Reflections

Lay Thoughts and Scriptural Exegesis

By

Noel Anyalemachi Ihebuzor

The jottings that appear below arose from my reading and reacting to readings from the Catholic liturgy. I would read and scribble down ideas and thoughts freely as they came to my mind. As such, some of the ideas expressed in these jottings may not come across as either coherent or well thought out given their spontaneity. I hope the reader will excuse all imperfections in these jottings – they are the result of undisciplined zeal and amateurish desire to share my layperson’s thoughts on the scriptures with as many of my readers as possible.

The jottings are organized around Sunday readings. Enjoy the readings and let me have the benefits of your enriching feedback. Remain blessed and energized spiritually, socially and, I should hope, intellectually as you read. Noel

 
Good Shepherd Sunday
15 May, 2011, 22:22:51 | Noel Ihebuzor
http://www.usccb.org/nab/051511.shtml

Let me share a few quick, rough and not too well coordinated thoughts on these readings. I will make an effort to keep these short and focused.
Psalm 23, the psalm for this Sunday in the catholic liturgical calendar is perhaps one of the most popular in the Christian Bible. We all love it! Its assurances are immense! Our cups run over; our heads are anointed with fine oil; goodness and mercy follow us; and God leads us to green pastures…and all of this in the presence of our enemies who we are happy to imagine, with considerable glee, must be gnashing their teeth at our good fortune! Well perfumed oil, abundance of fresh wine, a table running over with the best of dishes, green pastures! Read green pastures as a metaphor for the good, the abundant, the flourishing and you begin to see why this psalm has so much appeal to us all. Why not? Who no like better thing? A colleague whose name is Mercy got so taken by it that she named her daughter “Goodness”! Psalm 23 is the good life! Indeed, so popular is this psalm in Nigeria that pidgin versions are now circulating with authors struggling to out-do themselves in creativity – lexical and syntactic, in ever newer versions!
But what the fondness for this psalm conveniently omits to consider or prefers to gloss over is the total surrender and deep obedience by the sheep that is implied in a sheep/shepherd relationship. Christ spells out this relationship very clearly in the gospel reading.He is the good shepherd and we the flock of His pasture. The sheep know, recognise and heed the voice of the shepherd when he calls. The sheep trust the shepherd completely. The sheep do not direct the shepherd! The sheep do not lead the shepherd. If they did , perhaps we would have verse like – “The Lord is my shepherd and I make HIM lead me to green pastures”! The shepherd speaks and the sheep respond.
The sheep do not respond to the voice of a stranger, nor do they follow the stranger no matter how appealing the call or flute of that stranger is. The call of the stranger are to the false attractions and ephemeral comforts of this world. It is an invitation to the fake things of this world, to transient pleasures but slippery slopes and to things that could lead us in the long term to moral and spiritual death. It is a call that could promise at the beginning the lushness of wealth but which soon traps us in an arid wasteland of hopelessness and despair, something I call the Judas phenomenon where for the immediacy of cheap gain, you sell your soul to the tempter! Bad decisions have huge opportunity costs, and despite our claims and aspirations to rationality, we do show a particular tendency or such bad decisions, and this tendency is worse the more we are cut of from our good shepherd. The shepherd/sheep imagery thus assumes a heightened significance for an error prone and frail humanity, a humanity whose choice capacities are often vitiated by excessive focus on the here and now, yes with short-termism and also by a tendency towards hedonism.
But not so, the good shepherd! He leads and guides his flock. He instructs them to be good in good times and in bad times. The good sheep know that life will not always be green, that life will not always be on the upswing. Valley and the shadow of death signify difficult times, but in these periods, the sheep are sure of the constancy of the good shepherd. They know of His constant and reassuring presence even when they cannot see Him. They model their lives after the suffering servant who Isaiah so effectively describes in psalm 53. This theme of the suffering servant incidentally is taken up in the second reading, not just to fill space but I think to provide us with a model of obedient and faith driven responding when we pass through our own valleys, when we walk through our dark moments and when life throws rough tackles at us. And such moments are never in short supply – those moments exactly when we feel we should abandon our shepherd and search for a new one, usually a merchant of honey coated platitudes and utopia who would promise us quick fixes and wonder cures!
The good sheep would not do such a thing – they have an alliance marked by solidity, constancy and complete trust with their shepherd. They know that the words of their shepherd in John 10:10 that He has come so that they may have life in abundance is true – they know a price has been paid to secure and insure this promise and prize. They also know that the price to pay to win this prize at the end our race is obedience and complete and undoubting faith.
May God renew us, may He renew our faith, and may He open our eyes and ears to the signs and voice of the good shepherd. May we learn to sing the famous words of John Cardinal Newman – Lead, kindly light
May we surrender to be led by the good shepherd.
May worthy servants and faithful models of the good shepherd emerge to lead the ver widening lock
May also have the Graces to reach out and invite others to join this flock and may goodness and mercy surround us as we do. And I am sorry this has turned out to be longer than I had wanted and I feeling too lazy to consider any pruning exercise!
Happy Sunday

