4th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B. By Tobe Eze

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B.

FIRST READING
Deuteronomy 18:15—20

SECOND READING
1 Corinthians 7:32—35

GOSPEL
Mark 1:21—28

THEME: IMITATION FOR GOOD

Be imitators of me as I am an imitator of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1). Words of St. Paul. There is this saying that, “imitation is limitation”. My question now is, one who imitates Christ, is the one having any limitation? Christ himself is a perfection and imitating him is imitating perfection. What may be the limitation we may have in imitating him?

The first reading points to the Messiah who is to come. Moses was telling the Israelites the type of prophet and saviour that God will be sending them, the one that will rule them forever. The Gospel is the pure practical example and the blueprint of what the prophet is. Jesus live a celibate and chaste life and also, when praises came to him, he shunned it for he knew that the glory that will come at last will be more than that one that was coming from the evil spirit. And the second reading tells us to imitate the ways of the Messiah. In the verse one of the 1Corinthians 7, St. Paul started it will these words, “it is better to remain single but due to the immortality in the world, one man, one wife”. Continue Reading.................................

What and what are we to imitate?

The first is for those who can do it. Matthew 19:12 making yourself eunuch because of the kingdom of God. Christ did not marry and all his attention was directed towards his work. It is from this background that Paul set out his mission of talking about married and unmarried. Married man or woman has divided attention but unmarried has all his/her attentions are to God. It is not that those married do not worship God effectively, they worship him in the type of vocation they have chosen, likewise those who are unmarried, and they worship God in the vocation they have also chosen. Imitating Christ here both married and unmarried is just being faithful to the vocation you have chosen. “oke choro izu umu ya, wepu anya n’ ejirir kwue onya”. If you are married, carry out your responsibilities as a married person and if you are unmarried, carry out your duties as unmarried. By doing these, we are imitating Christ.

The second thing we are to imitate from Christ is, “In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!" Jesus rebuked him and said, "Quiet! Come out of him!" Our good deeds will locate us and also our bad deeds will also locate us. Jesus did not want the unclean spirit to give him all those ephemeral praises. If it were to be you or even my own self, we will like both Holy Spirit, Evil Spirit and human beings to praise and recognize us on a little thing we do. After casting the unclean spirit out, the news went viral and he was known for his good deeds. If we channel our attentions to God and learn from Christ not to look for praises in all we do or even accept when people give them to us, we are going to travel far. After the miracle done by Paul and Barnabas, they wanted to offer sacrifice to them but they did not accept that Acts 12:14. After feeding the five thousand, they wanted to crown Christ, but he withdrew (John 6:15). After all, when the appointed time came, Paul and Barnabas were crowned by our heavenly father and also Christ after all was raised up above every other name. (Philippians 2:10).

A certain man likes praises once he has done something, no matter how little it is. He likes people to talk about him in every corner and angle of the street. His stories travel far and near in anything he does. He carries himself as the Lord of the earth. Anywhere he passes, people talk about him on his achievements. One day as a human being he is, he was caught by some boys with a certain girl kissing at night beside his car at the road side. That same story as other stories of his travelled far and near. Wherever he passes, people will start from his strength and end with that his mistake. He tried all he could to remove that bad aspect of the story, but it was not easy for him, because he has been bragging with his good stories.

The story went out like that because, he has been allowing himself to be praised by every existing spirit and being. People will always like to broadcast that type of news about a public figure. Let us try to bring ourselves low so that our good deeds will make us known like Jesus, even when we make mistake, people will understand us.

Jesus took our nature and did all that we do except sinning. He did not sin in anyway. Let us imitate him by avoiding sin and embracing holiness. Imitating Christ is an imitation for good. Let us pray today to imitate Christ, live like him, die like him, resurrect like him and join him forever in heaven. THANKS AND HAPPY SUNDAY.