TUESDAY 5TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME – YEAR B (Sts Paul Miki and his companions, Martyrs).
THEME: Don’t be a ‘lip service’ Christian!
BY: Rev Fr Oselumhense Anetor (Uromi Diocese)
1 Kings 8:22-23,27-30; Mark 7:1-13
How easy it is to pay lip service to God, without any real convictions… We can be so engrossed in the evil that we do that we even find excuses for them. When Solomon prayed the prayer of dedication of the temple before the altar, in the first reading today, it was that God should hear the prayers of his people when they call. But how can God hear us, if our hearts say something different from what our lips say? We must therefore pay attention to the natural longing of our hearts for the courts of the Lord.
ALSO RECOMMENDED: HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF THE 4TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME OF YEAR B
Friends, as a principle, God hears the heart, not just the lips. The dirt in the heart should receive more attention than the one on our hands, or under our feet. In Paul Miki and his companions, we see action rather than lip service. Miki was a Japanese Jesuit who preached the gospel to the Japanese with great success. However, when persecution of Catholics arose, he was arrested with twenty five others, tortured, and taken to Nagasaki, where they were bound to crosses and speared. These martyrs knew that the mandate to witness was so precious that it was worth dying for. Can we do the same?
Good morning dear. God bless your day ahead!
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