HOMILY FOR 12TH THURSDAY OF ORDINARY TIME: YEAR A
HOMILY THEME: “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock”
BY: Bishop Anthony Ewherido
In today’s first reading, a son is begotten to Abram, through Sarai’s slave-girl, Hagar. Even though, that was not the anticipated channel for the inheritance promised to Abram, God remained involved, saved the slave girl and her son, Ishmael, and even promised him a great nation of descendants. Sarai’s move was legitimate, according to the customs of the time. But, Hagar’s pride and insolence got her a bad reputation before her mistress and she paid for it.
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One wonders whether things went wrong because Sarai and Abram had gone against their commitment to obedience and trust in their relationship with God? We have important lessons to learn here. Staying with the plan when working with God demands patience, even when we are not seeing the expected results. We must always wait on the Lord. Also, the virtue of humility is in view; we must see God’s favor upon us as reason to humbly submit to God thankfully and be respectful in our relationship with others. Pride and arrogance only end up hurting us. They are fruitless. Likewise, we must always remember that we are God’s dwelling, because through Christ, God dwells in and amongst us. So, we stay standing only if we build and center our lives on the rock-solid foundation, Christ himself. Any other foundation is shifting sand and will fail. A life that is founded or centered on Christ is guided by God’s ordinances and Christ’s love, manifested in our words, deeds, and thoughts. So, we must weigh our choices in life against gospel values and ensure that they align with the will of God and mind of Christ, if not all our endeavors would amount to emptiness and vanity. Such an alignment, is equal to keeping Christ’s word, the only proof of our love for him. Lip service is unacceptable and futile. We must match our confession with our actions.
Christ, my rock, my refuge, my stronghold, protect your people. Amen.
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