Skip to main content

CHOOSE TODAY WHOM YOU SHALL SERVE… TO WHOM DO YOU GO?...REV FR VICTOR IBIYEMI

AUGUST 26, TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME- JOSHUA 24:1-2, 15-17, 18, PSALM 34, EPHESIANS 5:21-32, JOHN 6:63, 68, JOHN 6:60-69......


Today, God’s Word examines our decision, loyalty, sincerity, commitment and faithfulness to God. These questions must continue to ring in our hearts: Whom are we actually serving? Why are we serving God? When everything scatters, to whom do we go? In the first reading, Joshua gathered the people of Israel to confess their loyalty and fundamental option for God. It was a great convention for an extraordinary decision. In the story of the Israelites, God always did the choosing but now the table was turned around. Israel (God is asking us today) was asked to choose its loyalties, something the pagan nations did not have to do because they could embrace all the gods. 

The Israelites were being asked to do what Rahab had done, namely, to embrace this one God and, by doing so, to reject all others (see on 2:9–11). Joshua led by example when he made that absolute confession for God- as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. Also in the Gospel, there was an urgent call for a confession of loyalty, commitment and faithfulness to God. Christ, again, dropped another bombshell of truth about the Eucharist and this became too hard for his followers to accept. In this passage, we see three kinds of followers; 1) the disciple who counts the cost of following Jesus and turns away, 2) the one who knows the costs and falsely stays as Judas did, 3) and finally, the one who knows the cost of believing in Jesus, yet also knows that no one else has the words of eternal life. The real difficulty of Christianity is twofold. It demands an act of surrender to Christ (the second reading), an acceptance of him as the final authority; and it demands a moral standard of the highest level. 

The truth is: “it is not intellectual difficulty that keeps men and women from becoming Christians; it is the height of Christ’s moral demand. To this day, many refuse Christ, not because he puzzles our intellects but because he challenges their lives.” Brothers and Sisters in Christ, where does our loyalty lie? With Christ or with those other gods we have fashioned for ourselves. What is the quality of our loyalty? Which of these disciples in the Gospel are we? When everything becomes sour, confusing, difficult, depressing, blur, tiring, whom do you seek? TO WHOM DO WE GO? May God give us the grace to be wholeheartedly committed to Christ, to sincerely and faithfully submit to HIM and to always come to HIM who has the words of eternal life. Amen

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

GROWING IN SILENCE… THE BEAUTY OF HUMBLE BEGINNINGS By Rev Fr Victor Ibiyemi

JUNE 17, ELEVENTH SUNDAY- EZEKIEL 17:22-24, PSALM 91:2-3, 13-16, 2 CORINTHIANS 5:6-10, JOHN 15:15, MARK 4:26-34 There are two more evils we need to combat in our contemporary world. They are: NOISE and HASTE. Our society is too NOISY; everybody is shouting, nobody is heard! Everybody is talking, nobody is listening! Everybody wants to speak all the time! Nobody wants to listen at any time! With the slightest opportunity we h ave, we flaunt ourselves, make noise about ourselves and about everything else.  The social media has become a stage for the grievous insanity! You would not believe what you will see there! The internet makes the loudest and heart-aching noise! Our music are loud! Our talking is loud! Our dancing is loud! All these pockets of noise deafen and hinder us from true growth. The second vice which apparently appears like a virtue is the evil of HASTE. Everybody is in HASTE! We are all in a RUSH! We hastily hunt for money, fame, recognition and acceptance....
Post a Comment
Read more

THE CURSE OF CONTEMPT By Rev Fr Victor Ibiyemi

JULY 8- THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME- EZEKIEL 2:2-5, PSALM 123:1-4, 2 CORINTHIANS 12:7-10, LUKE 4:18, MARK 6:1-6 Last Sunday we reflected and saw the connection and power of FAITH in the lives of Jarius’ Daughter and the Woman with haemorrhage. In our readings today, we see the opposite of faith as expressed in the manifestation of an impertinent contempt.  Truly, familiarity had bred an unforgivable contempt. In the first reading, Ezekiel was s ent to the obstinate and rebellious Israelites- a people whom God had labelled as his own and they too had customised God as their heritage. He has fought their battles, gave them the land of others, blessed them with profuse goodness and did numerous things that cannot be counted. But what did they give in return to such a loving God? Uninterrupted transgressions, deafened disobedience, imprudent rebellion. But very soon! They will know that there has been a prophet among them.  The case is not different in the Gospel...
Post a Comment
Read more