THE CHOICE FOR LIFE

Meditation for Friday of the First Week of Lent
(Ezekiel 18:21-28; Mt 5:20-26)

The Lenten journey is a favourable opportunity for us to repent. The Lenten observances energize us to move away from sin and remain in righteousness. Prophet Ezekiel reminds us today about the consequences of sin, which is death. But he announces the good news of a gracious opportunity by which the death sentence is cancelled for those who repent of their sins. God created man to live; “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?” But if a righteous man abandons his good ways and embraces evil, he shall die. Thus, we are responsible for our choices for the ‘present’ and ‘future’ of our lives.

Human life is not static; it is dynamic, evolving and in ‘motion’. We can either move forward into the ‘future of God’ through righteous living, or we move backwards to nothingness through sin. The direction we take at this crossroad of life depends on the kind of ‘energy’ we allowed to accumulate in our hearts and minds. Think about things that influence your daily choices! What are the values that determine your responses to life situations? There is always a hidden INTENT that motivates our actions...

In urging us to repent and choose life, we are being asked to purge our hearts of sinful intents, and energize it with sentiments of righteousness. Hence, Jesus told His disciples that the righteousness that leads to eternal life must not be on the surface like that of the scribes and Pharisees. The righteousness that gives eternal life flows from the depths of the hearts. That is why whoever bears anger in his heart shall be liable to judgement, under that law that says, “You shall not kill.” So, the heart must be purged of every unrighteous sentiment. This is mostly important because it is from the heart that our prayers and offerings find favour before God.

God’s plan for us is that we may live, and He has given us every grace in Christ Jesus to conquer death. In Jesus, the righteous Man who ought to live took upon Himself the death of the wicked man, who ought to die! Therefore, the sinful can cross over to righteousness and live; the dead can rise to life! And through the Sacraments of the Church, Jesus gives us effective means of purifying our hearts that our lives may flourish. Amen.

 

Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church,
Tedi-Muwo, Lagos.
Friday February 26^th, 2021.
www.nwachinwe.blogspot.com

UNFAILING PRAYER

Meditation for Thursday of the First Week of Lent

(Esther 14:1, 3-4, 11, 13-14; Mt 7:7-12)

Today’s Lenten meditation looks at how we get answers to our prayers. We are given the example of the prayer of Queen Esther. “Esther the queen, seized with deathly anxiety, fled to the Lord.” Prayer is the way we run to the Lord. She took a humble POSTURE by lying on the ground. She began by PRAISING God, calling Him, “God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, blessed are you.” Secondly, Queen Esther expressed her humility and nothingness before God: “Help me, who am alone and have no helper but you, for my danger is in my hand...Come to my aid, for I am an orphan.” She expressed her FAITH in God by acknowledging through the testimony of their patriarchs that He answers those who are pleasing to Him. Finally, Esther uttered her INTENTIONS: “Save us from the hand of our enemies; turn our morning into gladness and our affliction into well-being.”

In the Gospel, Jesus said to His disciples, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” This is a great assurance; how attractive it is to pray! Jesus explains why the answer to our prayers is assured: it is because we have a good Father, and we are His children. That means when we come to pray, the ‘energies of our prayer’ must first be directed to our Heavenly Father in His Goodness, while we carry within us the ‘status’ of His children. The glory of the Father, the exaltation of His holy Name, is the most important thing in prayer. We ‘ask’, ‘seek’, and ‘knock’, not necessarily because we are in need, but mostly because we have the God who ‘answers’, ‘reveals’ and ‘opens the door of grace.’

However, our duty is to keep alive the status of CHILDREN OF GOD. This means we love God and live according to His commandments. We cannot come to God in prayer like the unrepentant hypocrites, who came to Jesus seeking for a sign: they found none! God’s faithful children have confidence that their heavenly father must give something good to them when they pray. That is why the already live out their prayer intentions. Therefore, Jesus said, “So whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them; for this is the law and the prophets.” Amen.   

Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church,
Tedi-Muwo, Lagos.
Thursday February 25^th, 2021.
www.nwachinwe.blogspot.com

THE SIGN OF REPENTANCE

Meditation for Wednesday of the First Week of Lent
(Jonah 3:1-10; Lk 11:29-32)

Our Lenten meditation today focuses on repentance. We gaze at Jonah with the eyes of faith as he travels down the great city of Nineveh. We can see the seemingly reluctance on his face as he preaches with marginal effort, saying only what he was asked to say and nothing more! It is quite obvious that he is merely obeying the command of God, since the ‘fish of grace’ had brought him thus far. The great city would take three days to move across, but Jonah is still on the first day, rolling out the rhythm of his message: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” Surprisingly, the whole city, with their king and noblemen, from the greatest to the least, declared a fast, put on sackcloth and ashes and repented of their evil ways. They cried to God to have mercy and spare their lives.

 

How come Jonah’s mission was so successful? Jesus praised the work of Jonah and wished that people of ‘this generation’ would learn from the people of Nineveh. He described Jonah as a SIGN, which the people saw and repented. Imagine a Jew walking dejectedly along the streets of their enemy-city, warning them of the coming doom? The challenges and struggles Jonah stepped on to enter the city, not for his own benefit, but in sacrifice for the people, inspired them to listen to him. Why would this Jew risk his life among the Assyrians if God did not send him? Jonah in himself, even without words, became a SIGN OF REPENTANCE for the people of Nineveh! That is why his MESSAGE travelled faster and deeper than his words and footsteps.