 
Subject: Reading and reflecting –on Psalm 23 and more
http://www.usccb.org/nab/051511.shtml

Let me share a few rough and dirty thoughts on these readings – and I will make an effort to keep these short and focused.
Peter is still talking! Clearly the man has found his rhythm, is in tune with his audience and getting his key messages across. Key message? Personal salvation.And the means to this? Repentance, answering the call of God and openness to the spirit. Does his message get across? Yes, I believe so! We learn that 3000 repented and were baptized! Successful communication! Notice also that this is not a monologue by someone who is interested in hearing his own voice and showing off his mastery of language.
The psalm for this Sunday is perhaps one of the most popular in the Christian bible. We all love it! Its assurances are immense! Our cups run over; our heads are anointed with fine oil; goodness and mercy follow us; and God leads us to green pastures…and all of this in the presence of our enemies who we are happy must be gnashing their teeth at our good fortune! Well perfumed oil, abundance of fresh wine, a table running over with the best of dishes, green pastures! Read green pastures as a metaphor for the good, the abundant, the flourishing and you begin to see why this psalm has so much appeal to us all. Why not? Who no like better thing? Psalm 23 is the good life! So popular is this psalm in Nigeria that pidgin versions are now circulating with authors struggling to out-do themselves in creativity – lexical and syntactic, in ever newer versions!
But what the fondness for this psalm conveniently omits to consider or prefers to gloss over is the total surrender and and deep obedience that is implied in a sheep/shepherd relationship. It is a relationship that is spelt out more in the gospel reading. The sheep know, recognise and heed the voice of the shepherd when he calls. The sheep trust the shepherd completely. The sheep do not direct the shepherd! The sheep do not lead the shepherd. If they did , perhaps we would have verse like – “The Lord is my shepherd and I make HIM lead me to green pastures”! The shepherd speaks and the sheep respond. The sheep do not respond to the voice of a stranger, nor do they follow the stranger no matter how appealing the call or flute of that stranger is. The call of the stranger, the lure of the stranger are to the false attractions of this world, to the fake things of this world, to things that lead us to moral and spiritual death. It is a call that could promise at the beginning the lushness of wealth but which soon traps us in an arid wasteland of hopelessness and despair, something I call the Judas phenomenon where for immediacy of gain in a moment of unreflection or shallow reflection, you sell you soul to the tempter!

The good sheep know that life will not always be green, that life will not always be on the upswing. Valley and the shadow of death signify difficult times, but in these periods, the sheep are sure of the constancy of the good shepherd. They know of His constant and reassuring presence even when they cannot see Him. They model their lives after the suffering servant who Isaiah so effectively describes in psalm 53. This theme of the suffering servant incidentally is taken up in the second reading, not just to fill space but I think to provide us with a model of obedient and faith driven responding when we pass through our own valleys, when we walk through our dark moments and when life throws rough tackles at us. And such moments are never in short supply – those moments exactly when we feel we should abandon our shepherd and search for a new one, usually a merchant of honey coated platitudes and utopia who would promise us quick fixes and wonder cures!
The good sheep would not do such a thing – they have an alliance marked by solidity, constancy and complete trust with their shepherd. They know that the words of their shepherd in John 10:10 that He has come so that they may have life in abundance is true – they know a price has been paid to secure and insure this promise and prize. They also know that the price to pay to win this prize at the end our race is obedience and complete and undoubting faith.
May God renew us, may He renew our faith, and may He open our eyes and ears to the signs and voice of the good shepherd.
May we learn to sing the famous words of John Cardinal Newman – Lead, kindly light.
May we surrender to be led by the good shepherd, and may also have the Graces to reach out and invite others to join this flock
and may goodness and mercy surround us as we do. And I am sorry this has turned out to be longer than I had wanted and I feeling too lazy to consider any pruning exercise!
Happy Sunday

 
The ability to see; the courage to speak out!
08 May, 2011, 14:38:34 | Noel Ihebuzor

