A FATHERLY HEART

 

Meditation for Wednesday of the 27^th Week in Ordinary Time

(Jonah 3:1-10; Lk 10:38-42)

Surprisingly, Jonah was angry that God withdrew his punishment for Nineveh. He wanted those people to die for their sins. The desire of the righteous should be the conversion of sinners, but never to entertain a secret joy at the downfall of anyone. And the measure of our holiness is not by contrasting it with the sinfulness of others.

Though Jonah knew God to be gracious and merciful, he secretly wished that God would not forgive the people of Nineveh. He had to learn another lesson that, not only is God omnipresent, he is equally rich in mercy to all who call Him. God caused the tree that was giving Jonah shed to wither such that the sun scotched him. Again, Jonah was very angry. But the Lord said to him, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in the night, and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right from their left, and also much cattle?”

So, the Lord considered Nineveh as the work of His hands, His ignorant children. He inclined a fatherly heart towards them, even to His wayward children. This fatherly disposition of God towards us is an effective starting point of prayer and petition. In contrition we realize we are mere ignorant children of our heavenly Father, and we look up to Him in prayer that His fatherly heart may favor us. That is why in teaching His disciples to pray Jesus taught them to pray thus: “Father, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread; and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive every one who is indebted to us; and lead us not into temptation.” Amen.

St Bruno, pray for us. Amen.

Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church,
Tedi-Muwo, Ojo, Lagos.
Wednesday October 6^th, 2021.
www.soundofsilence.ng
www.nwachinwe.blogspot.com

TRUE REPENTANCE

Meditation for Tuesday of the 27^th Week in Ordinary Time
(Jonah 3:1-10; Lk 10:38-42)

“The word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time.” Jonah received his vocation anew. He had gone through the waters of the deep, washed off of his ignorance, and stubbornness of heart. “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” He still had to freely choose to go on the mission, but this time, with a will that is totally surrendered to God. As he moved, he realized that the grace of God moved ahead of him, for he had moved only a day’s journey and the whole city repented.

God used Jonah’s ordeal to facilitate the message; he became a SIGN for the people of Nineveh, which made it easier for them to accept his message: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” By their sack cloths and ashes, the people of Nineveh look up for the mercy of God: “Who knows, God may yet repent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we perish not?” They realized at that moment the useless ways of life they had adopted. And by looking up to God, they realized what really mattered.  As Jonah got a second chance to fulfill his ministry, God accepted the repentance of the people and spared their lives. The mercy of God won the day.  

True repentance and spiritual growth always have these two sides: denouncing our sins, and looking up to the love and mercy of God. So, we express contrition for our sins, and through penance, step forward in the new path of love and mercy of God through prayer and acts of charity. “The love of God is the tree, mercy is the fruit”, says Sr Faustina Kowalska in her divine mercy apparitions. This love of God draws us forward to continue looking up to God and avoid falling into sin. It keeps us wrapped at the feet of Jesus, fulfilled and satisfied. Jesus becomes the ultimate sign that leads us to contrition and to remain united with God. Therefore, Jesus called out to Martha, “You are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her.”

St Maria Faustina Kowalska, pray for us. Amen.

Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church,
Tedi-Muwo, Ojo, Lagos.
Tuesday October 5^th, 2021.
www.soundofsilence.ng
www.nwachinwe.blogspot.com
 

The Presence of God

Meditation for Monday of the 27^th Week in Ordinary Time

(Jonah 1:1-17; 2:1, 10; Lk 10:25-37)

The prophet Jonah was unique character. It seems he thought that the presence of God was only among the Jews. Hence, “Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.” Imagine that moment, when a man of faith tried to hide from God, and he entered the ship of unbelievers, taking solace therein! Seeing Jonah, the man with the word of God, sleeping away in the inner part of the ship, comes alive today when the baptized Christian, the man who made vows and commitment to the Lord, excuses himself and justifies his self-indulgent life-style, which renders him unfaithful and unfruitful in his vocation. He joins the ship of unbelievers in an earthly pursuit, abandoning his divine vocation to spread the Kingdom of God. Think about how Christians and church leaders of today are sailing away in their little ships to Tarshish, embarking on their own self-preservation journeys instead of facing the truth of faith and announcing the Good news of the Kingdom of God.

But there was mighty turbulence at sea, so that the ship was threatened to break up! Jonah learnt through had way that God is everywhere. Like the prodigal son, he came to his sense, and confronted himself with the truth. His honesty was narrow way to follow for it landed him in the belly of the fish. “Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish.” Oh! Not only is God present in Israel, He hears prayers from the most uncomfortable situations of life, even in the belly of a fish down the sea. The man who was hiding and resting away, suddenly opened his mouth to pray when he supposed to be fighting for his life. Imagine how the prayer of Jonah transformed the belly of the fish into the ‘house of God’, for if God can hear, then God is present therein. This is what prayer does to our every situation.

Our life of prayer opens us to God’s presence at all times. And prayer comes alive in our love for God and neighbor. The example of the good Samaritan shows us the practical way: As we pray to God, we live so as to become to others an answered prayer for them. This is how we live in the presence of God and bring others to witness to it too. Charity does the miracle; love conquers at the end. The fish that swallowed Jonah became his transporter to Nineveh; The Jew that was beaten on his way to Jericho got a reliable neighbor in the good Samaritan. God wins! 

St Francis of Assisi, pray for us. Amen.

Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church,
Tedi-Muwo, Ojo, Lagos.
Monday October 4^th, 2021.
www.soundofsilence.ng
www.nwachinwe.blogspot.com

 

 

UNMEASURED GRACES

Meditation for Saturday of the 25^th Week in Ordinary Time

The prophet Zacharia gave his message after the Babylonian exile during the rebuilding of the temple. This new temple would stand for the new blessings to come. His prophetic visions encouraged the Jews to gather around the temple. In our opening reading today, Zacharia saw a vision of a man going forward to measure Jerusalem, but another Angel said to the young man, “Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of men and cattle in it.” The Lord declared that He would encircle Jerusalem like a wall of fire and fill her with glory. “Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion; for behold, I come and I will dwell in the midst of you, says the Lord.” Then, many nations will gather up to be God’s peoples, and the Lord shall dwell in the midst of them.

This ‘Jerusalem’ that is filled by the glory of God and to which all nations gather to, can it be measured? To measure means to determine its limits and extent of its outreach. But the ‘vastness’ of God cannot be measured, and so also is the ‘City’ walled by God and filled with His glory. This is how we are built up in Christ Jesus through His Cross and Resurrection with unmeasured graces and blessings. Such ‘vastness of the glory of God’ in Christ Jesus is not ‘simplistic’, easy or by mere wish.

So, when people began to acclaim the greatness everything Jesus did, He said to them, “For the Son of man is to be delivered into the hands of men.” From this opposing effort to ‘limit’ His power and kill Him that the unmeasured graces of the resurrection rise. Let us continue to gather up to Jesus, for in Him is the fullness of divinity, and we shall enjoy boundless glory and unmeasured favours. Amen.

St Ceolfrid, pray for us. Amen.

Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church,
Tedi-Muwo, Ojo, Lagos.
Saturday September 25^th, 2021.
www.soundofsilence.ng
www.nwachinwe.blogspot.com