrate the Eucharist. Suddenly after the homely, two strong
men with their faces covered and heavily armed with automatic
weapons, entered the church. One of them said in a strong voice:
Your attention please! May those who are ready to become martyrs
of faith in Christ remain in this church”. Immediately,
the music director left his organ and went out to find safer place.
The members of a family for which the mass was said, left one
after another. And in a minute, all the pews were emptied of the
faithful. Only twelve men and women remained where they were seated.
Then one of the armed men discovered his face, and said to the
priest, Ok, Father, I helped you to get rid of the hypocrites,
now you can start the Eucharist…” If you were in this
church, what could have you done! Those who were ready to risk
their lives for the sake of their faith in Christ are the examples
of the real missionaries of Christ we celebrate today. To be a
missionary is to be ready to make a sacrifice for Christ, for
a loved one, for your children, your neighbors, the widows, the
orphans, the strangers of your neighborhood… If you love
these little ones of Christ, speak out for their rights as human
beings, you will be called missionary of God. In this perspective,
you do not need to go overseas in some pagan territories to be
called missionary because our mission starts and is to be lived
everywhere we find ourselves. There is too much to do everywhere,
in our countries, in our cities and villages. There is too much
suffering, injustice, poverty everywhere in the world, starting
in our own hearts, our own families. That’s why I was pleased
by today’s readings that are unusual on a mission Sunday.
Usually on today’s occasion the Church proposes to our meditation
the words of Jesus to his disciples: "Go therefore and make
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to
observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with
you always, even to the end of the age" (Matt. 28:19-20).
"And he said to them, Go into all the world and preach the
gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15).
But today, the Church proposes the Golden Rule of Love of God
and love of neighbor, as the charter of our mission in the world.
“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart,
with all your soul, and with all your mind… You shall love
your neighbor as yourself”. The Golden Rule of love implies
that the mission of the Church is not only the work of all those
who go abroad in mission lands to convert people to Christ. The
mission of the church is the task of each one of us and starts
in our hearts, in our family, at home, where we are called to
love each other like Jesus loved us, and be ready to sacrifice
ourselves for our loved ones, our children, our relatives who
live with us, those who work for us, our neighbors, people we
meet on the street, in market place, on the bus, etc. When we
love these our closest neighbors, we respond to the missionary
call of Jesus. “Go into all the world and preach the gospel
to every creature”. To every culture, religion, gender,
race, at home and abroad.. All that we need to be a missionary
is love, true love, the love like the one of Saint Teresa of the
Child Jesus who died very young at the age of 23, and who is called
Patron of the Missions even though she never gone out of her convent.
If we have no love in our hearts, there is no mission, no discipleship.
"By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you
have love for one another" (John 13:35). "Let your light
so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify
your Father in heaven" (Matt. 5:16).Fr. Vincent Machozi,
a.a.
Homely
for the 27th Sunday A, October 2, 2005
The Lord says” “ Have no anxiety
at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God” (Philippians 4,6).
Let us take a moment to make known our needs and the needs of
our loved ones to the Lord!
My brothers and Sisters,
Today’s parable is very meaningful and very dangerous because
it has received dangerous interpretation in the history of our
Church! Jesus gave this parable to the chief priests and the elders
of the Jewish people who were asking him by which authority he
dared to chase the merchants from the temple. To answer them,
Jesus told them today’s parable of the tenants killers of
the vineyard. In his good pedagogy Jesus asked what they think
the owner will do to these brutal tenants who killed all the messengers
of the owner. These wise elders of Israel answered: He will put
those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard
to others tenants who will give him the produce at the proper
times”. We need to understand this parable very well in
order to avoid what, sixty years ago nazi and fascists, did in
the name of similar texts to kill Jews whom they identified with
the tenants who once were chosen by God but who killed his prophets
and his son Jesus-Christ. For the nazi and the fascists, since
the Jews killed the prophets and the Messiah, the vineyard was
taken away from them and given to Christians, to Aryan Christians.
This anti-Semitic interpretation was wrong indeed. The parable
is for all of us whom like the Jews; God has chosen to work in
his vineyard. We have received many gifts and talents from God.
The question today is : What have we done of the free gift of
the Lord? Let each one of us here consider himself or herself
as a tenant put by God some years a go to be the manager of his
company of love, peace and compassion in Everett. And let each
one of us evaluate the result of his work. What kind of fruits
have we produced? How have we been treating those servants God
send to us to receive what is due to him as owner? From today’s
parable we learn that whenever we think we are the owner of the
free gift of God there is conflict, violence. Whenever we think
we are the masters of something, there is conflicts, rivalries,
hatred, competition, and so forth. Our status is “ servants
of the Lord”, says the Virgin Mary. May it be done to us
according to God’s will? It is only when we recognize our
status as servant, unworthy servant of the Lord that we will bear
good fruit and abide forever in the Kingdom of God. Whenever we
will remain humble and faithful servants of the Lord, the kingdom
of God will not be taken away from us. By her whole life, Mary,
the Mother of God taught us this humility. As we start today the
month of the Holy Rosary, let us ask Mary to intercede for us
to his son our Lord. Hail Mary full of Grace, the Lord is with
you. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of thy
womb Jesus… Fr. Vincent Machozi, a.a.
