SUNDAY HOMILIES FOR YEAR A

By Fr Munachi E. Ezeogu, cssp

Homily for 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time - on the
Epistle
Home > Homilies > Year A > Sunday 4 Gospel

God Chose What Is Weak

Zephaniah 2:3;3:12-13 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 Matthew 5:1-12

The sex scandals in the church in America and elsewhere is an evil that
no one should try to understate or explain away. The people of God in
churches where they took pace reacted in various ways. Some reacted
with anger, others with sadness, and everyone felt betrayed. Many
people threatened to leave the church, saying that the church is nothing
but a bunch of hypocrites. Some actually left. That may not be the best
way to react to the crisis. In today’s second reading from the First Letter
to the Corinthians, Paul offers us another way of reacting to these
atrocities without losing our faith; a way that enables us to denounce
sex abuse in the church without throwing away the baby with the bath
water. The reading tells us that God knows how to write straight with
crooked pens; that God, in fact, prefers to write with crooked pens.

Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not

many of you were wise by human standards, not
many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to
shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world
to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and
despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to
nothing things that are, 29 so that no one might boast
in the presence of God (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).

Paul begins this section by inviting the Christians of Corinth to consider

their call. To be a Christian or a minister of the people of God in any
capacity is a call. It is God who takes the initiative and calls us to His
service. We sometimes find ourselves considering whether we should
remain in the church or not. We feel that it is up to us to decide to
follow Jesus or not. But Jesus tells us that the initiative to follow him
comes not from us but from God himself. “You did not choose me but
I chose you” (John 15:16), he says. And “No one can come to me
unless drawn by the Father who sent me” (John 6:44). It is a calling
given by God. The most sinful and most unworthy Christian you have
ever known is nevertheless handpicked and called by God to follow
Christ.
 What standards does God use to choose men and women to belong to
Him and do His work? Now, this is exactly where God’s ways part from
our ways. Normally we would expect God to pick people who are wise,
powerful, and of a good reputation. But Paul tells us that God actually
chooses people who are the exact opposite, people who are foolish,
weak in character, and of a low reputation. Why does God prefer to
work with the nobodies of this world? There are two reason for this: one
is in the interest of the individuals concerned, the other is in the interest
of those among whom they work.

We can live the life of God or do the work of God only with the strength
that comes from God. Therefore, the first requirement of a servant of
God is that he or she learn how to depend on God. For this reason God
sometimes allows His servants to carry the burden of their human
weakness, so that they will learn that unless they stand in God, they
cannot stand at all. Paul had a “thorn in the flesh”which he prayed God
to remove from him. God did not remove it. God simply said to Paul,
“My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in
weakness.” And Paul concluded, “Therefore, I am content with
weaknesses, … for whenever I am weak, then I am
strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

The second reason why God allows human weakness in His servants is
so that the people among whom they work will realise that the good that
God’s ministers have been able to accomplish come not from their
personal ingenuity but from the grace of God working in and through
them. This will weaken for the people the temptation to idolize their
ministers. The Christians of Corinth had already fallen into this
temptation when they began labelling themselves according to their
favourite missionaries: “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or
“I belong to Cephas.” God wants us to see through and beyond the
ministers who bring us the word of God and to keep our eyes on Jesus,
who is Lord and saviour of us all.

The Lord calls us all Christians, and especially those men and women
who minister God’s word to us in any capacity, to a life of holiness.
While we pray for holiness in our members, and especially in our
ministers, let us also ask God to give us the faith not to be scandalized
when we or our ministers fall short of the life of holiness expected of all
of God’s children.
SUNDAY HOMILIES FOR YEAR A
By Fr Munachi E. Ezeogu, cssp
Homily for 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time - on the
Gospel
Home > Homilies > Year A > Sunday 4 Epistle
 Road Map to Happiness
Zephaniah 2:3;3:12-13 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 Matthew 5:1-12

“Happiness is that which all [men] seek.” So says the great philosopher
Aristotle. Aristotle also observes that everything people do twenty-four
hours a day, seven days a week, is what they believe will bring them
happiness in one form or another. But the problem is that what people
think will bring them happiness does not in fact always bring them true
and lasting happiness. Think of the drunkard who believes that
happiness is found in the beer bottle. One bottle too much and he is
driving home, runs a red light, hits a car and wakes up the following
morning in a hospital with plaster and stiches all over his body. Then it
begins to dawn on him that the happiness promised by alcohol may be
too short-lived. Or take the man who frequents the casino to deal
excitement. By the end of the month he finds that his account is in the
red and that he can no longer pay his house rent. Creditors go after him
until he loses his house and his car. Then it dawns on him that the
happiness promised by the casino is fake. So Aristotle says that the
ethical person is the person who knows and does what can truly bring
them not just excitement or pleasure but true and lasting happiness.

Another word for true and lasting happiness is “blessedness” or

“beatitude.” In today’s gospel, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount shows
that he really wants his followers to have true and lasting happiness, the
happiness that the world and everything in it cannot give. This state of
blessedness is what Jesus calls being in the “kingdom of God/heaven”.
The eight beatitudes we have in today’s gospel constitute a road map for
anyone who seeks to attain this happiness of the kingdom.

Why does Jesus deem it necessary to establish these guideposts to the

kingdom right from the very first teaching that he gives to the disciples?
It is because of the importance of this teaching. Everybody seeks
happiness. But often we look for it in the wrong places. Ask people
around you what makes people happy and compare the answers you get
with the answers Jesus gives. The world has its own idea of happiness.
If a committee were set up to draw up the beatitudes, we would most
probably end up with a list very different from that which Jesus gives us
today.

Where Jesus says “Blessed are the poor in spirit” they would say
“Blessed are the rich.” Where Jesus says “Blessed are those who
mourn” they would say “Blessed are those having fun.” Where Jesus
says “Blessed are the meek” they would say “Blessed are the smart.”
Where Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness” they would say “Blessed are those who wine and dine.”
Where Jesus says, “Blessed are the merciful” they would say “Blessed
are the powerful.” Where Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart”
they would say “Blessed are the slim in body.” Where Jesus says,
“Blessed are the peacemakers” they would say “Blessed are the news
makers.” And where Jesus says, “Blessed are those who are
persecuted for righteousness’ sake” they would say “Blessed are those
who can afford the best lawyers.”

We see that the values prescribed by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount
are in fact counter-cultural. We cannot accept these teachings of Jesus
and at the same time accept all the values of the society in which we
live. Of course, Jesus does not demand that we abandon the word. But
he does demand that we put God first in our lives because only God can
guarantee the true happiness and peace that our hearts long for. Nothing
in the world can give this peace, and nothing in the world can take it
away.

The Eight Beatitudes do not describe eight different people such that we
need to ask which of the eight suits us personally. No, they are eight
different snapshots taken from different angles of the same godly
person. The question for us today, therefore, is this: “Do we live our
lives following the values of the world as a way of attaining happiness
or do we live by the teachings of Jesus. If you live by the teachings of
Jesus, then rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.