11th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year B. By Tobe Eze

1.       Slavery from within is the worst slavery on earth. Tobe Eze.

11th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year B.

FIRST READING

Ezekiel 17:22-24

SECOND READING

2 Corinthians 5:6-10

GOSPEL

Mark 4:26-34

THEME: FREEDOM WITH RESPONSIBILITIES.

Many things were the problems of the medieval period and early modern philosophers. These problems many of them worked tirelessly to proffer solutions to them. Out of those problems, two were prominent and drew attention of many of them and these two were, THE EXISTENCE OF GOD and THE PROBLEM OF EVIL.  Problem of evil is the main point that questions the existence of God. Continue Reading..................

The problem of evil is put in the following ways: (a) Is God willing to prevent evil but not able, then he is not omnipotent, (b) Is he able but not willing, then he is malevolent, (c) Is he both able and willing then whence comes evil? David Hume puts the argument in a form of a dilemma. According to him, "evil can exist only if God wills or allows it. But if he wills or allows it, this means either that He cannot prevent it, because He is not omnipotent, or that He does not want to prevent it because He is not infinitely good". The free will dense adds a fourth premise to Epicurean paradox to make the premises consistent and non-contradictory. It says: it is logically impossible for God to create free creatures and guarantee that they will never do evil. It is this our free will that we are talking about. Let us look at it in the readings of today.

In the first reading, God through the prophet Ezekiel said, “Thus says the Lord GOD:  I, too, will take from the crest of the cedar, from its topmost branches tear off a tender shoot, and plant it on a high and lofty mountain; on the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it.  It shall put forth branches and bear fruit, and become a majestic cedar”. After God must have finished planting, it is left for the plant to grow and bear the type of fruit it wishes to bear.

The Second reading St. Paul said “Therefore, we aspire to please him, whether we are at home or away.  For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense, according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil”. Whatever we choose to be is how we will be paid.

The gospel finished the whole thing through the first parable. God is only to plant and he goes to wait for it to grow. He does not force what he planted to grow in this way or the other but whichever way the plant chooses to grow and whichever fruit it chooses to bear, it should be answerable for it.

The problem of evil is not from God but from us human beings. St. Augustine said it is the privation of good. The absence of good. And so on. The problem of evil is product of how we use our free will. It is when we make wrong use of our choices. We were given free will when we were created and it is expected that we use it very well to bear positive fruit. If we fail to use it properly, we will be answerable to it. We have the freedom to choose between good and evil and we are advised to choose good and leave evil because it will end us up in the eternal damnation. It is only righteousness that will save. We should try and produce a good fruit that will merit us heaven. Let us not be counterproductive. It pays to be good that to be bad. Those questions above about the evil is answered by our free will. We are free but have many responsibilities attached to it. We are free but we should be reasonable. THANKS AND HAPPY SUNDAY.