AT THE TABLE OF THE FORGIVEN

 Meditation for Saturday after Ash Wednesday

(Is 58:9-14; Lk 5:27-32)

The prophet Isaiah gives us a beautiful description of the life of those are able to overcome evil behaviour in their lives. He recognizes the burden of unrighteous and uncharitable life; it is a yoke! If we put down this YOKE within us, and “Pour yourselves out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.” Sin is a burden; its absence is freedom! Those who have removed this yoke of unrighteousness from their lives shall have many good things to enjoy. The Lord will guide them continually, satisfy their desires with good things, make them strong, and they shall be like a watered garden...It is not enough to take off the yoke of sin, one must fill his life with love and devotion to the Lord, keep his laws, and guide his words. “Then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

All the beautiful blessings promised to those who have repented can be seen in action as Jesus sits at table in the house of Levi the tax collector. The feasting and celebration was an acknowledgment and appreciation of the new life he found in Jesus. Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away our sins, lifted off the burden on Levi and set him free from the yoke. The Pharisees understood the meaning of the great act of ‘eating together’ or ‘communion’ with somebody. It is an act of ‘exchange of life’ or ‘sharing of bond.’ They complained, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

“I have come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” It is Jesus who calls, “Follow me” and offers the remedy for sins. Imagine how Levi and his friends enjoy the company of Jesus with so much peace and freedom. This was what tax money denied them from seeing by offering them worldly and momentary pleasures. Heaven too joins in the celebration when one sinner repents. So this season of Lent, we are more attentive the voice of Jesus that calls; in our fasting we express our hunger to dine with Jesus.

 

Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C. Ss.R
Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church,
Tedi-Muwo, Lagos
Saturday February 20^th, 2021.
www.nwachinwe.blogspot.com
 

 

THE REWARD FOR FASTING

Meditation for Friday after Ash Wednesday
(Is 58:1-9; Mt 9:14-15)

“Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?” Today we meditate on the issue of FASTING. The prophet Isaiah talked about fasting as a way to ‘cry aloud’ to the Lord that He might answer quickly. What is it that can make our fasting to be futile? The prophet says it is unrighteous living that forsakes the ordinances of God. “Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers.” Isaiah says that the fasting acceptable to the Lord is, “To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.” The loud cry of fasting that God hears is works of charity and denying oneself for the good of others.

According to prophet Isaiah, the REASON for fasting is for God to quickly hear our cry. But the Lord in turn demands righteousness over and above every external act of fasting. It was such external display of self-denial for their selfish interests that the disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees soaked themselves in. It was such a fasting that sought human approval. In response to them, Jesus taught us a new meaning and reason for fasting. “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come, when they bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

Thus, the disciples of Jesus are like attendants to a bridegroom; they celebrate with Him, they rejoice and are satisfied with Him. The ABSENCE of the Bridegroom is the PRESENCE of their hunger, dissatisfaction or lack. This is when they will begin to hunger and thirst for the One that quenches their thirst and satisfies their hunger. “And then they will fast.” We have been separated from Jesus by our sins. Fasting becomes a way the followers of Jesus express their mourning or deep yearning for Him, the Bread of life that satisfies. By fasting, they direct and stretch every form of hunger in them to Jesus. Fasting, especially at this season of Lent, becomes a way Catholics affirm that they would not settle for any lesser form of satisfaction except Jesus. He is the REASON and the REWARD for our fasting! In His thirst on the Cross is our thirst quenched. Let us brace up and offer in faith our genuine self-denial this Lent, through such acts, our numerous thirsts shall rise up to ‘embrace’ the thirst of Jesus for us. “But those, who drink of the water that I shall give, will never be thirsty” (Jn 4:14). Amen.

 

Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church,
Tedi-Muwo, Lagos.
Friday February 19^th, 2021.
www.nwachinwe.blogspot.com

THE GREAT CHOICE

Meditation for Thursday after Ash Wednesday
(Deut 30:15-20; Lk 9:22-25)

At this early morning of our Lenten journey this year, Moses calls on the Israelites to make a choice for life or death. The commandments he placed before them define their frame of choices! You can either choose to keep the commandments or not. To choose the commandments means to choose to love God and walk in His ways. “Then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you...” It is this blessing of God on those who keep His commandments that sustains their lives. But to choose not to keep the commandments is to choose to live by oneself or to live for other gods. Such a life does not enjoy God’s blessings, and surely, it will wither away.

Lent gives us a favourable opportunity to make the great choice for life. The Lenten observances, together with the liturgical activities of this season, summon us to choose love of God over above love of the self by keeping His commandment, thereby making ourselves available for God’s blessings. At the time of Moses, this anticipated ‘blessings of life’ was basically to live and multiply in the Land, which the Lord God swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

But in Gospel of today, we discover that the frame of ‘choice for life’ has been upgraded: We are asked to ‘choose death’ in order to have life! LIFE is hidden in the death of Jesus Christ; if we choose the death of Christ, we shall have His life. Beyond the Promised Land, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob longed for the Messiah. That means the ‘anticipated blessings of life’ promised to our fathers is now fulfilled in Jesus. “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it.”