I am sharing my reflections on this Sunday’s readings from the catholic liturgy!
http://www.usccb.org/nab/050811.shtml
Just two quick points, really, as I want to keep this short and sweet!
• Point 1 – Peter who denied Christ and who flipped flopped is up and speaking with courage and conviction.
The fearful Peter who used to shake “like Shakespeare” is now running over with courage. Fear is banished.
Where does this courage from? I believe it derives from a deep and abiding belief in God and the mission that Christ, His master, friend and redeemer had entrusted to him. It also derives from a personal resolve to accept risks and confront these. This dramatic change in our key personality reminds me of my favorite definitions of courage from contemporary writers and thinkers
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear – (Anon).
Courage is knowing what not to fear. – Plato.
Peter’s courage was to embolden his brethren and represents a significant contribution to the events leading to the blossoming of the early Christian faith. I can imagine the eleven listening to him with mouths wide open, and Thomas, perhaps, our earliest empiricist, saying to himself quietly – “this bobo fit don shak small this morning-o”! But doubt as much as he was prone to, Peter’s courage must also have seeped into him! As Billy Graham once said, “courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened”.
Peter is beginning to deliver on some of the key assignments that his master gave him – “Simon Peter, do you love me”? Answer – yes, of course, I do. You know that I do. “OK, if you love me, feed my sheep”. Here, Simon Peter feeds them with courage, so that they themselves may becomes courageous in turn and feed others in turn – positive courage would thenceforth grow in geometric progression!
• Second point – Cleopas and the other disciple who walk with their Master and fail to recognise HIM!
How come they failed even when we are told and we know their hearts burned for HIM. Recognition failure is an interesting and emerging area of research in cognitive science and intelligence engineering, but since I parted company with the former some twenty one years ago and was never “bright or lucky” enough to study the latter (some nigerians may detect an unintended bendel pun in the last phrase), let me not dabble into any of these areas in my search for possible explanations. Let me just say that some times, we are so engrossed and introspective in our search for God that we fail to recognise HIM as He walks with us, shares our space and walks around us. If we looked outside the box, took our eyes away from the clouds and looked at the untidy rough earth around us, we would see HIM. Perhaps, yes, perhaps! Successful search is predicated on the use of and deployment of effective and relevant and SMART search parameters – and I know some young engineers are going to throw the concept of fuzzy science and fuzzy searches at me in a minute!
May God grant us the vision and the abilityto recognize Him in every day events and people around us.
May God grant us the courage to speak up for HIM!
May God grant us the disposition and courage to give others the courage to speak!
May we have the generosity also to lend our courage and our voice to the discouraged and the voiceless in our society.(Voice is now a major concept and force in all attenpts at democratization, participation and governance. may we join this bandwagon and help others develop voice and courage to speak up and speak out!)
May God elevate us to ever higher levels in our relationship and sharing with HIM and with the needy around us.
May we ask HIM to abide with us. May we abide with and in HIM.
May your Sunday and your week be filled with HIS recognizable presence – amen

Noel

Subject: Readings and reflections 7th August 2011
http://www.usccb.org/nab/080711.shtml

Three quick reflections really on today’s readings

1. We find God and meet Him not in the noise, thunder and dramatics of this world but in simple things and in simple every day activities.
   “Go outside and stand on the mountain before the LORD;
   the LORD will be passing by.”
   “After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound”.

Elijah does not encounter God in the strong and heavy winds, nor in the earthquake nor in the fire but in the simple whispering sound, a sound that speaks to our consciences if only we would listen. In today’s world, unfortunately , the noise, thunder and dramatics of men claiming to speak for God and who now market Him using the most extreme forms of commercialism and showmanship lead us increasingly to focus almost entirely on this model of God – this God of thunder and lightning! Such distortions lead us away from possibilities of encounters with God who comes to us in our quiet moments, talks to our spirits, heals us, renews us, slowly but steadily.
Some messages emerge from this encounter – Listen to the voice of God in small events around you. See God passing bye in the face of the those around you. Reach out to them, and reach out to God. Be careful of what I call earthquake and Tsunami theories of God’s manifestation!