Homely
for the 19th Sunday of Year A, August 7, 2005
Jesus welcomes each one
of us to this celebration of the Eucharist and reassures us that
He is with us and that we don’t have to be afraid. Let us
put aside all our fears and worship Him with hearts and minds
renewed.
My brothers and Sisters,
Today’s Gospel is about the little faith of the apostles
of Jesus. These men lived and worked with Jesus every day they
failed to recognize his presence in the midst of the storm. When
they saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said:
“It is a ghost”. This story is amazing if we consider
that this forgetfulness happened few hours after Jesus has worked
a miracle in the eyes, namely the multiplication of the bread.
The gospel narrative tells us that the crowd moved by the wonders
performed by Jesus; wanted to acclaim him as their King (Jn 6,14).
But Jesus dismissed them and sent them to their villages. Likewise
Jesus asked his disciples to get into a boat and precede him to
the other side.
But what happened shortly after this scene of excitement? As soon
as they left the spot of the miracle, they forgot about Jesus.
Their enthusiasm lasted only few hours! Their memory of what Jesus
had done for them did not last. When battered by a severe storm
on the lake, the disciples failed to recognize their friend and
doer of wonders. Only few hours after their encounter with Jesus,
they were back to their fears like unbelievers who see bad spirits,
ghosts, and devils everywhere.
Brothers and Sisters, after hearing this story of the little faith
of disciples, I invite each one of us to consider our own faith,
and our capacity to remember Jesus and recognize his presence
the midst of the storms of life. What do I remember of Jesus who
saved me? When we leave our place of worship, how long do we keep
the memory of his word and grace? May be at a time I am very enthusiastic
about Jesus because he did this or that for me or for people I
like? Did this experience of the power of Jesus in my life help
me to recognize Jesus and his presence in time of distress, sorrow?
How much of my experience of the Lord helps me when I encounter
all kinds of contradictions and hardships? My brothers and sisters,
the gospel message today is that, we who have become disciples
of Jesus, we should keep his saving power and grace in mind so
that we may be able to calm and put down the many storms of our
life such as sickness, loss of a loved one, failures, unemployment,
divorce, solitude, etc. Jesus Promised to be with us always till
the end of time and, indeed, he is always at our side reminding
us of his presence and stretching his saving hand to us, “Take
courage, it is I; do not be afraid”. May this Eucharist
give us the grace to keep alive the memory of Jesus who alone
can help us to quiet the storms of our life and continue our way
as pilgrims on this earth. As we will receive the body of Christ
during this Eucharist, let us never forget that he is always with
us! May we always confess Jesus like the disciples and say: “Truly,
You are the Son of God”. The Lord be with you! Fr. Vincent
K. Machozi , a,a.
Homely for the 15th
Sunday O.T., July 10, 2005
Welcome to this celebration
of the Eucharist where we are all invited to share in the table
of the word and the table of the Eucharistic meal. From today’s
readings the question to each one of us is how we respond to the
word of God we hear very often, how this word is growing and bearing
fruits in the land of our life? At the beginning of this Eucharist,
let us acknowledge the many difficulties we encounter in our response
to the saving word of God.
My brothers and sisters,
The church proposes to
our meditation today the parable of the sower that we find in
chapter 13 of the Gospel of Matthew. This parable does not need
a homely because Jesus explained it himself and nobody can explain
it better than Jesus. Jesus distinguishes among his hearers different
kinds of people in relation to the reception of the word:
- Those who do not understand the word and who are like the seed
sown on the path,
- Those who receive the word with joy but have no roots to make
it survive the time of tribulations are like the seed sown on
rocky ground,
- Those who hear the word but fail to bear fruit because of worldly
anxiety and riches are like the seed sown among the thorns,
- And finally those who hear the word and understand it, bear
fruit and yield a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold are like the
seed sown on a rich soil.
The question today is which kind of soil am I? Where are the fruits
of the land of my life? What I find interesting in today’s
gospel is that God sows on all the different kinds of grounds.
