S'up? (Page 16)

Soldier of Salvation Exodus 17:8-13; 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2; Luke 18:1-8 There was a village in Cameroon, in years gone by, where anyone caught stealing received the mark of what he/she stole on the forehead. There were two men who stole a sheep, and they were caught. ST= “Sheep Thief” was written on their foreheads. One of the two men was too ashamed to remain in the village, so he migrated from the village. The other man stayed on and tried to change his ways. He became a very charitable and humble man. Many years down the road, children who were born after the incident andRead More →

The Forgotten Battle: The Salvation of the Soul 2 Kings 5:14-17; 2 Timothy 2:8-13; Luke 17:11-19 Samaria, the capital of Israel, came into international prominence with the Assyrian invasion and the exile of Israelites to Nineveh in 721 B.C. In those days, when a capital city and its king are captured, the battle is over with. So, like most capitals of many nations, to conquer Israel, its capital Samaria had to fall. The difference, however, was that the destruction of Samaria, by the Assyrians, was more than a material destruction, the destruction was aimed at her soul and mind, the transplantation of a new mindsetRead More →

A Call to Fidelity: Be Part of the Solution, Not the Problem! Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4; 2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14; Luke 17:5-10 There was a poor couple whose house was made of thatch and situated by the road side. They did not have bathroom and toilet inside the house, but a latrine and a bathroom behind the house. As good Christians, they were very hospitable to all strangers. As a matter of fact, many people had warned them against their hospitality to strangers because of the possible danger of taking in robbers and brigands. One day, a stranger arrived at their door at midnight seeking shelterRead More →

Bring in Lazarus: Taking Care of the Sin of Omission Amos 6:1a, 4-7; 1 Timothy 6:11-16; Luke 16:19-31 I have a problem: how do the readings of this Sunday talk to me? I am neither rich nor poor. Even the rich and the poor of our reading, we are not told what their sins are: neither poverty nor riches is the reason for what happened to them. Don’t get me wrong, I know what poverty looks and feels like, not so much wealth. I read theories about how the rich exploit the poor, and I see the churning gap between the possibilities that the richRead More →

    “United we stand, together we fall” Amos 8:4-7; 1 Timothy 2: 1-8; Luke 16:1-13 or 16:10-13 The prophet Amos is popularly know as the prophet who promoted social justice bringing to the fore the oppression and exploitation of the poor. Today’s first reading gives credence to this opinion, and Pope Francis lends support to the crusade for workers’ rights and the rights of poor people. Amos argues that the rich reduced the worth of the poor to mere objects: “We will buy the lowly for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals”. This state of affairs was what attracts God’s punishment,Read More →

Cross: God’s language of love Wisdom 9:13-18; Philemon 9-10, 12-17; Luke 14:25-33 A Buddhist monk once offered this idea to a young person solicitous of making good progress in spirituality: “start out early, travel light, arrive safely”. In a more expatiated form, a person who desires something has to start out early in search of the desired object. In order for the search to be successful, unnecessary encumbrances have to be avoided, this is the meaning of “traveling light.” Having begun early and traveling light, the wayfarer will arrive safely. The advice given by the Buddhist monk shows that there is no culture and peopleRead More →

Charitable Deeds Sunday Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29; Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24a; Luke 14:1, 7-14 Growing up in northern Nigeria, it was a taboo to be a debtor; my parents wouldn’t accept that. We, my siblings and myself, were taught contentment with whatever meager resources we had, especially finances. The implication of this lesson was that no one spent the money he didn’t earn or have. North America taught me a different lesson: here, everybody is a debtor, including self-acclaimed rich people like Donald Trump. In fact, being a debtor is a good thing out here, because one has a credit history and can even have goodRead More →

Strategies for Heaven Isaiah 66:18-21; Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13; Luke 13:22-30 Make no mistake about it, the gate to life, to the kingdom of God, is not narrow! Am I challenging the gospel reading of today? Not at all! I am simply saying that adages and idiomatic expressions have more connotations than the denotations of the words in which they are crafted. Jesus’ admonition, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate,” leaves open the question of what and who make the “gate narrow”. Our common life experiences show that “gates” are made in the dimension and to the proportion of whatever is expected to go throughRead More →

There is always salvation for those who wait on the Lord! Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10; Hebrews 12:1-4; Luke 12:49-53 In an age of political correctness, the desire to say just what people want to hear and not to offend others, does the truth still have a place in our polity and religious life? What is the role of faith and religion in a secularized and modernized world? These are serious questions to be asked, if religion, particularly Christianity, will be relevant to our contemporary world. In the so-called first-world, issues like abortion, euthanasia, same-sex union, gun control and eugenics are considered no-go-area, especially for religious interventionRead More →