Tag Archives: Peter

The Suffering of the Christian

Migrant Mother, taken by Dorothea Lange in 1936

Migrant Mother, taken by Dorothea Lange in 1936

Theme: The Suffering of the Christian
Readings: Isaiah 50:5-9 / James 2:14-18 / Mark 8:27-35
24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Christians, like all other human beings, suffer or experience challenges and problems in life. Some, for instance, lose their jobs or businesses; others have problems in their marriages. Furthermore, we sometimes get sick, and some others have lost their dear ones when they needed them the most, etc.

These problems and challenges can sometimes make us question the existence of God, or ask: ‘where is our God?’

Just as Peter told Christ (in the gospel reading) that God forbid that he should suffer, so our confusion or doubt is worsened when we hear pastors preach or friends tell us that a Christian should not suffer.

Today, the Word of God reminds us that it is normal for the Christian to suffer; Jesus says: to follow him, we must renounce ourselves, take up our Cross of sufferings, and follow him.

But then, we may ask, since Jesus has suffered and died on the cross to save us, why do we also have to suffer?  Now let me illustrate why we also have to suffer despite the saving suffering of Jesus Christ.  Someone may suffer a surgery to donate his kidney to save another person. But the latter would not be saved if he does not want to suffer the surgery required for the kidney transplant.

Similarly, in the first reading, the prophet’s message to the Israelites in exile in Babylon was that God’s servant would suffer to save his people who were suffering in exile.  Again, in the gospel reading, Jesus told his disciples that he was to suffer in order to save mankind. In other words, he is the (suffering) Servant of the Lord who has come to save us through his sufferings.  Yes, Jesus has suffered to offer us his ‘kidney’ but we also have to suffer the pain of surgery to receive the ‘kidney’.

Here is another illustration: Imagine a single parent, a needy mother who does 2 or 3 odd jobs, and sells her clothing and inherited jewels to cater for the education of her children. Is her struggle or suffering sufficient to make the children pass their exams? No; for they have to play their parts by attending classes and struggle to study hard in order to pass their exam.

Similarly, though Jesus Christ has suffered for our salvation, we also need to play our part. That is why he says: ‘He who wants to follow me must renounce himself, take up his cross and follow me’.

So, beloved, playing our part to follow Jesus entails struggles or sufferings. These may come in the form of a loss of job, a loss in business, no employment after graduation, no marriage, marriage with no children, sickness, death of a dear one, etc.  When we experience any of these or similar problems or pains in life, we should not question the existence of God, nor think he has abandoned us or he is not concerned about our plight, nor question His goodness [How can a Good God allow us to suffer?].

Furthermore, St. James, in the second reading, also emphasizes that we have a part to play towards our salvation, when he says FAITH alone is NOT SUFFICIENT. We need to perform GOOD DEEDS as well.  Going back to our first imagery, if the surgery for the kidney transplant represents the suffering we endure, then the medication that the patient takes for good recovery represents the good deeds required of us.

CONCLUSION
Beloved,

  • As fire purifies gold, so may God turn every suffering of ours into a fire that purifies our souls, Amen!
  • May He increase our good deeds, Amen!
  • And may every good deed we perform strengthen our faith unto salvation, Amen!

By Very Rev. Fr. John Louis

Eternal Life Assurance

The Divine Comedy by Dante, Illustrated,

Heaven from The Divine Comedy by Dante

READINGS: Acts 1:15–17, 20–26 / 1 John 4:11–16/ John 17:11–19
Theme:  Eternal Life Assurance
7th Sunday of Easter

INTRODUCTION:

Beloved, Jesus did not leave us money as an inheritance, for it could be stolen or misused; he did not leave cars as our inheritance, for they could be involved in accidents; he did not leave houses for our inheritance, for they could be destroyed or their values could depreciate [especially in economic crisis]; he did not leave plots of land as our inheritance, for they could generate litigations; he left ETERNAL LIFE, AN EVERLASTING HAPPY LIFE IN HEAVEN as our inheritance!

And we could say that it was in his priestly prayer at the Last Supper (John 17, from which we took our gospel reading) that Jesus registered us on the ETERNAL LIFE ASSUURANCE POLICY (ELAP).  Hence, the theme of this message is ‘ETERNAL LIFE ASSURANCE.’

REGISTRATION:

Jesus, at the Last Supper, after eating with his disciples, washing their feet and giving them his farewell message, prayed what we call his ‘priestly prayer.’ In this prayer, he prayed for: (a) his glorification through the cross, (b) his disciples, and (c) all of us who would later come to believe in the Good News through the preaching of his disciples.

