Fr. Ben’s homily for Thursday of the 29th week in Ordinary Time Cycle I
Theme: BAPTISM OF DIVISION!
By: Ben Agbo (Rev Fr)
Homily for Thursday October 21 2021
*Rom 6 : 19 – 23, Lk 12 : 49 – 53.
The baptism of Christ is a baptism of division – a baptism of fire. This fire is the emblem of the Holy Spirit that stands for the zeal for the faith. Fire also refers to persecution that will come against the truth and the in-house divisions that will come following that; father vs son, mother vs daughter, bishop vs his priests, leaders vs their followers, brother vs brother, priests vs fellow priests, party members vs party members, etc. For this war to succeed, one must be prepared to let go some influences, some dogmatic beliefs, some personal relationships, etc in order to stand for the truth. There will be division even within the Church, within world powers like America and UK, within political parties and within all institutions for the sake of righteousness.
So now, says the Word of God in today’s 1st reading, yield your members to righteousness for sanctification. Christ said ‘By their fruits you shall know them’, Matt 7 : 24. So what fruits do you see in your life and the life of your friends ? If it is sexual vice, impurity, sensuality, worship of false gods, sorcery, antagonism, rivalry, jealousy, bad temper, quarrels, disagreements, factions, malice, drunkenness and orgies, then you can be sure these are fruits of self indulgence. But if you see fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness, self control, etc then you can be sure these are fruits of holiness and righteousness, Gal 5 : 19 – 24. No amount of pretence can hide these fruits.
The times are bad. So many enemies of the Church would be releasing their missiles against the Church. They may be coming through government policies, through youthful gangsterism and terrorism, cultic gerrymandering, satiric videos on social medias, pressure groups like IPOB, anti Christ revolutions, etc. These revolutions will divide us into factions; some will stand for the truth and for reform while some will stand to protect old institutions and filiations. But at the end of the day, those who are truly born again will be on the part of righteousness. May God bless you today.