This Lent we try to re-live and renew the imprint of the passion of Christ in our hearts (2 Cor 4:10-11). By keeping the commandments, we learn how not to live by our human will but to selflessly abide by the will of God. This is how we begin to FOLLOW Christ and walk with Him in the paths of prayer, fasting and Almsgivings. So no one can claim to follow Jesus Christ without a Cross; He has gone ahead of us to Calvary. Behind every cross we bear in the name of Jesus is abundance of life.  Choose wisely!

 

Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church,
Tedi-Muwo, Lagos.
Thursday February 18^th, 2021.
www.nwachinwe.blogspot.com

THE IMPRINT OF THE ASH

Reflection for Ash Wednesday

The holy season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday. The bold mark of ash on the forehead is usual a proud ‘emblem’ many Catholics wear on this day. This mark of ash seems to have taken a life of its own, such that some people dare not miss it even if they missed the Mass! “Have you received ash?” usually dominates the ‘greeting ceremony’ when catholic neighbours or friends meet. Kids and youngsters often display and compare whose imprint of the ash was bigger. Truly, the ‘touch’ of the ash has its own unique flavour' that awakens us to a deeper religious consciousness.

The book of Genesis narrates how man was moulded from the dust of the earth (Gen 2:7). God warned man before the fall that sin would return him to the ground from which he came (Gen 2:17, 3:19). Man is nothing without God; "take your breath, they return to clay" (Ps 146:4, 104:29). ‘The dust of the earth’ symbolizes the ‘nothingness’ that awaits man if he sins against his creature. This great symbol can now serve two intentions: first, for preventive purposes to keep man humble, that is, ‘ash’ is a gesture that reminds man that he is mere ‘dust’ without the breath of God. Secondly, for contrition, to express repentance of our sins, signalling to God that by our sins we ought to return to dust, but we want to live, and implore His mercy and grace to live according to His will.

Abraham described himself as “dust and ashes” (Gen 18:27) to show how unworthy he was before God. Moses and Aaron spread ashes to bring boils on the Egyptians and humble Pharaoh (Ex 9:8-10). Ashes were used for the purification sacrifices (Num 19:6-10; Heb 9:13). Job when afflicted with suffering, sat on ashes (Job 2:8). Seeing the persecution of the Jews, Mordecai tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes (Esther 4:1). On receiving Jonah’s message, the King of Nineveh put on sackcloth and sat down on ashes (Jonah 3:6). Jesus confirms the use of ashes as symbol of repentance when he denounced the cities in which He performed most of His miracles (Mt 11:20-21).

Therefore, the ash we mark on our forehead leaves its imprint in our soul! We mark our foreheads with dust of the earth that we might stand humble before God, and be saved from emptiness and the nothingness it leads to. So, even when the physical mark of ash has long been washed off, our hearts carry the imprint throughout the season of Lent. Thus, let us avoid ‘rowdy’ living, but recollect our hearts in the ‘cloud of silence’ that this season brings, and carry out our actions in gentleness and kindness to avoid ‘shaking off the dust’ we marked in our hearts. There is a hidden joy that echoes from the silence of Lent as we secretly perform acts of charity, prayer and fasting. Yes, there is a rhythm of beauty that gently spreads out from the liturgical celebrations of this season. The love it leaves behind is overwhelming.

 

Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church,
Tedi-Muwo, Lagos.
Wednesday February 17^th, 2021.
Ash Wednesday.
www.nwachinwe.blogspot.com

 

THE EXCHANGE

Meditation for 6^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
(Lev 13:1-2, 44-46; 1 Cor 10:31-11:1; Mk 1:40-45)

The first reading of today gives a pitiable description of a leprous man; he has a swollen skin, and must wear torn clothes with unkempt hair and cover his upper lips. “He is unclean; the priest must pronounce him unclean.” We see a movement from the medical description of the condition of the man, up to his spiritual or religious status in relation to God and the community. Leprosy as a contagious disease would definitely make the community ‘unhealthy.’ And if a man is in a ‘state’ that would not build up the community of God’s people or makes free association and worship possible, then his ‘state’ has more than a medical implication! “Then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons the priest.” Once declared UNCLEAN by the priest, “He shall dwell alone in a habitation outside the camp.”

We see immediately why sin is likened to leprosy; it makes a man unclean and sets him outside the habitation of grace! Sin breeds selfishness, destroys love and hinders true worship of God. We can begin to understand why the people of old believed that sin was the cause of leprosy; “His disease is on his head.”

