Homily for Saturday of the 1st Week of Advent
Theme: Without cost, you have received; without cost you are to give.
By: Fr. Diotacious Chikontwe SMA
Homily for Saturday December 4 2021
*READINGS OF THE DAY*
Isaiah 30:19-21,23-26
Psalm 146:1-6
Matthew 9:35-10:1,5,6-8
*INTRODUCTION*
Dear Brethrens, the very nature of God is to give. God is a Giver. Because He is a Giver, we have received all that we have now like: creation, redemption and sanctification. Yet in receiving all these from Him, we are called to enter into the divine logic of giving too. Sin is nothing other than receiving and not giving. Sin and the sinner are “getters.” Getters and givers cannot be mixed up. Let us be a giver so that God will be in us and we in God. “Without cost, you have received; without cost you are to give.”
*ABOUT THE GOSPEL OF THE DAY*
In today’s gospel, Jesus wants us to teach something like this: “Without cost, you have received; without cost you are to give,” (Matt 10:8). Jesus lives this teaching because He himself cures the sick people; lets the blind see, expels demons, feeds the hungry with His words and material food; restores the dead to life; cleanses the lepers and so on and so forth without asking any payment or doctor’s fee whatsoever.
*A SERIOUS QUESTION TO PONDER!*
What about if God will charge us with all the blessings and graces we receive from Him everyday? Like for example, the sun we enjoy during the day, the rain, the water, the food, our life, the sea and even the air we breathe. If this will happen, I am sure God will be the richest man in the world today. But this is not the kind of God we know since the beginning of the world. This is not the kind of God Jesus preaches to us and wants to relate with us. But the God we know is a loving and generous One. He does not need all these material things and money. It is because He even created us out of nothing.
*THE CENTRAL MESSAGE OF TODAY*
Many people have yet to believe in God simply because, many of us who are Christians and consider ourselves as such have no sense of giving and sharing, our lives are contrary to the love of God ( we lack charity and compassion). This is why we often ended up causing others to turn away from God and even have misunderstandings of God’s works and truths in this world.
*CONCLUSION*
Dear friends, our God is a God of compassion and love, and God hears the cry of all who call out to him. We are the instruments through which such cry will be answered. This is why God wants us to make ourselves available to be used by God to bring God’s uplifting and compassionate works in our midst.
Have A Blessed Weekend dear brethrens.
Fr. Diotacious Chikontwe SMA