S'up? (Page 46)

Bringing God Back into our Lives Isaiah 49:14-15; 1 Corinthians 4:1-5; Matthew 6:24-34 Our topic for this eighth Sunday sounds ironic, “Bringing God Back into Our Lives.” Our topic sounds like the statement of a woman who kept saying to her husband, “God is the answer,” and her husband said to her, “what is the question”? Good enough for us, we have the question of the week, from our first reading: “Sion said, the Lord has abandoned me.” This sounds like an old marriage, when the memories of honey moon, the nuptial guests and the gifts are all gone. It sounds like a woman inRead More →

God made you in order for you to Create yourself! Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18; 1 Corinthians 3:16-23; Matthew 5:38-48 Every student of political theory knows the importance of social contracts and laws. Laws come from a society’s decision that there are some things individuals cannot do for themselves, and that there things that are better achieved and achievable as a group than individually. For instance, human beings have realized that they have to live with other human beings, and in order to live together, laws are necessary so that the strongest will not prey on the weakest. In this regard, laws are the building blocks ofRead More →

The Intelligence of the World and the Wisdom of God: Love is the only Law! Sirach 15:15-20; 1 Cor 2:6-10; Matthew 5:17-35 There are many ways to kill a rat, the saying goes; today, there are humane ways of doing it and a reckless way. All roads lead to Rome, according to the Romans, but all rails lead to the sea, according to the Africans’ experience of colonial railways. All peoples have their wisdom, but there is only one Wisdom of God that leads to God – the Wisdom revealed by Jesus Christ. This Wisdom of God is our subject. The combination of two GreekRead More →

Isaiah 58:7-10; 1 Corinthians 2:1-5; Matthew 5:13-16 Be who you are – Light of the World and Salt of the Earth A hunter went hunting and came upon an eagle’s nest with eggs in it. He took the eggs home and mixed them with those of an incubating free range hen. The innocent hen hatched all her eggs, thinking she had only chicks. One day, while she was foraging with her chicks, one of them, an eaglet, asked her about those creatures flying up in the sky, and why shouldn’t he do the same. The hen said, those are birds, they can fly, we can’t.Read More →

Zephaniah 2:3; 3:12-13; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31; Matthew 5:1-12a Beatitudes Building the Kingdom of God on Earth In an age of democracy, three elements are indispensable for the building of the human polity: 1) party-politics, 2) manifestos, and 3) capitalism. Individuals join different political parties on the basis of their philosophies and conviction; worse case scenario, politicians join the winning party or the political party that guarantees thievery as part of its unwritten laws. From these political parties emerge beautiful and hopeful manifestos, even though delivering on those manifestos is a different question. Finally, the deification of money or capital is key to democracy. Beautiful slogans,Read More →

Isaiah 8:23-9:3-1; 1 Cor 1:10-13, 17; Matthew 4:12-23 “Come follow me . . . ” One thing is sure: God’s call to discipleship has no age limit. Samuel was called as a young kid to serve the Lord. In today’s gospel, adults and parents were called to follow Christ. The unanimous message to be proclaimed by those called is the proximity of the kingdom of God. Also, some sacrifices are expected of all those called: “abandonment” of one’s job and loved ones, in order to be available for evangelization! What kind of God asks his followers to “abandon” their families and jobs to follow him? Is GodRead More →

Isaiah 49:3, 5-6; 1 Corinthians 1:1-3; John 1:29-34 Being Ordinary in “Ordinary Time” of the Church The partying and festivities are over, it’s time to start working again, no wonder it is called the “Ordinary Time”: it will take a while before (Extra-Ordinary Time or Festive Time) Easter and Christmas come around again and, then, we can party and celebrate. Even at that, my favorite part of partying and celebration is not the clean-up after the party, like the sweeping and rearrangement of the house after Christmas or wedding. I would rather be the guest the travels back to town and leave behind the cleaningRead More →

Isaiah 60:1-6; Ephesians 3:2-3a, 4-6; Matthew 2:1-22 The Return of Christianity: Restoring God’s Fatherhood of Humanity When one sees the number of church structures and church goers in the southern half of the geographic location called Nigeria, one is full of praises and admiration for the legacies of all Christian missionaries who brought Christianity to Africa in general, and Nigeria in particular. The missionary enterprises of the past leave behind them solid and visible vestiges of their passage on the terrains of Nigeria – visible church and school structures. These vestiges, I dare say, are virtually becoming effigies of Christian past, although they are notRead More →

Numbers 6:22-27; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21 Happy New Year, 2017: When Change Becomes a Blessing Philosophers pride themselves in discovering that “change is the only thing permanent or constant,” but theologians mock their ignorance because they fail to know that God does not change. Scientists celebrate every discovery and innovation, Christians wait patiently for education to catch up with the knowledge of God. Universities keep multiplying, but common sense is as rare as ever. Wealth and money increase by the day, but poverty kills more people today than every before. More Nobel prizes are won today, but violence and strive show no signs of abating,Read More →

“Peace on Earth”: Every Life is Worth Celebrating and Defending Isaiah talks about the “beautiful feet” of those who announce the good tiding of peace to Israel. But what are human feet, when those feet belong to cadavers? What is the usefulness of voices, when human bodies are lifeless. What is the usefulness of a piece of good news to a ghost town? Announcing that “your God reigns” shows the importance of a people to be ruled to the reign of a king. Not to have subjects is to undermine and change the meaning of rulership and kingship. All these hing on the presence andRead More →