For what did he pray for us?  He prayed to the Father to grant eternal life to the disciples and all of us who would believe in him (John 17:2-3), so that we would be with him happily forever in heaven, (John 17:24).  Thus, even before his death and even when we were yet to be born, Jesus registered us on the ETERNAL LIFE ASSURANCE POLICY [ELAP].

PREMIUM:

When one registers with a LIFE ASSURANCE COMPANY, he/she has to indicate the premium of his choice: the amount of money to be paid; how often to pay it [monthly, quarterly, annually, etc]; and, the mode of payment [by cash, cheque, bank order, etc].  Beloved, in our case, the amount Jesus paid is priceless, the frequency is ‘once and for all,’and the mode of payment is through his most precious blood.

PRICELESS: Beloved, if one has to pay a huge sum of money as premium for just the 10, 20 or 30 years after his/her retirement, then the premium sum for ETERNAL or EVERLASTING LIFE is certainly PRICELESS.  It is an amount no human being can pay, but the Good News is Jesus has paid it for us!

FREQUENCY: He who is infinitely rich, he to whom the heavens and universe belong, does not waste time to pay the premium in bits [monthly, quarterly or annually]; he has paid it ONCE AND FOR ALL for all of us!

MODE OF PAYMENT: Jesus paid the premium for us, not by cash, nor by cheque nor by bank order, but by the blood he shed through his sacrificial death.  O, how blessed we are to have the most priceless premium paid once and for all by the precious blood of Jesus!

BENEFITS:

Eternal happiness in heaven is the ultimate benefit we receive from the ELAP Jesus has registered us on and fully paid for us.  Some people invest with a life assurance company, but they do not live long enough to enjoy their benefits [they die before retirement], but with ELAP death does not mean forfeiting the benefits, but the beginning of enjoying the ultimate benefit.

Others invest in earthly life assurance and they live long enough to enjoy the benefit, but depreciation sets in the longer they live on after retirement; but with what God is offering us through ELAP, the value remains the same for ever because nothing in heaven changes value [it is not like the Ghana Cedi, whose values was promised to be the same but we experience the contrary].

CLAIMING THE BENEFITS:

Beloved, though we are not expected to contribute towards the premium for eternal life, Jesus expects us to keep well the ‘certificate of registration.’ In today’s second reading St. John sums up how we can keep this certificate intact.  He says, it’s by faith [‘Whoever believes that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God’ (1 John 4:15)] and love [‘God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him’ (1 John 4:16)].

Beloved, we can lose this certificate if we act like Judas (first and gospel readings) who exchanged his certificate of the priceless eternal life with mere 30 silver pieces.  In the priestly prayer of Jesus we get the hint that Judas lost his certificate: ‘Holy Father . . . I kept those you had given me true to your name.  I have watched over them and not one is lost except the one who chose to be lost’ (John 17:12).  And in the first reading St. Peter led the group of believers to pray and elect Matthias to replace Judas as the 12th apostle (Acts 1: 15-26).

CONCLUSION:

Beloved, I pray that, enabled by the Holy Spirit, the CEO of ELAP – the most client-centred CEO we can ever think of – we will, unlike Judas, keep our certificates intact through an ever renewed faith in, love of, loyalty to the Lord, as well as a genuine repentance whenever we fall into sin.

And that St. Peter, who admitted St. Matthias to the group of 12 apostles and who has the keys of the kingdom, will promptly admit us to heaven as we present our certificates, amen!

By Very Rev. Fr. John Louis

Led by the Holy Spirit!

Peter Baptizing the Centurion Cornelius, by Francesco Trevisani, 1709.

Peter Baptizing the Centurion Cornelius, by Francesco Trevisani, 1709.

READINGS: Acts 10:25–26, 34–35, 44–48 / 1 John 4:7–10/ John 15: 9–17
Theme: Led by the Holy Spirit!
6th Sunday of Easter

INTRODUCTION:

Today as we celebrate Mothers’ Day, let us congratulate our mothers and pray for God’s special blessings on them.

Today is also the Sixth Sunday of Easter.  Coming Thursday [Ascension Day], we shall begin our parish Pentecost Novena with the theme, ‘BE LED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT’ (Gal. 5:18).  And in today’s first reading (from Acts 10), we have a story about how the Holy Spirit led Cornelius and Peter the Apostle.  So I am adopting the theme of the Pentecost Novena with a slight change for this homily: ‘LED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT’.  This is a broad theme but in this message we shall focus on only the experiences of Cornelius and St. Peter.

AN ILLUSTRATION OF ‘BEING LED’:

We can illustrate how the Holy Spirit leads us by how someone may lead us to a destination.  Here we can consider three possibilities:
- When the person leading us walks ahead of us;
- When we walk abreast with the person; and
- When we walk hand-in-hand with the person.

