Homily for Friday within the Octave of Easter Year A
Theme: IN HIS NAME…
By: Fr. Ben Agbo
Homily for Friday April 17 2020
* Act 4 : 1 – 12, Jn 21 : 1 – 14.
The authorities ( Captain of the temple, Chief Priests and Sadducees) were extremely annoyed at their teaching the people the doctrine of the resurrection. So the apostles were arrested. But the number of their followers continued to increase and miracles continued to happen. They asked : ‘By what power and whose name have you men done this?’. Peter boldly told them that it was in the name of Jesus the Nazarene. But they could not understand. The greatest problem even in Christianity today is that many claim to believe in God but do not believe in what God can do. Our occupational and vocational frustrations stem from this lack of faith.
In today’s gospel we can see that Peter went back fishing after Christ’s death. And he drew 6 other disciples with him. They were fraustrated and caught nothing all night because Jesus was no longer in their life. But then came Jesus. He gave them instruction on what to do and when they obeyed, they had a bumper harvest. Peter attempted an initial professional objection from another account but had to learn that God’s intervention is always beyond mere human calculations. According to Vima Dasan, “Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man’s power ends.
Yes, I believe that even in this period of pandemic, only God can intervene to save the world when the computations and permutations of science have failed. Therefore, the voice of prayer ( especially corporate intercessions) should never fall silent. May God bless you today!