God the sower is generous towards all and is optimistic, he is
not tired of anybody. He goes to sow everywhere, even on the rocky
soil, on little soil, among the thorns. God goes out to sow wherever
he wants. He is optimistic for each one of us! For God, all of
us are originally a good soil, good ground which can yield a fruitful
harvest. Even if for a while sin can separate us from him, in
his mercy he cannot abandon us because he is with us always till
the end of the earth. Indeed God sends his powerful word to each
one of us to save us and bring us back to him. God is patient
with us; he gives us time, the opportunity to repent. God knows
that we hear his word without really understanding it. He knows
that very often we are busier with our family, our jobs, or civil
duties, our vacations than with his word and commandments. But
in his mercy and compassion, he continues to sow on our little
soil, our rocky soil, entangled within the thorns of our passions
and desires. God sends his saving word to us, regardless our present
situation, because he knows good grain can sprout if it is given
time, tender and patient care. The word of God is powerful. “My
word shall not return to me void but shall do my will.”
His grace is for all, for every generation, for all kinds of people,
because all belong to him and shall be saved by him. Nothing,
Nobody is lost for God. For each one of us, this time given to
us is an opportunity of salvation, a chance of responding to the
word with all our hearts and bear fruit. God is visiting our land
and watering it! The seed of his word has fallen in our hearts.
Let us give it the chance to grow and to bear fruit. Whenever
we hear the word of God, let us not harden our hearts! The Lord
be with you!
Fr. Vincent Machozi Karunzu, a.a.
Homely for 14th
Sunday Year A, July 3, 2005
As we come together to celebrate the Eucharist,
let us welcome Jesus who alone can give us rest from the burdens
we carry in our life and let us ask pardon for our resistance
to the spirit of the gospel and for our inclination to the worldly
desires!
My brothers and sisters,
After hearing the prayer of Jesus in the Gospel reading, I would
like to share with you the context in which Jesus said this prayer.
After a period of enthusiasm, the teaching of Jesus was strongly
rejected by the majority of the people of Israel including the
political and religious leaders. Even people who witnessed his
miracles in the cities like Corazine and Bethsaid were reluctant
to follow him. The few fishermen from the villages of Galilee
who converted to his teaching were considered like crazy peasants
whose counter-cultural life had to be condemned by the religious
leaders and those who called themselves “wise men. Today’s
gospel gives us the attitude of Jesus during this time of rejection
of his message. Instead of giving in to discouragement or to anger
towards his opponents, Jesus raises his voice in prayer of thanksgiving
to God: “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise
and the learned, you have revealed them to the little ones. Yes,
Father, such has been your gracious will”. Jesus gives praise
to the Father for the remnant faithful to his teaching and he
attributes the situation to the will of God. Telling us that in
every situation we should thank God and attach ourselves to his
will as we say in the Lord’s Prayer: ‘Thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven”. The first thing we have
to acknowledge in our moment of sorrow, rejection, and when we
are weary is the will of God without which human undertakings
are doomed to fail. And this is the message of today: To render
our joy and distress to God our heavenly Father. This message
is challenge to each one of us: How many times do we think to
praise God for his wonders when we are overwhelmed by life? Like
the little ones of today’s Gospel, those who do not resist
God’s wisdom, let us open our hearts to God so that his
gracious will might be done in us, in our church, in our families,
in our country. May our hope be always greater than our fear!
Only the humble of heart will find this rest from God who raises
up the lowly and remove the mighty from his throne. Indeed our
God is great and worthy to be praised because he delivers us from
the burdens of life and shares freely his bounty with the little
ones of his people. In our prayer, let us thank him for giving
us the amazing example his son Jesus-Christ. May he give us a
humble heart to follow his teaching and find everlasting rest
in him.
The Lord be with you!
Fr. Vincent Machozi Karunzu, a.a.
Homely
for the 12th Sunday A, June 19,2005
In today’s Gospel
Jesus urges us to fear no one but to stand up and speak out his
saving truth. As we begin this celebration, let us acknowledge
our fear and reluctance to stand for what we believe in our daily
life and in our society.
Brothers and sisters, Shalom!
In today’s gospel, Jesus is preparing his disciples for
the mission. Jesus’ recommendations can be summed up in
the following words: Do not be afraid, proclaim God’s word
in season and out of season. Be ready to give an account of your
faith. Fear not those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.
Rather Trust in God the heavenly Father who holds the humanity
in his hands.
The beautiful testimony the disciples are called to do for Jesus
is to overcome fear in their life and their ministry. Like Jesus
who saved the world by his supreme sacrifice freely accepted,
the disciples have to be courageous, speak out the truth of God
without fear, ready to endure sacrifices, rejection, and oppositions.
They have to follow in the footsteps of their master Jesus who
underwent 14 stations of the Cross without giving up his mission
nor doubt about God’s love. To save us, Jesus had to affront
the religious authorities of his time, the secular leaders, and
even his own brothers the Jews. For his stubbornness in proclaiming
God’s word without fear, he was put to death, a death on
the cross. But on the third day, God raised him up and made him
the savior of the humankind.
The apostles of Jesus understood this message of Jesus. Even though
they were from different origins and social status, they all died
martyrs of the Christian faith after undergoing trials by Kings
and governors, imprisonment, beatings, stoning, shipwreck, toil
and hardships from false brothers, sleepless nights, hunger, thirst,
fasting, and so forth.