Similarly, the Holy Spirit may be ahead of us as he directs us in our spiritual and daily life; or we may be walking abreast with him; or even better still, we may be walking hand-in-hand with him.  However, beloved, it is also true that we may not be keeping pace with the Spirit; so He may be far ahead of us (as when we walk with a fast moving person, who has long legs like mine).

CORNELIUS’ EXPERIENCE:

We could say that Cornelius started walking far behind the Holy Spirit, but he eventually reached the point of walking abreast with the Holy Spirit (as gathered from today’s first reading).  He began, even without knowing that the Holy Spirit existed, but he did the good things the Spirit inspired in his heart; and he ended up embracing the Good News that St. Peter preached and receiving the Holy Spirit.

What are some of the things Cornelius was doing which showed that he was following the ‘lead’ of the Spirit without knowing it?

Even at a time that Cornelius – a Roman/gentile – did not know Jesus as the Saviour of the world, he worshipped the only true God as the Jews did (Acts 10:1-4).  Thus, he followed from afar the ‘lead’ of the Spirit.

He was a man of prayer (Acts 10:1-5), who fasted occasionally (Acts 10:30).  This was certainly inspired by the Spirit, whom St. Paul says enables us to call God ‘Abba Father’; in other words, the Spirit enables us to pray (Rom. 8:15-16, 26-27).

Cornelius was fond of giving alms (Acts 10:2, 4).  God is love and he has shown us his love by offering his only Son; he, in turn, commands us to love one another, according to today’s second reading.  This commandment of love is repeated twice in today’s gospel reading.  And a practical way to show love to another person who is in need is to give him/her alms.  It was therefore certainly the Spirit of God who led Cornelius to be charitable to the needy.

The Jews in those days considered the Romans, their colonial masters, as their ‘enemies’.  So it is amazing that Acts 10:22 says Cornelius had a good reputation even among the Jews.  A life-style endearing to one’s enemies was certainly inspired by the Holy Spirit.

According to Acts 10:2, Cornelius was ‘a devout man and one who feared God with ALL HIS HOUSEHOLD.’ He might have even influenced some of his subordinate Roman soldiers to worship Yahweh (cf. Acts 10:7).  Only a person led by the Spirit can lead others to the Living God.

Thus, through the worship of the only true God, prayer and fasting, works of charity, good life-style and attracting souls for God, among others, the Holy Spirit was leading Cornelius from afar, and drawing him closer and closer to Himself.  Thus, as we heard in the first reading Cornelius arrived at the point of walking abreast with the Holy Spirit: as St. Peter preached the Good News of Salvation in Jesus Christ, the Spirit fell upon Cornelius and his household and they were baptized.

Beloved where are we in our walk with the Spirit?  Many of us here started walking with the Spirit even as infants, or at least, many years ago, when we were baptized.  The question is: are we still walking abreast with the Spirit through worshipping only God, prayers and fasting, good lifestyle, charity and winning souls for Christ, among other things?  Or are we far behind the Spirit like a friend driving ahead of us, and we losing him because of the traffic?  Are we far behind because instead of worshipping the only Living God, we worship other ‘gods’ too?  Or is it because we are not regular in prayers? Or is it because our lifestyle is bad?  Or is it because, we do not do enough charitable works? Or is it because we make no effort to win souls for Christ?

Beloved if our case involves not just one of the above but a combination of them, then we could be likened to someone who lost sight of his friend driving ahead of him/her, not only because he has been delayed by the red traffic light, but, in addition, his/her car is broken down!

ST. PETER’S EXPERIENCE:

St. Peter’s experience in Acts 10 is like someone who began walking abreast with a friend and now is walking hand-in-hand.  In his ministry, Jesus taught St. Peter and the other apostles about the Holy Spirit, and at the Last Supper, he promised them the Holy Spirit – the Paraclete. On the day of his ascension into heaven he told them: ‘Do not leave Jerusalem but wait for the fulfillment of the Father’s promise about which I have spoken to you.  John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit within a few days’ (Acts 1:4-5).  This was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2).  We could say that Peter started walking abreast with the Holy Spirit from the day of Pentecost.

But despite all that Jesus taught Peter and the other apostles, they initially thought that the Good News of salvation was meant for only the Jews.  So they initially focused on converting only Jews.  But in today’s first reading, Peter overcame his ignorance and walked hand-in-hand with the Holy Spirit, who inspired him to realize that God, who is love (second reading), shows no partiality (Acts 10:34-35); and that baptism and salvation are meant for all (Jews and Greeks) who believe (Acts 10:35, 47).  Thus, it took Peter and the others some time to realize that ‘GOD WANTS ALL TO BE SAVED AND COME TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH’ (1 Tim. 2:4).

