6th Sunday of Easter Year A By Tobe Eze

6th Sunday of Easter Year A

FIRST READING
Acts 8:5—8, 14—17

SECOND READING
1 Peter 3:15—18

GOSPEL
John 14:15—21

THEME: ACTIONS SPEAK MORE THAN WORDS.

Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct in Christ may themselves be put to shame. From the second reading.

A story by Mark Link says: An Angel was going with fire in the right hand and water in the left hand. When the Angel met a man, the man asked the angel what he will be doing with those items. And the Angel replied; I will use the fire to destroy the kingdom of heaven and water to quench the fire in the hell fire so that, there will not be any reward for the righteous and wicked, through this he may know those who love God. This little story will usher us in into what the first and second reading and the Gospel are telling us today. Jesus told his disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Some of claim to love God only because they need reward from him and it is manifest in one of the names we call him. Etoo dike na nke omere omekwa ọzọ. We no longer praise God for his good but to receive more blessings from him. We do not do charity because it is good but to receive after the act. We measure the charity we do with the reward we will get in return. We always ask; How far can I go before I sin? How much can I steal before I sin gravely? How little can I give and still satisfy my Christian obligation? But we should focus more on; What more can I do to help? We should ask our neighbours is there anything you need? Don’t hesitate to call me at any time. This is the service we see when there is love. Continue Reading

As Christians, we ought to love God and one another with all our hearts, minds, souls and bodies. This love we talk about is a love that manifests in our daily life activities. This type of love is the love that Philip had towards the people of Samaria. Philip went down to Samaria (because of love) to give them the message of salvation, to show them the way. Peter in the second reading asked us to defend our faith, defend what we believe in with prudence. Where there is no love, prudence cannot also be there, so, Peter on his own side is also emphasizing on that same love. We should bear in mind that defending our faith should not be like the Muslims who kill in other to defend their faith in Mohamed. It is a defense done with and in love.

This love that we talk about in the world of today, it is more theoretical than practical. People will be parading themselves as Christians but in their hearts live all sort of evil. We will come out to say, we Christians are known for love, we obey the commandments of God. But to be more sincere with ourselves, we should just know that we are obeying the commandments of gods not God. For instance; We praise our fellow Christian before him knowing full well that the person is one the wrong side. We will continue to tell the person, go on you are the best while we know that the way the person is taking leads to doom. When the person fails, then we will laugh at the one and say that he/she is a fool. This is what we do to our leaders, when they come to visit us, we will prepare a wonderful address showing that since the person got to the position, all our problems have gone. After telling the person all these things, then he will go saying, OK this people are comfortable with this situation, why do I worry about works again. Let me gather for myself. Since they do not complain I will continue with the little I am doing. And after we will complain about them. Tell them the truth and shame the devil. Whether they work with it or not, just tell them the truth. This is a practical way to show love and defending our faith. It is difficult but we must stand on the right path. Anyị aga-egi maka mgbagbu ghara ọgụ? No!

Philip showed the words that he preached to the Samaritans in his works and they followed him. Peter tells us today, to live out the faith we profess. And Jesus himself promised us that if we live the faith out, he and the father will come to be with us. Defending our faith these days is no more by quoting Bible from Genesis to revelation but after quoting, live it out. Ọbụghị soro okwu mụ esola omume mụ. It is no more the time of telling people negidenu Chineke anya, negidenu nzọmụụkwụ ya anya. Look unto God, look unto his footsteps. We Christians are the Gods of today. People should have trust in us. People should follow us also. We should be role models to people. We deceive people a lot. Metaphysis teaches us that appearance is not reality but Christ teaches us that our appearance should be our reality. Let our yes be yes and our no be no, anything apart from this comes from the evil one (Matthew 5:37). Let us today learn how to live out our faith in Christ Jesus, not only in words but more in action. ACTIONS SPEAK MORE THAN WORDS. THANKS AND HAPPY SUNDAY.

To see more http://tobeeze.blogspot.com