Following the example of the apostles, many courageous men and
women, martyrs, saints and blessed have witnessed to this Christian
faith in difficult times, in bankrupt societies in matters related
to moral issues, social and political strife, war, and so forth.
When we accepted the Christian faith, we promised to continue
this mission of Christ, this story of courage, determination,
faith, love, supreme sacrifice, testimony, a story which has no
room for fear, a story of heroes. Today’s Gospel gives each
one of us this wonderful opportunity to assess our own story as
disciple of Jesus. Am I courageous in proclaiming God’s
word as Jesus taught me? If not what fears keep me from witnessing
to Jesus’ word? And as a community, as a church, why do
we look so absent from the many debates going on in our societies?
To overcome the fear and anxiety we encounter in our daily life
and in our community, Jesus taught us to believe in God, to have
confidence not in ourselves but in God, to abandon our entire
life into the hands of God like Jesus on the day he was betrayed,
to be able to find the courage to say with all our life: “
Into your hands Lord I commend my spirit”. My fear is the
sign that I have confidence in myself but my courage; my determination
is the sign of my faith in God for whom nothing is impossible.
The problem of our society and of each one of us is that we seem
to forget this power of the Christian and give way to fear, despair,
and discouragement. When we forget the power of faith, we become
vulnerable and we think that what we cannot do is not possible,
what intelligent and learned men and women cannot do is not possible.
We have confidence in ourselves or rely on great and mighty people,
instead of having Confidence in God the giver of life, creator
of all things. Our fear and lack of faith leads us to the idolatry
of those who put their confidence in human beings, people for
whom the money is their God.
My brothers and sisters, when we fear many things in our lives,
when we fear for our future, our children, our comfort, our social
security, when we fear people we do not know, we fear the stranger,
the neighbor, the believers of other religions, we have to ask
ourselves whether we are still Christians or whether we have not
replaced God by our personal strength and intelligence.
When we choose to hide ourselves in our chapels or churches, when
we only care about our personal beliefs and avoid to speak out
the truth of Jesus and address the burning issues of our times,
than we have to remember today’s Gospel and realize that
we have lost the true faith in Christ. When as Christians we fail
to condemn and to take actions against the killings of many innocents
in many places around the world, when we are shy to defend life
and fight the exclusion in our midst, when we fear to challenge
the corrupted systems installed by the secular leaders, let us
remember that we are not living up to the standards of our Christian
vocation and call to follow Jesus who was killed because he spoke
out the truth of the salvation of the world. We cannot live genuinely
our Christian faith in privacy, with prudence, or in the secret
of our heart. The Christian faith is good news to be shared with
all, until all are one. The neighbor is always there to challenge
my faith.
What have I done of my Christian vocation? What fears keep me
from saying more about God? Am I discouraged, fearing to contribute
to finding solutions to the burning issues of my time? Through
the merit of this Eucharist, May the Lord help us not to fear
but to put all our trust in Him in order to succeed in our mission
of announcing his word to the world. The lord be with you.
Fr.
Vincent Machozi Karunzu, a.a.
Homely
for 7th Sunday of Easter, Year A, May 8, 2005
As we come together to
celebrate the Eucharist, let us rejoice in the Lord who intercedes
for us so that our sacrifice may be acceptable to God our Father.
My brothers and sisters,
Today’s readings give us a rule of conduct about how we
can prepare ourselves to welcome the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Before Jesus went to his father, he did not want his disciples
to stay idle but he gave them a mission: Go, and make all nations
my disciples, Go and witness to the Good News!
From the very beginning, the Christian vocation is essentially
a task to witness to the Good News and to bring other people to
the Faith in Christ.
Jesus did not finish the work, that’s why he entrusted his
disciples with the mission of continuing his work for the salvation
of the world. This is the Christian paradox. In the death and
resurrection of Jesus we have been fully justified and saved.
But, we still have to work in order to secure our salvation. This
mission of salvation is open-ended and requires a constant work
of defeating the enemies of Christ. Our life as Christian before
our glorification by God is a real spiritual combat, a good fight
of the faith, which must be fought through to its conclusion in
the Kingdom of heaven. Jesus knew of these enemies, challenges
and obstacles to overcome while waiting for our glorification.
1. The first challenge as ewe can read in the prayer of Jesus
for the people that the Father gave to him is to know the only
true God and Jesus the One who was sent by God. Knowing and worshiping
the only true God and Jesus who was sent by the true God, becomes
one big preoccupation of Jesus for his disciples as it is for
us today. We hear too many voices, too many prophets pretending
speaking from God. Jesus in his Gospel tells that the only true
God is the one who offers his son of the cross so that many might
live.
