HOMILY FOR THE 14TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR C
THEME: Carry no Haversack
BY: Fr. Anthony C Ohaekwusi
HOMILY FOR SUNDAY JULY 3 2022
We are in summer, the season of going out to parks and pubs to catch the fun. It is also the holiday season, when we travel outside our comfort zone for a break and new experiences. This brings a certain sense of newness and freshness to our minds and bodies, and helps us recharge our batteries for future tasks. But the best way to enjoy leaving your comfort zone is to travel with little or no luggage. This is because when you travel light, you travel with less stress.
Travelling with a lot of luggage is stressful and distracting. Everything will be difficult and slow because not only will you have the stress of carrying them, but also the depressing feeling of not losing any of them. Think about going to the airport with a lot of luggage. You would need a car to take you to the airport, a cart to carry all the luggage together, check-in for all the luggage, and possibly discarding the excess. Going through security would be difficult and time-consuming, and meeting at the boarding gate a major stress, if you’re lucky enough not to miss your flight. But when you travel light, everything is fun and easy. You can get to the airport by train, check in online and head straight to the gate without stopping or stressing. You can even visit the restroom without the stress of holding on to your luggage, because when the lovely lady on the microphone announces “don’t leave your luggage unattended…” it’s not for you. You feel light, you feel free, you feel fresh and you feel good.
When Jesus told his disciples: carry no purse, no haversack, he urged them to be mindful of the stress and difficulty of carrying old baggage on this journey to a new place. Our life is like a journey, and one cannot explore this new place by clinging to old habits. Using the analogy of a sheep among wolves, he recognized the danger of carrying the baggage of our old bad habits into a newfound relationship. This is the bane of any development. You may think that not taking them with you will make you no longer recognise yourself. Whether you recognise or not, the important thing is that you will become a new creation. Something new is happening on this journey, and you can’t come back as the same. People who know you will recognise the change and will be happy because you have given yourself the opportunity to change for the better. Every child of God must lose some weight, by leaving behind all ungodly habits in order to become a new creation. When we do this, the journey will be promising and we will return with something new, feeling refreshed to do more, because the labourers are few.
Remain lifted and do have a great Sunday
Fr. Anthony C Ohaekwusi