Beloved if we are already walking abreast with the Holy Spirit, we can also, like St. Peter, begin to walk hand-in-hand  with the Spirit, provided:
- We are convinced that God shows no partiality . . .;
- We translate this conviction into doing away with prejudices and discriminations (e.g. racism, nepotism, “part-centrism” [whereby only political party members are economically and socially favoured], tribalism [for instance, families of different tribes in Ghana may not allow their children to marry; in this sense is it not an irony that we would readily marry our daughter to an European, because of the material gains?]);
- We demonstrate a love that is universal and unconditional.

CONCLUSION:

Beloved, I pray that:
- if we have lost sight of the Spirit, probably because we are not even doing half of what the yet-to-be-Christian Cornelius was doing, the Spirit will give us a fresh start, like a friend who drives his car off the road to wait of us to catch up . . .;
- if we have not lost sight of the Spirit but we are far behind his ‘lead’, we will double up our steps by doing all that Cornelius did; and
- if we are abreast with the Spirit, we shall begin to walk hand-in-hand, like St. Peter, by opening up more and more to the enlightenment and unconditional love that He pours out into our hearts.  Amen.

By Very Rev. Fr. John Louis

The bigger the sacrifice, the greater the miracle

An angel prevents the sacrifice of Isaac. Abraham and Isaac, Rembrandt, 1634

An angel prevents the sacrifice of Isaac. Abraham and Isaac, Rembrandt, 1634

Theme: The bigger the sacrifice, the greater the miracle
2nd Sunday of Lent

Some Businessmen and women say that ‘the bigger the risk, the higher the returns’ (on the investment). For instance, if one saves his/her GHc 1,000.00 in a risk free savings account in a bank in Ghana at an interest rate of 5% per annum he/she gets a return of only GHc 50.00 at the end of the year. On the other hand, if he/she takes the risk of investing in some other business, the annual return on the investment may be GHc 2,000.00 or more.

Similarly, the readings of this Sunday of Lent suggest the theme of this homily: ‘the Bigger the Sacrifice, the Greater the Miracle.’

Abram [Abraham] took the risk of leaving his fatherland and his place of comfort, and God blessed him with a new land – the Promised Land. Again, he risked his faith in Yahweh, and he was blessed with a miracle: a son, Isaac, given birth to by the centenarian’s ninety-year old wife, Sarah. Now [according to today’s first reading, Gen. 22], to be blessed with the greater miracle of becoming the father of many nations, Abraham had to take the greater risk of sacrificing his only beloved son, Isaac. Abraham took the risk, and today Jews and non-Jews [including you and I] refer to him as our father in faith.

Similarly behind today’s gospel reading’s story of the transfiguration is the message that ‘the Bigger the Sacrifice, the Greater the Miracle.’ About two-and-half years before the transfiguration, Jesus, at the Sea of Galilee, asked Peter and his colleagues to make a sacrifice: to offer him their boat as a ‘pulpit’ for Jesus [and this was on a bad day of fishing expedition by Peter and co. But they didn’t lament nor tell Jesus off.] They made the sacrifice there, and in the end they enjoyed the miracle of probably the biggest fish catch in their fishing career! [And this happened during the day time and not when it was dark as required for fishing!] Jesus soon asked for another sacrifice: Peter and co were to leave the source of their livelihood and become fishers of MEN. Because they made this bigger sacrifice, they witnessed greater miracles as they followed Jesus: multiplication of loaves, sights given to the blind, lame made to walk, the dead raised to life…. But the greatest miracle was yet to come!

The greatest miracle entailed the resurrection of Jesus, the transfiguration of our deaths, Peter and co becoming ‘princes’ in heaven, and all of us becoming citizens of heaven! This required the greatest sacrifice! And only one person could fittingly offer that sacrifice: Jesus, the Son of God; he had to die for our sins. And so about a week before the transfiguration, when Peter had identified Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God, the disciples were told by the Lord of his impending suffering, death and resurrection. The disciples, esp. Peter, could not take in this message. So, on the mount of transfiguration they tasted, for a short while, the glorious miracle which followed the greatest sacrifice! Beloved, because of the greatest sacrifice of Jesus, you and I have access to the greatest miracle: our death shall be transfigured, not for a while, but for eternity, not on an earthly mountain, but in the glorious heaven itself! Let us prepare to celebrate this Easter with a special sense of gratitude to Jesus, and to his Father [who like Abraham offered his only beloved Son], and to the Holy Spirit [who gives us the faith to appreciate and accept these mysteries]! Amen!

By Very Rev. Fr. John Louis