MONDAY OCTOBER 14, 2024
MONDAY OF THE TWENTY EIGHTH WEEK OF THE ORDINARY TIME B
St Callistus I, Pp. M. (Opt. Mem.)
Galatians4:22-24.26-27.31-5:1
Luke 11:29-32
FOLLOWING AND LIVING OUT THE GREAT MYSTERY OF OUR SALVATION.
Because of the selfishness of man, the clamour for signs and wonders continues down through the centuries. Every generation has witnessed the same hunt and clamour for signs and wonders in religion. So the demand for signs and wonders which again Jesus frown at in today’s gospel is yet another distraction from the great mystery of our redemption.
Instead of signs and wonders, Christ Jesus expects us to seek and be immensed in the great mystery of Christ suffering, death and resurrection in the likeness of Jonah’s experience. That Christ suffered, died and rose from the dead. That we must repose ourselves upon him and wait on him, repent of our sins and follow his ways and adhere to his teachings.
The gospel of today talks about Jesus warning the people against seeking signs and wonders. They followed Jesus and demanded signs from Jesus. This angered Jesus so much. He vowed that the only sign that will be given them is that of Jonah. Jesus even says that thus generation is an evil one. Hear him, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the men of Nineveh, so will the Son of man be to this generation.”
Jesus identifies this generation as an evil generation because it seeks signs and wonders. And in the place of seeking signs and wonders, Jesus proposes faith and conversion of heart as the alternatives. That just as the Queen of the south came to see the wisdom of Solomon and as the men of Nineveh repented and sought through conversion the face of God when the doom was announced to them, so also God demands faith and conversion of heart for all those who will be blessed, saved and gain salvation in Christ.
In our world where clamour for the extraordinary signs and the supernatural wonders hold sway, there is the unending display and boasting on the part of the workers of miracles and wonder to authenticate their beliefs of holding and displaying powers and supremacy before their ignorant congregants weighed down with numerous life problems, imagined and perceived. The devilish urge to gain empirical authentication to boost their faith is being fuelled by these pastors who appear as messiah for the people and tend to satisfy their hunger and quench their search for a firebrand, miracle filled worker under whose power all their problems in life will disappear supposedly.
So they abound many churches, miracle centres, adoration ministries even in the catholic church who give false hope, through their unconventional, abusive, and deceptive rituals and abracatabra in the name of Jesus to solve all the problems and difficulties their “clients” has brought to them. Some claim ownership of prophetic voice, miraculous powers, and all other forms of spiritual endowment.
The worse scenerio are those who have gone through the very studies and learning of the Catholic seminary formation for years, and have departed, bringing to disrepute all their learning and the wasted years, by being trapped in this same vain glory, self serving and deceptive rituals. They not only deceive the people, they also engage in abusing and thwarting by overly concorting their personal rites and rituals that are affronts to the real rites and spirit of the catholic faith in order to foster their personal agenda.
They turn the liturgical celebration into personal property and change, remove and add indiscriminately to their taste whatever suits them thereby pleasing themselves and abusing the churches rites.
All these are done with the evil intentions of standing out, and invariably confusing the gullible people, injecting in them a false theology, false sense of security and eventually taking them away from the practice of true religion.
The true religion is anchored on faith in Christ, faith in God and conversion of heart for all who are adherents. And the people are made slaves to these pastors and miracle worker and the become enslaved and hypnotized. We must not be slaves as Saint Paul cautions us in the first reading. We are born free beings, saved by grace and built in the spirit of Christ.
Faith in Christ is built on the sufferings, death and resurrection of Christ. It is the power active in the church, it is the summation of our salvation. It is the core of our salvation. When we anchor our lives on this suffering, death and resurrection of Christ, we gain blessings as determined by our Lord Jesus Christ and our salvation is sure and we will be free from all encumbrances of the evil one.
This faith will turn our lives for the better, and make us submit to grace, to divine initiative and to the power of the cross. In the death and resurrection of Christ lies the supreme power that brings conversion of heart, direction to a new life and peace of God’s kingdom.
This is better appreciated in the theology, teachings and practice of the Church. There is no better teacher than the church’s teaching. So faithfulness to the teachings of the Church is urged and is needed for salvation.
Let us be orthodox and shun all forms of innovations that detract and distract us from the original faith in the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ.
God our Father, your Son Jesus came to save us. By his suffering, death and resurrection we are saved, redeemed and brought back to you. Help us to anchor our faith in this mystery, and never be mislead or deceived. Grant us firmer faith and greater trust and humility in upholding this great mystery. And May our faith win us best and happiest life with assurance of eternal salvation through the same Christ our Lord
Fr Norbert Uchuno
