HOMILY FOR THURSDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY.
THEME: FUNDAMENTAL OPTION FOR GOD’S WILL!
BY: Benedict Agbo (Rev Fr)
* Deut 30: 15 – 20, Lk 9: 22 – 25.
We are responsible for our actions and destiny. God says in today’s 1st reading: See, I have set before you this day life and death, good and evil, heaven and earth, blessings and curses. It is the fundamental option we make that determines the rest of what happens in and around us. If you choose to obey the commandments of God, He gives us his blessings but if we choose to allow our hearts to be drawn away to idol worship and other sins that go with it, we suffer the consequences. Why are so many families and villages looking for ‘Fr this’ or ‘Brother that’ to come and minister the healing – of – family – root prayers without bothering about repentance from whatever negative things their parents might have done badly before them?
Billy Graham’s daughter was interviewed by an American press regarding the terrorist attacks on Sept 11: ‘How could God let something like this happen?’ Anne Graham’s response was insightful: ‘For years we’ ve been telling God to get out of our schools, out of our government and out of our lives through our decisions… Being the gentleman He is, he has obeyed….How can we expect God to give us His blessings and His protection if we demand He leaves us alone? Somebody asked that prayer be removed out of our schools. We said OK. Next somebody asked that the Bible be removed out of our hospitals. We said OK. Somebody asked that men should be free to marry fellow men and we said OK. Somebody said we shouldn’t spank our children when they misbehaved (his name is Dr Benjamin Spock). We said OK. Few years later this man’s son committed suicide and we saw it as a clinical case. Now, we are asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don’t know right from wrong, why it doesn’t bother them to kill. WE REAP WHAT WE SOW!
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Funny how it is when people move from one prayer house to the other and invite one prayer contractor or another for family deliverance for the brutality of their ancestors when they have sent God himself away through their AKATAKPA or ODO masquerade cult. Funny it is when people pray for family liberation and breakthrough when they have rejected Christian civilization by refusing to donate their land for the building of churches and mission schools. Funny it is when people want good governance in Nigeria but will either sell their votes or not even have voter’s card. Funny it is when people bring powerful men of God to liberate their Youths from untimely deaths and spiritual obstacles to their destiny when they don’t want their evil shrines and deities to be destroyed and removed. I wonder why some of our so called learned Professors, Barristers and Igwes want to revert back to idolatry and still want civilization and development for their children.
Jesus says in today’s gospel that If any man would come after him, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow him. How? We don’t want extreme asceticism or gnosticism. We should never fail to wash up, dress well or feed well but we don’t want unnatural fashions; transgender decorations, animalistic make ups (example, long nails making one look like an animal), males plaiting hairs like ladies, ladies dressing half naked like guys, etc.
Every child of God is destined to suffer many things from the hands of ‘Chief priests and Scribes’ – sycophants and these evil men who hobnob around powerful kings. The story was told of St Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury around 1170AD who was hacked to death around the sacristy by some knights of King Henry II because he was criticizing the King’s evil policies. But Jesus assures us that whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. We must choose God, preferring him to all other things such as wealth, power, positions and comforts of this world. May God give us this strength of will to make this fundamental option for God’s will. It is the 1st step of our journey to the spiritual life. May God bless you today!
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