2. The second challenge is the suffering disciples will face in
the world: Insults, evils of many kinds (killing, theft, intrigues)
because of the name of the Lord! For the Apostle Peter, whoever
is made to suffer, as a Christian should not be ashamed but glorify
God because of the name. How much are we ready to suffer because
of Christ, the Church? We should not be among the first to open
fire on the Church when it is facing a problem or going through
difficult moments! As disciples we have to overcome these sufferings
and rejoice in the Lord, because if we fight well like Jesus,
when his glory is revealed, we will be glorified with him. We
know suffering is a real stumbling block to our faith in God.
It is hard to keep this faith when you see innocent people being
killed, kids dying from hunger or from bullets or bombs, etc.
Is not easy to continue believing in God’s love and care
while having problems, divorce, lost of a loved one, lost of a
job, etc. But Jesus says those who will overcome these sufferings
by the power of the Holy Spirit, will enjoy forever his glory.
3. To succeed in the discernment of the only true God and to overcome
the sufferings inflicted on us because of our faith in Christ,
like the apostles after the departure of their Master Jesus Christ,
we need to devote ourselves with one accord to prayer, together
as community, as a family, without any discrimination or exclusion
because of age, gender, race, social position. The apostles give
us a model for our awaiting church: prayer and in union of heart
and spirit.
4. In the prayer of Jesus for his Church we see a lot of interaction
within the community of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
This gives us a model for our family the Church, where there is
interaction, where everybody participates and no one thinks he
ou she is more important than the others. The Father sends his
Son, The Son fulfills the mission for which he was sent, in return
the son is glorified, the father and son give the promise of the
Holy Spirit. And everything the Father has belongs to the Son…
IN the same, our parishes, our families should be built on this
community model!
As we prepare ourselves to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit,
let us build our families on this model of communion and of unity,
families where nobody is left aside, and where the mothers who
the Country celebrate today are given respect and credit for the
gift of motherhood and for their participation in the gift of
life which comes from God. May the work of all the Mothers bear
fruit for the edification of the Church, the family of God.
The Lord be with you.
Fr. Vincent Machozi, a.a.
The
Ascension of the Lord, Year A, Thursday, May 5, 2005
As we come together to celebrate the Ascension
of the Lord, let us rejoice and be glad because we have an advocate
at the right hand of the Father. May he intercede for the forgiveness
of our sins so that our worship might be acceptable to God our
Father?
My brothers and sisters,
Happy feast of the Ascension to you all!
Forty days after the resurrection of the Lord, we celebrate the
ascent into glory of the Risen Lord. The Ascension is indeed the
feast of the glorification of the Risen Lord by God the Father
who welcomes him and gives him a place of honor at his right hand.
This glorification is the sign that God approved all that Jesus
did during his mission on earth that consisted in making the humanity
reconciled with God. With the ascent of Jesus into heaven, the
humanity redeemed by Jesus has got an advocate, an ambassador
in heaven. Jesus, who shared all our humanity except sin, has
become our intercessor to God. That’s why we are happy today
and our hope is great because we too, if we follow in his footsteps,
we will be glorified by God our Father. If we are here tonight,
it is because we want to be saved and enjoy forever the vision
of the heavenly Glory. We want to be accepted as sons and daughters
of God, we want to be recognized by God the Father and be given
a seat in his glory, in the midst of the angels and the saints.
But for us to be glorified, Jesus the Risen Lord leaves us some
guidelines in today’s which we found in today’s readings:
- Don’t leave Jerusalem but Wait for the Promise of the
Father: Jesus had to remind his disciples of this because he knew
they could give up and scatter after his departure in the apparent
absence of their Master and Lord. This recommendation is also
for us today: Don’t leave Jerusalem but wait for the promise!
Don’t leave the Church but wait! Stay where you are! Don’t
give up what you are trying to build with apparently no success,
but wait, be patient! Wait for your Gift… In a few days,
in awhile you will receive you gift from the Lord.
- Don’t look at the sky! In other words, don’t look
for Jesus where he is not! Jesus who has been taken up from you
into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going.
Jesus has not deserted the hot setting of our lives, Jesus did
not run away from this hot and insecure world, but he will come
back to take you with him in the Glory of God his Father,
- Don’t become lazy and stop working because you are waiting
for me and for the gift I promise you. But Go! Move on! Go to
work in my vineyard and make disciples of all nations, look beyond
your nation, your village, your parish, and recruit for me new
followers, baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit.
- For anything, remember from now on that I am with you always,
until the end of the age.
My brothers and Sisters, let us in this Eucharist ask for the
grace of following faithfully in Jesus’ footsteps so that
we too might receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and be glorified
by the Father on the Last Day.
The Lord Be with You.
Fr. Vincent K. Machozi, a.a.
Homely
for Easter Sunday, Year A, March 27, 2005
Today
we celebrate the great feast of the Christian faith, the resurrection
of our Lord Jesus Christ who by his death and resurrection teaches
us how to pass from death to life eternal. By his resurrection,
Jesus delivers us from our fear of death, our lack of commitment
to onerous activities, our lack of hope and courage to try, to
be committed till the end. Let us during this Eucharist; celebrate
anticipatively our joy of being saved from fear and death.
