FRIDAY 20TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B. By Tobe Eze

FRIDAY 20^TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B.

1^ST READING: EZEKIEL 37:1-14

GOSPEL: MATTHEW 22:34-40

THEME: HOPE IN GOD, ALL HOPES ARE NOT LOST.

If the Lord had made the dry bones in the valley to regain life, we still have hope. If Jesus could silence both the Pharisees and Sadducees, we still have hope.

The only problem we have or we are having sometimes is that we always like God to do our wills in our own time not God’s will in his own time. Jesus has never forsaken anyone who trusted in him. If we really trust in him this day, he will raise our dry bones and silence our enemies. In that our worst situations, let us remember that with God everything is possible and we must bear in mind that the will of God is the first.

A woman had a sick child. The woman was always praying for the will of God to be done in her child’s life. One day the sickness was rising and getting worst. She continued praying for the will of God to take place. When she noticed that the child was dying she changed the prayer immediately. God if this is your will, let it not be done. The child latter died and the woman took it that God is disappointing. Latter she conceived again and gave birth to twins and that time she noticed that the will of God was right in the life of that dead child and God has visited her in the time of the Lord not her own time.

It is this our always seeking for our own wills that cause our losing of faith and hope in God. God is assuring us today that no matter our situations, he can still show us that he is the Lord our God who can raise and give life to dry bones and silence our enemies. Thanks.

THURSDAY 20TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B. By Tobe Eze

THURSDAY 20^TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B.

1^ST READING: EZEKIEL 36:23-28

GOSPEL: MATTHEW 22:1-14

THEME: THINGS ARE READY WHERE WE ARE INVITED, WHERE ARE WE?

God in the first reading tells us that he will make us his people and he will be our God. He will prepare a home for us where hearts of flesh will be not hearts of stone. Hearts that know mercy and compassion.

In the gospel, he has already prepared it for us but we are not forth coming. What is that that is taking us out of God’s banquet? School, family, work, business, friends, relations and every other things or persons or places? Any of them that is doing that should leave us alone before he burns us up. A question needs to be asked about the man without wedding garment. Was it his fault, for he was just called at the late hour? He was on his own not preparing for any wedding and they called him and they did not give him time to go and prepare. The truth here is that, this is how our death will be to us. When we are not ready to die. We can see what happened to the man that was not ready. We have to be ready at any time, any day, anywhere for we do not the year, month, week, day, hour, minute and second that banquet we will enjoy will come. No excuse. Thanks.

WEDNESDAY 20TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B. By Tobe Eze

WEDNESDAY 20^TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B.

1^ST READING: EZEKIEL 34:1-11

GOSPEL: MATTHEW 20:1-16A

THEME: WHAT IS OUR WORK?

Parents, community leaders, government rulers, church leaders, school leaders, doctors, nurses and every form of leadership. What is our work?

God in the first reading is not happy with us about the way we handle those he has given us to take care of. God is rebuking us today. We are now feeding on the sheep that we should be feeding. We have left the point, the focus, and our work and are now doing another thing.

Just like in the gospel, the labourers who left their works and started questioning the one who hired them about his generosity. We sacrifice our works on the altar of worthless things. Let us remain focus in our works that God has given us to do. He is not happy with us on the way we handle it and he is going to take them away from us and we know what that means. Let us make hare while the sun is still shining. Ka anyi were ehihie chuwa ewu oji tupu chi ejie. Let us go back to our duty post and do our works diligently and God will reward us according to his will not our own wills as he did in the gospel. Thanks.

TUESDAY 20TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B. By Tobe Eze

TUESDAY 20^TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B.

1^ST READING: EZEKIEL 28:1-10

GOSPEL: MATTHEW 19:23-30

THEME: THE DANDER OF RICHNESS.

Richness in money, wisdom, people, intellect, sin and so on can bring us downfall. Igbos say, okwa nwa nza rijuo afo, ochere chi kere ya aka mgba. When one is rich in any form, one will think that he/she is above the heaven. In his riches, man lacks wisdom (Psalm 49:13).

Responsorial Psalm says, I kill and I make alive. God is the one who gives us all these gifts except the richness of sin. If God has the power to give us all these gifts, don’t we think he has the power also to take them away from us? Why then do we brag with them? God told Ezekiel to go and tell the house Israel or to remind them that they are not gods, he has power to do whatever he wills to then even in that their richness. Their richness moved them away from God and it is same today with us.

