Homily for Saturday of the 2nd Week of Lent Year A
Theme: LENT: DAY 16 – FAST FROM SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS; GOD IS MERCY
By: Rev. Fr. Jacob Aondover ATSU
Homily for Saturday March 14 2020
READINGS: MICAH 7:14-15.18-20, PSALM 103, LUKE 15:1-3.11-32
We are alive today because God has been kind and compassionate to us in the past. Tell me, who among us is spotless? Who haven’t sinned before? Who among us can boast that he/she is free from sins committed and the good left undone? Many of us have terrible histories: some of us are cheats, character slayers, rumour-mongers, corrupt, abortionists, murderers, fetish, diabolic, wicked and so on. We have failed God and man for too many times; yet God who doesn’t delight in the death of sinners (Eze. 18:23) always shows us mercy and forgiveness. Indeed “Who is a God like you, who removes guilt and pardons sin for the remnant of his inheritance; who does not persist in anger but instead delights in mercy” (Mic. 7:18).
The Merciful Father in Luke 15:1-3.11-32 is the best representation of God as mercy and forgiveness. In the words of the prophecy of Micah 7:19-20, he is ready to trample our iniquities underfoot, drown our sins in the depths of the sea, and be faithful to us always. If we know how hurting a feeling it is for your child to wish you dead, then we’d understand the gravity of the prodigal son’s offence. Only then too can we appreciate the tremendous love and unrivaled mercy displayed by the Merciful Father. To this day, our heinous crimes against God and man pierce his soul; it is like facing a rebellion, betrayal and attack from those you love most. That’s not the message here anyways; what matters is that we ‘come to our senses’ in good time and return to God with a broken spirit, humble and contrite heart and acknowledging our sins, beg him for pardon.
I can imaging God sitting on heaven’s gate (not on his throne) and periodically moving up and down anxiously waiting for us who have strayed from the right path; we who have gone out of our senses, we who are misled by the world. How I wish we hastily returned to him and I guarantee he wouldn’t allow us plead for mercy before readmitting us into his fold, his name again is mercy! God bless and keep us safe in the very hollow of his hands now and always. Amen.
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FEED AND EDUCATE ONE THIS LENT