Homely!
Alleluia! Amen
Today we celebrate Easter Sunday! When we use the Anglo-Saxon
and old German word of Easter that historically meant the feast
of the spring equinox around the month of April, we run the risk
of missing the meaning of today’s feast. I prefer the Hebrew
word translation of today’s feast as “Passover feast”,
(Pesach), which means the joyous celebration of the remembrance
of the crossing of the red sea by the power of God and which means
for us Christians the victory of Jesus over death, his passage
from death to life, the transformation of a failure in the eyes
of men to Victory in the eyes of God.
The feast of the resurrection of the Lord is thus the great feast
for the Christian believers.
For
five weeks we saw Jesus building his victory over the powers of
this earth represented by the religious leaders, the Jewish learned
intelligentsia, the political authorities, and a few friends of
disciples and fanatics! None of them could imagine what was going
to happen to Jesus. Even the disciples were not ready to believe
his preaching about the Father. “The Father, and I are one.
The hour has come for the Father to glorify his son. Nobody can
go the Father unless the Father draws him”.
When
the hour of glorification came, the disciples in the human thinking
tried to use force. Peter, the corner stone of the church of Jesus
Christ used a sword to defend his master. Judas succeeded to sell
his master for some valuable pieces of money. Peter denied him
when the danger of death was becoming inevitable. During his long
torture, his 14 stations of torture, Jesus succeeded to remain
faithful to his Father and cried out: Into your hands Lord, I
commend my Spirit.
After
three days, the Father who was pleased by the obedience of the
Son raised him from the dead. The Father glorified his Son by
raising him from the dead. And this is the foundation of our faith.
St Paul says: If Jesus who was killed and died did not rise from
the dead, our faith is vain. This means that the main question
each one of us must ask himself or herself today, is a question
of faith. What about my faith in God? Last week, we heard that
our life is a way of the cross; we are carrying with small crosses,
sometimes imposed on us or chosen by ourselves. With what faith
and courage am I still proceeding towards the end? Jesus said,
only those who will persevere till the end of the engagement will
be saved. It is only by imitating Jesus in his faith, obedience
to the Father that me too can succeed to operate my Passover,
my crossing of the red sea which I fear, and which the society
I live in has succeeded to convince that I cannot cross to the
other side, the safe side. May my actual failures have stopped
me to try, because I think I cannot overcome them and be victorious.
Today’s feast of the Passover is an invitation that with
Jesus I cross to the other side, I can transform my failures in
life into victory; I can become with Jesus a new creature. Like
Jesus, I need one thing, to die to myself and let God, the love
of God and my obedience to his word lead my life and sustain my
belief. It is only those who can die to their selves who can hope
for the resurrection with Jesus. Today’s second reading
translates for us the whole message for this period of the paschal
mystery: “ You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ
in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear
with him in glory.” (Colossians 3, 4). This means that what
we are celebrating today is not only the resurrection of the Lord
but also the grace of our own resurrection if only we imitate
Christ in his death and resurrection. Happy Passover to everybody
and may each of us who will partake in the Passover of the Lord,
cross his or her own red sea and overcome his fear of death. The
Lord be with you.
Fr. Vincent K. Machozi,a.a.
Palm
Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, march 20, 2005
Today
in the whole church, we contemplate Jesus in his solemn entry
in Jerusalem where he will be crucified and die in fulfillment
of his obedience to the Father. Today we too are called to take
up our cross and follow Jesus in his obedience to God our father.
For all our denials, discouragement, lack of commitment, lack
of love for our brothers and sisters, let us ask for God’s
forgiveness.
My
brothers and sisters,
We
have heard the very touching story of the passion of the Lord.
This text is one of the foundational texts of our Christian, a
faith grounded in Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary, who from
his divine condition, emptied himself, shared human condition
in everything except sin, and died for the salvation of humankind,
and on the third day rose from the dead in fulfillment of the
scriptures.
Today
Gospel situates his way of the cross in the ordinary life setting.
Jesus lived with all kinds of people (friends, chiefs, priests,
kings, governor, bandits, soldiers, women and children). These
people can be a blessing or a burden, they can praise you or betray
you, they can help you or kill you. Jesus lived this our human
condition.
Yet,
he remained faithful to the Father’s mission until death
on the cross Nothing prevented him from fulfilling his mission.
He went up enduring 14 Stations of the Cross, sufferings, pains
with few moments of relief like the one with the cyrenean Simon.
He was beaten, fell down but always stood up and continued his
way because he has commended all his life to the Father. Into
your hands Lord I commend my spirit.
Our
life as Christian is called to be a way of the cross like the
one of Jesus. Many of us have experienced this cross. We meet
many stumbling blocks on our ways. Whenever the temptation of
giving up comes, let us remember Jesus’ way of the cross.