2. When we find God in these simple and daily events of our lives, simple and wonderful things do indeed happen
   Kindness and truth shall meet;
   justice and peace shall kiss.
   Truth shall spring out of the earth,
   and justice shall look down from heaven.
   Notice the simplicity of the events promised when we go to God, when we open our heart to God, when we do His will. But notice also their transformative power for this troubled world of ours. Kindness, Truth, Justice, Peace…..And notice the word “kiss” with its suggestion of sensuality and emotive contact, and the implied meaning that justice and peace shall become like lovers and abide together in true amity. Kindness is the corner stone of peace, and the truth liberates us from the bondage of sin. When there is justice, there is peace…an unjust system cannot have peace. It can only have the semblance of peace as those who are its victims simply bid their time and wait for the moment to rise and retaliate.
3. And finally, of course, there is my favorite apostle Peter, bubbling over and doing what he knows best – the instant Peter, who reminds me of instant coffee, the spontaneous Peter, full of instant vigour, so like us in many ways, full of faith, profuse in his profession of this faith but who surrenders to fear and panic at the first challenge, at the first strong wind of adversity, at the first change in the winds of fortune. He defies Archimedes principle when his faith is strong, one strong wind and all that is gone…he starts to sink, realises he is sinking and call out for rescue! How so much like us.
   So, may we always recognise God when we meet HIM;
   May we attentive to His gentle whispers;
   May we do His will
   May we work to advance Truth, Peace and Justice.
   May we overflow with kindness
   May our faith be strong, may it not falter or fail
   May our faith be seen also in our works, in what we do and in what we say.

wishing us all a great week – no shaking!

The depth of God’s love
http://www.usccb.org/nab/073111.shtml

The readings are best summarised as proof and assurances of God’s great love and providence. In Isaiah, God invites all who thirst, all who hunger, all who are without money to come to HIM, the eternal fountain of that is good and have our feel, and having had our fill in and through him, to feel HIM flow through us and thus to have life.
The psalm takes up the same theme, assuring us that God abounds in mercy, compassion, wealth and is ever willing to respond to our needs. His hands of kindness are outstretched to us in love and kindness and He give food for our souls and for our bodies. All we need do is to approach him in truth and faith.
What then can separate us from the love of such a God? Nothing, nothing should separate us from such a God that abounds in mercy and love and plenty.
The gospel reading also underscores the depth of God’s compassion and love.
“His heart was moved with pity for them” (God’s compassion) and He cured their sick.
Then he fed them in an act that reveals the multiplicative power of God’s love.But to feed then, He required that they gave something! Notice He gave them food from the little they had. The significance here for me is that God multiplies whatever we bring and returns these to us a thousand fold. Thus to whom who gives, to whom who uses his/her talents to give to the needy, God returns the act of generosity in multiplied forms. For God, and indeed in life, there is really no small act of mercy. No act of kindness and giving by us as humans is small ; He judges our hearts and our intentions in giving. If our intentions are to assuage hunger, to quench thirst, to clothe the needy, to provide shelter, to give to the voiceless, to push back the frontiers of lilliteracy, to stop violence, to alleviate (in the short term) and eradicate poverty in the long term, God hears us and then extends and mutliplies our efforts. With the type of compassion which motivated the apostles to approach Christ on behalf of the hungry, we can make hunger and poverty history in the world, simply by giving and asking God to extend and complete. With genuine compassion, the MDGs can therefore come alive. Are we ready to give of the little from what we have to meet the yawning needs of those who are trapped by and in poverty, to those oppressed by hunger, humiliated by poverty and dazed by the indifference of the uncaring and self seeking political class? Remember the the rich man and Lazarus! The rich man had but his heart was dry. His soul was arid. His affluence had imprisoned and dehumanised him. See how he ended. The hand that holds back receives nothing. Indeed, the hand that has and gives not to those who hunger – those for food, for water, for housing, for shelter, for peace and justice – receives the type of condemnation the rich man received. As they say in Bendel/Waffi original english, “at all at all na winch” – “At all at all na him bad pass”. The hand that gives receives. The hand that gives multplies. Caring is sharing and sharing is multiplying. Now you know where my mail signature comes from. May we learn to share. May God increase what we bring to share. And may God increase us as we share with the needy.

Seeds, Weeds and Feeds
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/071011.cfm
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/071711.cfm
The gospel readings for these two Sundays overflow with agricultural imagery — so much so that one is tempted to describe them as the farmers’ favourite! The UNFAO would do well to adopt some the metaphors here for its extension work with rural famers! FIAT PANIS unpacked!
Seeds, weeds and needs! Nutrients, nurture, rich environments, rich soil, care and tendering means growth, harvest, rich dividends! Thorns, dry soils, poor environments, poor care and negligent support lead to poor harvest!