 

“And behold, something greater than Jonah is here.” Jesus is the ultimate sign, who left heaven to dwell among us, dispelling the darkness of sin and bearing the burden of our sins upon Himself (2 Cor 5:21). He is the Word of God, through whom grace and truth is given to us (Jn 1:17), whose blood bleeds more insistently for our salvation (Heb 12:24). But, why are the men and women of ‘this generation’ not seeing the sign of the Messiah and follow Him to repentance? This is because they are an evil generation; they are only interested in miraculous signs for their benefits, but they do not care about signs of holiness that announce the presence of God among them. So, even when the greater sign than Jonah is here, they turned blind eyes to it.

 

Our forty days of Lent is counting...More than the people of Nineveh, we have seen and embrace the SIGN OF REPENTANCE, Jesus Christ. Let us humble ourselves in ashes and sackcloth through fasting, prayer and almsgiving. We have the testimony the Blessed Virgin Mary and other men and women in the Bible, the Saints and the sacrifices of people of goodwill among us today. The sign of their holiness inspires us to repentance. May God open our eyes that we may see the gracious sign through which He draws us to Himself. Amen.

 

Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church,
Tedi-Muwo, Lagos.
Wednesday February 24^th, 2021.
www.nwachinwe.blogspot.com

 

RESPONSIBLE PRAYER

Meditation for Tuesday of the First Week of Lent
(Is 55:10-10; Mt 6:7-15)

One of the important things we are encouraged to engage ourselves in this season of Lent is prayer. Jesus takes prayer very seriously. Today, He teaches us HOW NOT TO PRAY: “In praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words.” The ‘words of prayer’ are neither to ‘convince’ God nor to ‘inform’ Him about what we are asking for. “For your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” This means that what is first required of us is the intention to pray, the setting out of time and composure in prayer. With one’s heart and mind rendered to God in prayer, even when words cannot come out like Hannah, God will still hear the prayer. “Hannah was praying silently; she moved her lips but uttered no sound and Eli thought Hannah was drunk” (1 Sam 1:13). But when numerous words are uttered, there is a high tendency that the heart and mind will be diverted to the construction of beautiful and pleasant words! This leads to self-absorption and the ‘exaltation’ of one’s problems...

Then, Jesus teaches us HOW TO PRAY. “Pray then like this: Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be your name...” In prayer our hearts and sentiments are directed to God, His glory and righteousness. And prayer calls us to RESPONSIBILITY towards God and our neighbour. That is why our need for daily bread is neither the first nor the last item in the prayer Jesus taught us. Also, that is why He asked us prayer though He knows our needs. We make prayer our life; we begin to live out and treat others with that intention we desire from God. “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you.” It can also be said that if you share your bread with the hungry, your heavenly father will give you your daily bread!

Jesus assures us that God does not fail to answer our prayers. His blessings come down like rain and snow from heaven. His promises are accomplished; His words definitely achieve their purposes, “Giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater.” Following the words of prophet Isaiah, the confidence and assurance that bring us to pray without ceasing is not in our might or mastery of prayer, but in the authority of the word of Jesus. We flourish more in prayer when we begin to allow the power of the love of Jesus to summon us and sustain us in prayer. That is why the highest point in prayer is when we are fully sustained by this divine love in contemplation. May your day be filled with this divine touch that feeds us. Amen.

 

Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church,
Tedi-Muwo, Lagos.
Tuesday February 23^rd, 2021.
Memorial of St Polycarp
www.nwachinwe.blogspot.com

THE SAVING BOW

 Meditation for First Sunday of Lent, Year B
(Gen 9:8-15; 1 Pet 3:18-22; Mk 1: 12-15)

After the great flood, God made a covenant with Noah and his descendants. The TERMS of the covenant was that never again shall the earth be destroyed by flood. It was a unique kind of covenant. God set up a REMINDER, a visible symbol that shall silently but clearly speak about the terms the Covenant. “I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you...” Notice that the bow, the great reminder, was set up by God to ‘speak’ to Him not to destroy the man and the creatures. That means it is a SAVING BOW raised up to the sky, since it wins for man the benefits of the covenant.

The second reading shifts our attention to Jesus on the Cross. “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God...” St Peter explains how the saving power of Jesus brought liberation and achieved what could not be achieved with Noah’s ark. This ark saved very few persons. Today, Noah’s ark can be likened to our baptism. The waters of baptism saves us as APPEAL TO GOD for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Cross of Jesus towers up to the sky like the bow of God’s covenant with Noah. But while the bow was symbolic, the Cross of Jesus is itself the new covenant. In the Cross of Jesus is both the TERMS of the covenant and the REMINDER. It is also the perfect symbol since it communicates and effects from within itself what it stands for. So, while the bow of Noah spoke in silence, the silence of the Cross of Jesus speaks!

Unlike the bow of God’s covenant with Noah that was taken up to the sky, the waters of baptism is poured upon us! Baptism applies to us the saving grace of the eternal Covenant of Jesus on the Cross. So we carry within us the ‘indelible mark’ of baptism, which APPEALS to God for our salvation. When God Himself is the Covenant—the Pledge of our salvation—baptism appeals FOR OUR CLEAR CONSCIENCE that we remain faithful to the new covenant we have in Jesus, who died and rose for us.

Therefore, the greatest temptation we shall face is to turn away from the Cross of Jesus; the temptation to lose the ‘memory’ of the Cross and strip ourselves of its power. However, it is by the power of the Cross that we overcome every temptation. Our forty days of Lent imitates the forty days of Jesus in the desert. At this season, we deepen the imprint of the Cross in our hearts that the victory of Jesus over Satan might be ours. At the end, we shall step forward as Jesus did in the Gospel of today, despite the sorrows of the arrest of John the Baptist, to proclaim the glory of God, the Good News of salvation. “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel.” Amen.

 

Fr Jude Chinwewa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church,
Tedi-Muwo, Lagos.
Sunday February 21^st, 2021.
www.nwachinwe.blogspot.com

 

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