We might fall today, but let us take our courage and stand up
to continue our journey till the end.
The
Lord’s Passion like Easter is a message of hope. Nothing
is impossible for God. You and Me can make it if only we follow
Christ with all our hearts, minds, and strength. May the Lord
help us today to take up our daily cross and follow in his footsteps
till the end.
The
Lord be with you.
Fr. Vincent Machozi, a.a.
Homely
for the second week of Lent, Year A, February 20, 2005
My Brothers and Sisters,
As we celebrate today the second Sunday
of Lent, we are invited to rediscover the identity of Jesus whom
we are imitating more closely during this lent by our intensive
prayer and our mortifications. But sometimes like the disciples
we have doubt and we wonder whether we are following the right
path that will lead us to salvation. If we are in this situation,
it is for us that, as we heard in the Gospel, a voice came from
the cloud saying: “ This I my beloved Son, with whom I am
well pleased; listen to him”. Jesus divine sonship is revealed
to the disciples so that they might commit themselves to him and
accompany him through his passion up to his glorification. This
was difficult for the disciples who were not expecting their messiah
to be killed by the religious leaders. The disciples who had hoped
that Jesus would put an end to the occupation of their land by
the Romans were lost in their faith. They needed to be confirmed
in their faith to Jesus’ mission. This confirmation of their
faith came in the event of the transfiguration on Mount Thabor
but not yet fully. After experiencing the transfiguration of Jesus
on Mount Thabor, Peter has not yet understood what it was all
about. Instead of focusing on the Lord, Peter became attached
to the place and wanted to establish three tents on the mountain
where he witnessed for the first time the divine sonship of his
master Jesus Christ. It is while Peter is still talking about
making tents instead of worshiping the Lord that a voice came
from the cloud saying: This is my beloved son with whom I’m
pleased, listen to him”. May be in our spiritual journey
towards Easter we are like the disciples at the crossroads and
may be we are asking ourselves whether to continue our spiritual
combat or not. Or may be without knowing we have attached ourselves
to some secondary aspects of our spiritual journey, may be like
Peter, we prefer the quietness of the place of our worship and
we do not like to be disturbed by the poor who nocks at our door,
the neighbor, our parents, our family members who are in need
of our help. Like the disciples, we too experience doubt in our
faith and hope. May be we have the impression that Jesus is not
doing what we want him to do for us. When we want him to be our
liberator, he comes to us as a lamb to be slain. When we want
total victory over our enemies, he tells us: love your enemy,
pray for your enemy, love your neighbor as yourself. When we are
discouraged by the misfortunes of life, he calls us to take up
our cross and to follow in his footsteps till the end. When we
look for things to do to please him during this lent, God his
father tells us: Listen to my beloved Son! May be we are listening
to other voices than the voice of the Lord. Today’s message
is then for all of us, each one in his or her own situation: the
Lord is among you, he is with you, if you listen to him and do
his will, God will be pleased with you. Today as we have heard
the word of God, let us not harden our hearts so that God might
transform our lives in his likeness. The Lord is with you!
Fr. Vincent K. Machozi, a.a.
Homely for the 5th Sunday of Ordinary
Time, Year A, February 6, 2005
“You
are the salt of the earth...
You are the light of the world,
You are a shining city on a mountain " (Mt 5:13-14)
My brothers and Sisters, these words Jesus addressed to his disciples
are addressed to us this morning to remind us how wonderful is
our mission in the world. Through our baptism we have become disciples
of Jesus called to be the light that shines in the darkness of
the world and the salt that gives taste to life. The light we
are called to reflect is not our light but Jesus’ light;
it is the light which was given to us at our baptism, that light
which our god-parents accepted to keep lighted, the light we receive
everyday in the word of God, in the sacraments through which our
whole being is transformed and "seasoned" with the new
life which comes from Christ (cf. Rom 6:4). We are the salt of
the earth. The first role of the salt is to give taste to the
food. In this regard, our mission is to give taste to life in
our secularized world. Indeed, sometimes life around us can be
tasteless! When for example we see everything falling apart around
us, people becoming indifferent to the Christian faith and values,
when innocents people we know are killed by wars or natural cataclysms,
when we see babies dying from hunger, when we lose a loved one
while we still need him or her, when children turn against their
parents because of incompatibility of views about moral life,
religion, when we lose our job, and so forth. Jesus recommends
us to give taste to life in all these tasteless situations by
sharing his word with those who are in despair so that they might
learn from him how life is beautiful even in sickness, in death
for those who believe in him. The second role of the salt is to
preserve from decay. You know, in our villages in Africa there
is no electricity and we use salt to preserve food (meat, fish)
from decay. I imagine it was the same thing at the time of Jesus
in Palestine. Thus to be the salt of the earth means also to preserve
the faith that we received, to preserve the sanctity of life even
in sickness, in old age, the sanctity of marriage, to preserve
the Christian values and to pass them on intact to the new generations.
