29TH SUNDAY HOMILY IN THE ORDINARY TIME — YEAR B

29TH SUNDAY HOMILY IN THE ORDINARY TIME — YEAR B

HOMILY THEME: THE POLITICS OF THE GENTILES!

BY: Fr. Benedict Agbo 

Isaiah 53:10-11 / Hebrews 4:14-16 / Mark 10:35-45

A. PREAMBLE
I had a father who read and practised ‘politics’ in the ’60’s, when intellectuals were sober; when academics and morality were conjugal bed fellows; when civil servants were really servants of the people; when politicians were actually statesmen; and when democracy was indeed ‘government of the people, for the people and by the people’. Gone are the days when political leaders mounted the throne by popular acclamation; when asset declaration was real not just on paper. In the days of the ‘Nyereres’, the ‘Azikiwes’, the ‘Ghandhis’ and the ‘Martin Luther King (Jnrs)’, leaders suffered and died for their people. Speaking about the ‘Politics of the Gentiles’, Jesus challenges his disciples in today’s gospel in these seeming words: ‘You know that among the Gentiles, those that they call their leaders (because they are actually not) lord it over, exploit them and want to remain in power against their wishes. But among you (Christians) this is not to happen. Anyone who wants to be great must be servant of others’.
The issue of how and to what extent the Church should get involved in politics has remained dicey today especially with the growing spate of bad leadership accompanied by the danger of Islamization and Fulanization of Nigeria. In the South East, for example, the resistance of pressure groups like IPOB has put Church leaders standing between the devil and the deep blue sea in matters of struggles for self determination and the inherent state of insecurity resultant from this embroglio. We need to ask the question: How would Christ our master have reacted in such a situation like this?

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B. THE SUFFERING – SERVANT – LEADER PARADIGM
The ‘suffering – servant – leader’ paradigm mentioned in the gospel and also in today’s 1st reading remains still relevant for our society today. Suffering is not a curse, especially when one suffers or becomes poor in order to save his people. According to Emeric Lawrence, ‘Christianity does not just consist primarily in following a moral or ethical code but it is a pilgrimage full of inconveniences… God’s people following Christ, the new Moses on the roughest route to the promised land – It requires listening to him, following his direction especially in moments of trial’.
I see the following radical political paradigm shifts recommended by Christ in today’s gospel: He asks aspiring politicians both in the Church and outside the Church a fundamental question: ‘Are you ready to drink the cup that I will drink and the baptism that I will be baptized?’

C. THE METAPHOR OF THE ‘CUP’ AND THE ‘BAPTISM’!
The ‘cup’ is the symbol of the challenge of suffering and exemplary leadership. At Gethsemane Jesus prayed, from his human nature for the ‘cup’ of suffering to be removed from him. That is why the 2nd reading of today recognizes him as an ideal high priest who is not oblivious of the sufferings and weaknesses of his people.
The ‘baptism’ is the symbol of the sacramental change in the life of every believer – the challenge of a new life in Christ. Every believer or even Church leader that isolates himself from this challenge of a change of attitude will surely go the way of Judas Iscariot – receiving the sacraments without a change of heart. Thus Peter reminds us that ‘Baptism saves us, not by mere washing of bodily guilt but by a pledge of a good conscience’, 1 Pet 2: 21.

D. QUESTIONS FOR POLITICAL ASPIRANTS
Christ asks all political aspirants the following interview questions:
1. Are you ready to suffer and die for the good of your people?
2. Are you ready to serve the rest? Are you ready to be poorer than the rest if need be?
3. Is your political ambition selfish or objective?
Ambition is not bad in itself. Indeed, it gives purpose, meaning and significance to life. No progress in human life can be achieved without ambition. Great men in history have always been driven by ambition; selfish or objective. Alexander the great conqueror wept because he had no more lands to conquer. Cicero, the Roman emperor and philosopher wrote ‘The noblest spirit is most strongly attracted by the love of glory’. But what makes christian ambition different is its teleological dimension – it always ends in the greater glory of God.

E. CONCLUSION
*Advice to Christian Youths – leaders of tomorrow: Be ambitious for higher gifts but try to be different from the kind of bad leaders ( rulers) we have today. Be selfless as you strive for leadership even at the lowest levels for ‘uneasy lies the head that wears the crown’.
*Advice to Christian Politicians – Present day leaders:
(i) Changing Nigeria for better is our collective responsibility. Everyone must account for his stewardship before God and man. Franz Fanon says that ‘Every generation, out of relative obscurity, has an obligation either to fulfill its own mission or to betray it’.
(ii) Don’t dissapoint the church of Christ whom you represent. Catholic politicians should stop letting us down. No matter how we look at it, the growing state of tensions and insecurity in our Country and especially in the South East is because of the failure of our leaders in providing selfless leadership.
*Advice to the Christian electorate:
(i) You must know what you want and be prepared to die for it. People deserve the kind of leaders they get. (ii) If people must continue to spend their last ‘cards’ to get into power then they must be expected to spend our last ‘cards’ to regain what they have lost & secure their future before they get out of power. Our party delegates should stop mortgaging the future of Nigeria through vote buying and selling.
(iii) If Ministerial, Senate , Houses of Representative , Assembly and other political positions are really places of service, then let them prepare to receive a modest salary.
*Advice to Church leaders: Our leadership must be by example before we can really rise up to the challenge of our prophetic role. Our ecclesiastical leaders, especially in Nigeria, should come out of the ‘Lordship mentality’ and take up the ‘Fatherhood mentality’. It is not a matter of nomenclature but practice. If they don’t cut down their personal budgets (in recognition of the hard times) at the diocesan level, the exemplary life of detachment will not flow down to the Parish and Station levels.
*My dream for Nigerian Politics:
(i) When righteous politicians will be called up by their people to come to serve, even against their wishes.
(ii) When incumbent political office holders will not have 2nd tenure as their birth rights but seldomly continue only as a result of sincere pressures from their people, even against their wishes.
(iii) When political office holders will depart from political offices without a scandalous quantum leap of wealth. (iv) When political office holders will not necessarily concentrate on developing their own territories or favouring their own people but will look at the larger needs of the Nigerian people especially places that have objective developmental needs at a given point in time.
I think it is only when this happens that we would come a little bit off from what Christ has titled ‘the politics of the Gentiles’ which I very much see in Nigeria today. Happy Sunday dear friends!

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