In the gospel, Jesus talked again about the danger of richness. How hard it will be for the rich to enter heaven. If we allow our richness of any form to influence us, then it will be easier for Carmel to go through the eye of a needle than we going into heaven. In any way or any form that we are rich, let it not move us away from God. The danger of richness is that it makes us lose focus. Thanks.

MONDAY 20TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B. By Tobe Eze

MONDAY 20^TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B.

1^ST READING: EZEKIEL 24:15-24

GOSPEL: MATTHEW 19:16-22

THEME: THE PROBLEM OF PLEASURE.

It is never difficult to get or start a pleasurable act or something but the problem is how to stop it. The only problem of pleasure is how to stop it. Obughi ikunye enwe mmiri bu nsogbu kama inata ya iko. It is how to stop our actions that are not good is the problem and now how to start them. The Israelites since ages, God has been warning them, giving them all sorts of signs to leave their evil ways but it was and is a very difficult task for them. This is not the problem of only the Israelites of the old but the present Israelites which are us.

The rich man in the gospel could not take the teaching of Jesus because it touched his comfort zone. Richness in the Bible may not literarily mean wealth but richness in sin. Some of us who are wealthy are saints and some who are poor are devils and still the other way round. It is the richness in sin that God is talking about. Israelites grew in sin to the extent that God could not only talk to them but demonstrated it for them, also Jesus demonstrated the same for us and he is still demonstrating it for us to repent. That our pleasurable actions that do not give praise to God, we should work around the clock to stop it. We should work tooth and nail to leave them and heaven will be ours. It is difficult but not impossible. We should just make serious effort and God will help for he counts efforts and not result. Thanks.

SATURDAY 19TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B. By Tobe Eze

SATURDAY 19^TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B.

1^ST READING: EZEKIEL 18:1-10. 13B. 30-32

GOSPEL: MATTHEW 19:13-15

THEME: YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN.

Njo nna n’ eso nwa is now only a human concept but not God. It is wrong for it may make the child to continue in the sins of the father if the child knows that sins of his father or even forefathers will follow him/her. Many sins mentioned in the first reading touched the whole of our being. They touched the sins of omission which we often forget. Sometimes, it is these sins of omission that we commit most and we do not count them as sins. The catholic greeting, Onye jisie ike, orue alaeze, ma onye gbakata kwuru, the answer from time immemorial has been, nke ogbara agba ala n’ iyi. Changing it to nwanne ya enyere ya aka contradicts the first reading of today. We should bear in mind that before God, we must answer for ourselves. No one will suffer for our sins except us. Onweghi onye ga enyere anyi aka to face our punishment or enjoyment which means we must continue to work for ourselves without ceasing. It is a personal game not a group thing. We will face it alone. The earlier we realize this the better for us.

In the gospel, Jesus said, the kingdom of God is for those who have childlike heart. Childlike heart is a heart that do not think of any sin at all talk more of looking for another who will suffer for the consequences on their behalf. They do only things that will please their elders and that we should emulate to do things that please our God. Clean heart and a pure spirit is what every child of God should have. We must have that on our individual basis not in common, before we get heaven. That father had does not mean children should relax, onye na way ya. That father has a good heart and son/daughter is evil will not save you. It is our personal and individual death. My Death by Martin Heidegger. Thanks.

FRIDAY 19TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B. By Tobe Eze

FRIDAY 19^TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B.

1^ST READING: EZEKIEL 16:1-15. 60. 63.

GOSPEL: MATTHEW 19:3-12

THEME: DIVORCE OF GOD.

It is no longer a new teaching that God and Church have no room for divorce in any valid wedding. So we are going to look at another divorce which connects us to the first reading.

After all that God did for the Israelites from their birth to their youthful age, they had the got to leave their God to follow other gods. After all a husband has done for and to her wife, the wife had the got to follow another man and at the end, divorce the husband. Also placing it the other way round on men. We divorce God in many places, things and occasions we do or go in our lives. When we private good things as St, Augustine said, evil will come in. When we leave the good things we ought to do and do bad things, in that way, we divorce God. God is calling us today and begging us not to divorce him again. What God has joined together through baptism, no sin should put asunder. We should remain on him. Thanks.

THURSDAY 19TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B. By Tobe Eze

THURSDAY 19^TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B.

