MONDAY: HOMILY FOR 4TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME / YEAR B
THEME: WHEN A SON FIGHTS HIS FATHER
BY: Benedict Agbo (Rev Fr)
*2 Sam 18: 9 – 19:3, Mk 5: 21 – 43.
It was no good tidings for David that the Lord had delivered him from the power of his enemy, Absalom. No, because Absalom was not supposed to be an enemy. Whoever thrusted an arrow into that boy’s heart got it completely wrong. And that was Joab’s greatest undoing. He had actually stabbed his master, David, by stabbing his son Absalom. The curse of a father upon his son can never bring joy but sorrow to both sides. From that hour that Absalom walked out on his father, abusing him and organizing a mutiny of opposition army against his father David, his spiritual armor began to fade. Today’s 1st reading tells us the rest of the story: He had a terrible motor (donkey) accident and could not survive it because he had no spiritual immunity anymore.
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Be careful about internal wars because they are more dangerous. Only fools step into quarrel between family members and begin to fuel the crises. By the time they reconcile, you realize the idiot you have played. Great men and women are assessed by their success first in the interior recesses of their family life. Watching apparently successful men like General Obasanjo being lacerated in the open by his own sons and daughters few years ago did not really speak good of him. David understood this and that’s why he wept sumptuously at the death of Absalom: ‘O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom…’ Yeah! Only evil cult men, like the types we have in Nigeria, would rejoice at the death of their wives and children.
Faith manifests in different dimensions. In today’s gospel we see another dimension: ‘If I touch even his garments I shall be made well’. The faith expressed here was a higher level of faith – sacramental faith – faith in the manifestation of Christ’s power through sacramental symbols – to touch what Christ has touched or blessed. Can I muster such a faith this morning as to say: ‘If I receive him in the Eucharist this morning, the pains in my heart will go’. At every human conception, power goes out from a parent onto his children and that power continues to sustain them well on over life’s challenges. This parental blessing should never turn sour. It is generally dangerous, spiritually speaking, to bite the finger that fed us. May God bless you today!
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