In the Gospel of today, Jesus continues to move down to the villages, to the outer part of the towns and cities. It is obvious He stepped forward to the region of the outcasts and downtrodden. Thus, it became possible for the leper to kneel before him, begging, “If you will, you can make clean.” The man surrendered his sickness and his UNCLEAN condition to Jesus. “Moved with pity, He stretched out His hand and touched him, and said, ‘I will; be clean.’” Imagine the clean and glorious hand of Jesus touching the unclean man! By this gesture, the man’s burden of leprosy is no more ‘on his head’ but on the shoulders of Jesus... Again, think about what it means for the will of man to coincide with the will of God! This is where our spiritual or religious status is upright, righteousness is restored and every defilement washed clean.

As the man was healed and cleansed, Jesus said to him, “Show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to the people.” With Jesus the duty of the priest is re-defined: to reconciled people to God and to one another, and present to God the THANKSGIVING (Eucharistic) offering. The witness of the man brought many people to Jesus, such that He could no longer openly enter the town, but EXCHANGED positions with the man as He stayed outside the city. We too are called to bring people to salvation by reaching out to them as Jesus did to the leprous man, and by witnessing as the cleansed man did to Jesus. We do this by not seeking our advantage in everything, but by working for the common good and the good of many. Thus, we become ambassadors of the divine touch that has saved us by Jesus’ SACRIFICIAL EXCHANGE; this is the Eucharistic touch we proclaim today. Amen.

Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church,
Tedi-Muwo, Lagos.
Sunday February 14^th, 2021.
Valentine’s Day
www.nwachinwe.blogspot.com

HUNGER AND SATISFACTION

Meditation for Saturday of the 5^th Week in Ordinary Time, Year B
(Gen 3:9-24; Mk 8:1-10)

The fall of man came with severe consequences. Man lost friendship with God; the communication between God and man was no more mutual. Adam and Eve became defensive before God, and more divisive among each other. The Lord God cursed the serpent, and announced the defeat of the serpent by the seed of the Woman. Adam and Eve must face the implications of their choice, which includes, difficulty in childbearing, tough labour to raise food, etc. “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground...” Finally, in order to prevent man from eating of the tree of life in a state of sin, God drove them out of the garden, to till the ground from which he was taken...

Man ate from the wrong tree and his hunger increased, he lost friendship with God and was driven from the garden where he had free and excess food. Hunger would reign over the human city as he labours for food. Interestingly, Jesus steps in to arrest the terror of hunger among those gathered around Him. He felt their pain and weakness and set out to feed them. With seven loaves and few small fish, he fed the crowd. They all ate to their satisfaction and had seven baskets leftover. Now the bread that ought to be gotten with hard labour is given freely in Christ Jesus, and to each person’s satisfaction. Therefore, Jesus, who is the offspring of the Woman, Mary, cancels the plan of dissatisfaction Satan laid for the children of God.

Jesus gives us the living water; He is the Bread of life. He makes Himself available for our satisfaction. Then our love for Him should come in the form of a HUNGER to mingle our hearts with Him. Jesus gives us the satisfaction that goes ahead of our labours and search for food. Thus, in Jesus human labour is no more a PUNISHMENT to raise food, but an exercise of our joyful and creative contribution to the beauty, orderliness and growth of the human society, to the glory of God. Amen.

 

Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church,
Tedi-Muwo, Lagos.
Saturday February 13^th, 2021.
www.nwachinwe.blogspot.com

 

 

THE FALL AND SALVATION OF MAN

 Meditation for Friday of the 5^th Week in Ordinary Time, Year B
(Gen 3:1-8; Mk 7:31-37)

As the beautiful story of creation is unfolding, suddenly and disappointedly, we hear the sad story of the fall of man. It was unprecedented. A sense of chaos began to re-emerge as Adam and Eve were now more preoccupied with self-survival than walking hand in hand with the Lord God. They discovered at the late hour that the serpent tricked them; the sugar-coated and pleasurable promises he made to them did not exist. Worse still, having pulled them down from relying on God’s will and command, the serpent had no solution for their misery. Imagine where self-preservation became the highest preoccupation of human beings, each person would become a burden unto himself, and would distrust God and his neighbour! “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”

In the Gospel, Jesus steps in; God now dwells among His people. Jesus passed through the Gentile territory of Tyre and Sidon down to Galilee and through the Decapolis. The people that were originally separated from God by sin can now be reconciled. And those bearing upon themselves the burden and wounds of the fall of man, can now be healed. Jesus feels the wretchedness of man in his isolated life of sin, and takes upon himself the burden we ought to bear. “And taking him aside from the multitude privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, ‘Ephphatha,’ that is, ‘Be opened.’”

The man regained his freedom, and bore witness to the goodness of God. As the people zealously praised God, we see the new order of the redeemed man in Christ Jesus, that self-preservation is no more his preoccupation, but to worship God. Thanks be to God for we can now trust God and our neighbour, and live freely.

May Almighty God bless  you, The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church,
Tedi-Muwo, Lagos.
Friday February 12^th, 2021.
www.nwachinwe.blogspot.com