HOMILY FOR THE TENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – YEAR B

HOMILY FOR THE TENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – YEAR B

HOMILY THEME: GOD DOES NOT GIVE UP ON US!

BY: Fr. Augustine Ikechukwu Opara

GEN. 3:9-15, 2 COR. 4:13-5:1; MARK 3:20-35

Today the Church reminds us humans that we all have an existential struggle against evil. However, through the ‘proto evangelium’(the first Good News), we are illuminated by the assurance of victory. Christ is the seed of the Woman (Mary) who helps us to obtain this victory in our daily and earthly struggle against evil. The story of the Fall of man, is an analysis of human temptation and sin as it always happens, rather than a historical account of what happened once long ago when human beings first evolved on earth.

Sin is the consequence of disobedience. Sin creates conflict in the world. The first reading today sets forth the experience of sin that began our later experiences of sin. Sin is contagious in so many ways. Sin disgraces us: we do our best, like both the Man and the Woman, to blame someone else, but in the end, we know we are defenseless and naked before God. Jesus laid down his life to save us. Satan leads us astray not for our good but to win souls for himself. Many of us are moving away from our creator today. Perhaps the “serpent tricked” us just as with Adam and Eve. The cunning serpent comes with different schemes. Firstly, he likes to spread confusion by telling us that no one believes everything our faith teaches us and even sometimes uses people we look up to, to create this confusion. So, the serpent says it’s okay for us to pick and choose what we believe. This often leads to relativism where people think it is okay to believe whatever one wants so long as it makes you feel good.
Secondly, he can use shame to make us feel unworthy to come to church just as Adam hid himself from God after the Original Sin. Yet, it is exactly when we are discouraged and shamed by our sins that we need to cry out to God for forgiveness. Knowing that Jesus laid down his life for us on the Cross gives us the perfect reason to trust that God will forgive us. What happened to the sacrament of reconciliation?

The devil sometimes tries to mask our sins with the cliché “everyone is doing it” so we don’t see them. This way we think we are good; we don’t need to come to God. While he likes to mask our sins, so we don’t see our own sins, he likes us to see the sins of those who promote the faith, and make an effort in the right direction, to make them look like hypocrites.

There is also this method of making you feel so busy that you do not lift a finger to do the right thing and sometimes even go to church. Then, something bad happens and we have trouble finding God because we don’t have a relationship with Jesus. We become distant from God. Satan knows that if we come to church every week to hear God’s Word, to be strengthened by receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus, and pray throughout the week, we will develop a relationship with Jesus. Satan wants to make sure that doesn’t happen.

My brothers and sisters, like Adam and Eve, all of us deserve our penalties, however, the wonderful thing about the biblical story is that God continues to care for us: he thoughtfully sews clothes for the Man and the Woman to hide their embarrassment. More important, God promises that evil will not triumph forever.
Only our Lord Jesus can remake us in the image of God and restore us to a loving relationship with God. In him, God has created a new family for everyone ready to do his will through faith and obedience to him. The devil is never as powerful as the Lord Jesus and His Spirit. It is Jesus Himself who invites us to follow him and to be His family.
God bless you!
FOR A SIMILAR HOMILY, CLICK HERE >>>>>