But we can only preserve the faith of the Church if we remain
in touch with its roots the apostles and if in our daily prayer
we seek to deepen our knowledge of the spiritual heritage which
we received from the apostles, following in the footsteps of the
many witnesses and teachers who have gone before us! Only by remaining
faithful to God’s commandments and to teaching of Christ
we will be true light and true salt for the world because we can
only give what we receive from the Lord. Today’s first reading
taken from the prophet Isaiah teaches us how concretely in our
day life we can be the light and the salt for the world and how
there is no secret discipleship, discipleship only in my heart,
me and my God… We are disciples with others and for others.
That’s why Jesus calls us a shining city on the mountain.
Our light has to shine for others. “If you share bread with
the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless, clothe the
naked, if you do not turn your back on your neighbor in need,
if you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and
malicious speech, then light shall rise for you in the darkness,
and the gloom shall become for you like mid-day.”
My brothers and sisters, may this Eucharist give us the grace
of keeping our small flame lighted so that we might shine for
our brothers by our dedicated life and preserve the faith of the
church by our liturgy, our conduct and our good deeds.
The Lord be with you.
Fr. Vincent Machozi, a.a.
Sunday,
November 7, 2004
Meditation on the readings
Lord,
when your glory appears, my joy will be full
As
the end of the Liturgical Year draws near, the Church reminds
us today through the story of the Maccabean martyrs and of the
Wife of the seven husbands that there is life after death which
is not a pure continuation of the earthly life but a transformed
life for those who will be found worthy to share the heavenly
Kingdom with the angels and the saints. In our daily life, regardless
the difficult situations, we have, out of our Christian faith,
to always say “yes” to the eternal life with Jesus.
And this is the meaning of the Eucharist we celebrate everyday
as a memorial of the victory of life over death, and our daily
bread for our journey to heaven.
With this understanding, the question of to whom the wife of seven
husbands will belong after the resurrection is very simply for
Jesus. The Sadducees will not succeed to have him arrested this
time. Jesus said: “The children of this age marry and remarry;
but those judged worthy of a place in the age to come and of resurrection
from the dead do not. They become like angels and are no longer
liable to death. Sons of the resurrection, they are sons of God.”
This answer Jesus gave to the Sadducees is also relevant for us
today: In the age to come, there is no marriage, no wedding, no
marital life, no more death, no more suffering. Those who will
be judged worthy to enter the Kingdom of heaven, will bear the
true identity of sons and daughters of God, they will be like
angels enjoying the quietness and the peace of the heavenly Kingdom.
Those who will be found worthy of a place in the age to come will
be restored in their likeness with God, which they lost as a result
of the Original Sin. They will be eternal like God. As Saint Augustine
put it in his book “The City of God”, if we suffer
in this life, even in marriage that is a divine institution, if
women suffer or die while trying to give birth for the continuation
of human race, it is because of the Original sin. But those whom
Grace will restore in their original similitude with God could
still do everything we do on earth but differently and without
pain and suffering. St Augustine goes further arguing that if
Adam and Eve did not sin, children could be conceived without
sexual intercourse between a man and a woman, by the power of
Holy Spirit for example. Christian Life is thus an endeavor for
the restoration in one’s dignity lost as a consequence of
the sin of the world. In this way, the answer of Jesus to the
Sadducees is the message of hope in the future and a encouragement
to live in this world, which at a time can be terrible with a
strong conviction that this world does have the last word over
our lives but that only God is our justice and only God gives
meaning to our life. This is the secret of the many martyrs of
the Church. This may be also the secret motive of the Muslims
martyrs that the West calls suicide bombers. People who are ready
to offer their lives so that others can live or have their desperate
cause understood. To all those who are being persecuted for all
kinds of motives unknown to them, those being killed on the battlegrounds
allover the world for the so-called security of the world, to
all those suffering from all kinds of misfortunes of life (broken
marriages, unemployment, human disconnections) Jesus is saying
today: Take courage, continue your struggle against the evil,
hope in the Lord who alone will give you peace, if not in this
world but for sure in his heavenly Kingdom. The sons of Maccabees
lived successfully their persecution with this same hope in God’s
justice. Jesus also went successfully through his passion with
the same hope and God raised him from dead as an example for all
those who will hope in him. You and me, whatever suffering we
might be going through today, we are asked not to lose courage
and faith in God the giver of life but as we say in the Eucharist
prayer: we have to wait in joyful hope for the coming in glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is only with this hope that we
can contribute for the transformation of this world into a heavenly
city. May this Eucharist strengthen us in faith and create in
each one of us the desire of the Kingdom of God and may we pray
always in the words of today’s responsorial psalm: “
Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full”.
P. Vincent Machozi,a.a.
|