1^ST READING: EZEKIEL 12:1-12

GOSPEL: MATTHEW 18:21, -19:1

THEME: DO NOT KILL THE SPIRIT OF FORGIVENESS.

The Lord got tired of the sins of the house of Israel and he was looking for any way possible to save them. He sent them many prophets but they did not heed to what they were saying. Now he is demonstrating what is to befall them but still they remained adamant. When he gets tired of all these things, destruction will follow. The Israelites we talk about is no more the Israelites of old but we that live in this generation.

In the gospel, Jesus gave us the mandate to forgive without ceasing but some do push people to the wall of killing the spirit of forgiveness in them just like the Israelites in the first reading. Think of the servant who was forgiven of the greater debt he owed, he went ahead to punish another who owed him without thinking about the grace he received and the consequences of the act. The forgiveness granted him was withdrawn immediately. The spirit of forgiveness towards him was killed by his own hands.

That we are bound to forgive is not a guarantee for us to continue to offend each other. God said we must forgive in other to be forgiven but we should also know that we are all human beings. If we remain adamant continuing to offend and provoke our neighbours or we behave like that wicked servant in the gospel, we may lose the chance of being forgiven if we do not make amend on time. As we expect others to forgive us when we sin against them, let us not also kill the spirit of forgiveness in them. Again, we are expected also to forgive as we expect forgiveness from others 7 times 70. Thanks.

WEDNESDAY 19TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B. By Tobe Eze

WEDNESDAY 19^TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B.

1^ST READING: EZEKIEL 9:1-7; 10:18-22

GOSPEL: MATTHEW 18:15-20

THEME: THOSE WHO GATHER IN HIS NAME WILL BE GIVEN THE MARK.

After seeing all that he saw in the first reading, it was obvious to him that it is only those who refute evils that will receive the mark of salvation and those who will receive the mark will be saved.

In the gospel, at the last sentence of it, it is stated, where two or more gather in my name, I will be with them. The church is the community of the people of God and people of God should be those who refute evil no matter the situation at hand. It is not easy to refute it but it is not impossible. The words of the last sentence of the gospel should be our consolation. If we really gather in his name, we shall be given the mark of salvation.

The problem is that some of us do not gather in his name rather we gather for something else. We place Jesus or his church as a refugee camp or even as a secondary saviour. When we must have given reverence to other gods then we will remember that he said he will be with us when we gather in his name. uka obuleka Jesu. A woman who worshiped Ugwube (A Deity) in my place. She got converted, but each time she is faced with danger she shouts Ugwube, she was asked to be using Jesus instead of Ugwube. So, when next something happened to her, she shouted Ugwube obuleka Jesu that is Ugwube! I mean Jesus. She remembers Jesus when she must have shouted Ugwube. We should not forget his name for what so ever reason. We should strive to make sure that we do gather in his name in truth so that the mark that will save us from eternal damnation will be given to us. No one who has no mark will be saved, we should always work to get the mark. Exodus account can be an example for us, the departure of the Israelites (Exodus 12:13). Thanks.

TUESDAY 19TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B. By Tobe Eze

TUESDAY 19^TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B.

1^ST READING: EZEKIEL 2:8. 3:4

GOSPEL: MATTHEW 18:1-5. 10. 12-14

THEME: BE OPEN TO LIFE.

Ezekiel had not known what the scroll was before eating it, he ate it and noticed that it was as sweet as honey. Uwa bu ahia akpa. He was open to face what will come out of it and the result was very good.

In the gospel, Christ asks us to be like children who are always very much open to change in life. They do not have a rigid way of life that deprives them opportunity to change. Change in a child is always built on humility. If a child is humble, that child can adjust in any situation that he/she finds him/herself. But an arrogant child will like to maintain one even when it is causing more harm than good.

If we are humble, we will welcome changes in our situations. A lady was married to a family, her behaviour was not all that welcomed there, so she started adjusting to fit in into the family system for she knew that that will only solve the problem. It was born out of humility. If it were to be a proud one, she would have asked them to take her behaviour or leave it. We must learn how to be humble like children in order to accept situations and adjust to situations that come to us. Do not be too rigid or watertight. Be liberal to a reasonable extent. Pope Francis is a liberal Pope and we are benefiting from it. One who is not open will find it difficult to cope with life. C.P Varkey (SJ) said, “Accept what you cannot change and change what you can change”. And this can only be achieved by being open to life. Thanks.