SUNDAY HOMILIES: 14TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – YEAR A




SUNDAY HOMILIES: 14TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – YEAR A

HOMILY Theme: LOWLINESS EXALTED; INTELLECTUAL PRIDE CONDEMNED!

By: Rev. Fr. Jacob Aondover ATSU

 

Homily for Sunday.

READINGS: ZACHARIAH 9:9-10, PSALM 145, ROMANS 8:9.11-13, MATTHEW 11:25-30

Our gospel passage today is a presentation of two accents or emphasis: the accent of authority (Matt. 11:25-27) and the accent of compassion (28-30). Jesus came as a humble messiah, poor king, lowly and peaceful; though victorious and triumphant, he came riding on a donkey, on a colt (Zec. 9:9). He came not like the earthly kings then who rode majestically on horses. The Rabbis and wise men rejected him while the simple people accepted him. The intellectuals had no use for him; but the humble welcomed him. Today therefore, he condemns intellectual pride outrightly whilst exalting lowliness and humility; a humility that accepts God totally.

Beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord, among the many features of infants are their total dependence on their parents, their naivety and acceptance of whatever is given them, their blind trust and faith in their parents etc. These apply well to the ideal Christian who submits his will to that of the Father, who follows Christ to wherever he leads, who humbly obeys the tenets of his/her faith without questions and so on. No doubt Jesus would want his followers to be well educated and informed; he’d however not want any of his disciple to fall prey to the incurable malady called pride, for God opposes the proud but favours the humble (James 4:6, Prov. 3:34).

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For the truly Christian, humility is never an option and pride is not worth considering. This is true because Christ, the author of our faith himself was humble to the point of taking on human flesh and dying on the Cross (Phil. 2:7:-8). Also, his example to his apostles was that of humility – the washing of their feet (Jn. 13:5-15), the call to humble service and sacrifice for others. Today he reminds us that only the truly humble, those who with all their intelligence, wealth, fame and power, still submit to him shall God reveal the mysteries of the kingdom. It is indeed a call to be humble.

To the humble and obedient, Christ who alone can reveal God to humanity will give a share of God’s glory. Remember, John 14:9 says ‘Whoever sees me sees the Father’, those weary in their search for God should come to Christ – God made visible. It is futile to engage in a mental search for God, submitting to Christ is the only way. It is also vain to labour in this world depending solely on our strength; Christ remains the surest way to success. Consequently, humbly turning to Christ for rest or peace is the best way of gaining same {rest}.

After our daily hustles, when we are done with stock taking – counting our profits and seemingly being happy for our achievements, a severe feeling of emptiness rages. Are there not engineers, doctors, scientists, barristers etc, who are never satisfied, who are always restless? With Christ in the picture, the heaviest of loads becomes light, the weariest of souls find rest. Would you rather flow with the pride of the world or humbly submit to him and find rest for your soul?

It was Rev. A. Plummer who once said; ‘The heart, not the head, is the home of the gospel.’ It is not cleverness which shuts it out, it is pride. It is not stupidity which admits; it is humility. People may be as wise as Solomon; but if they have not simplicity, the trust, the innocence of the childlike heart, they shut themselves out. We pray today therefore, for the grace to humbly go about our Christian vocation so that God will in turn, through Christ, reveal himself to us making our heavy loads lighter and our weary souls peaceful…amen.

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