What can one take away from these readings?
• Seeds blossom in the right conditions
• Poor environments can choke the living daylights out of the most potent seed
• Potential and actuation are two different things. Nature needs to nurture to actuate! Potential energy needs to become kinetic energy and the right environment is needed for this happen!
A key message is this – when you plant, support the seed to grow and blossom and support can be in many ways – watering, deepening, weeding, pruning, tendering, nurturing, caring, supporting, manuring the soil etc.
Have you done any of these this week for the seeds you either planted or seeds that are around you? Remember that that just a pinch of yeast can make a difference in the size and beauty of a loaf of bread. Be that good yeast today. Catalyse positive risings. Be a force for spiritual risings and growth.
I also see a second key message – when well nurtured, the potential of growth for any seed is limitless – the parable of the mustard seed is the classic example.
There is also a third message – Bad seeds that hide and mingle with good seeds will be sorted out at harvest time and dealt with.
Seeds that persist in unproductivity when all the enabling conditions for growth and flourish have been provided run the risk of being weeded and caste away! Question – Are we optimizing on all the opportunities that God, family and friends have given to grow, bloom, blossom and self actualize?
If the answer is negative, then today is time to start afresh and recommit to positive growth and to attitudes and actions that would enable us to take off and fly and grow as large as the mustard seed. The future starts now!
And your encouragement should be found in the words of Isaiah 55 and in God’s assurance that His words shall accomplish their purpose and shall not return void. Claim this and ask for the grace to live in manners and act in manners that would actuate this prophesy in your life. Ask for the intercession of the spirit we are assured of in Romans 8. Ask in Faith and Reverence knowing that God is mighty but good, clement and lenient and that He always forgives and gives yet another chance to prove ourselves, to prove ourselves worthy and to grow and flourish and yield the wonderful harvest of beautiful seeds He has planned for our lives.
May your life be one rich and beautiful harvest because of His Grace – amen!

Salt of the earth and light to the world!
06 February, 2011, 19:50:04 | Noel Ihebuzor
Today’s readings are special in many ways. One of them is the clarity of their messages and the beautiful economic case they make for good conduct.
Open the link and savor their special charm!
http://www.usccb.org/nab/020611.shtml
If ever there were readings to be shared with persons aspiring for elected political positions, these are the ones!
If ever there were readings capable, if and when their key messages have been put in practice by all, of healing nations, these are the ones.
If ever there were readings that point a nation, a people and a continent to the path of salvation, of development and of greatness, then surely these are the ones!
if ever there were readings that challenge us in our dual capacities of leaders and the led to challenge the evil present for a more assured future, then these are the ones!
If ever there were readings that put social justice, equity, inclusiveness, care for the poor, the sick, the destitute, the afflicted at the core of their messages, these are the ones!
If ever there were readings that challenge us to shine the lights of liberation, to stand up and stand out and become beacons of freedom and agents for positive change, these are the ones!
The promises are clear – if we do this, God will do that…care for the poor, remove oppression, move away from lies, deceit, false accusations and distortions – and God will raise you, justify you, vindicate you and become your defender!
Pursue sound and inclusive macroeconomic policies and God will elevate you as a nation.
Institutionalize good governance, transparency, rule of rule, free and fair elections and God will respond by ushering in a reign of happiness and stability where all the gloom of of the past would be no more!
Two words deserve some comment – Salt and Light – as they are closely linked to this vision moral rectitude, transparency, cleanliness, and social responsibility that the readings stress.
Salt is noted for its taste giving and seasoning value. In addition, too, salt does have purifying and sanitizing qualities when used in the right proportions. In some instances, salt is also used to preserve and conserve. As salt of the earth therefore we are called upon to add taste and purity to all engagements we find ourselves in – be it the home, the work place and in our communities.
Light stands in oppositional relationship with darkness. Light clears up darkness, rolls back the frontiers of obscurity and ignorance, reveals that which is concealed, conduces to transparency and illuminates the path and brightens the soul. Whereas darkness can cover evil, light reveals it and takes away its hiding place. As a light of the world therefore we are expected to light up the way, lead the way, become social crusaders for justice, speak up, lend our eyes and voices to the blind and voiceless and push back against all the evils, malpractices and social ills that hold men and women captive.
What God wants us to do is clear.
Let each of us have a soul and a life fired by a social vision.
Let each of us live life fired by a spirit of care and compassion.
Let each of us live a life driven by the eternal virtues of truthfulness, honesty, sincerity, simplicity, justice and a dedication to higher values, perpetually seeking the light…and rejecting and fleeing darkness, saying no to greed, falsehood, deceit, vanity and all vices.
May the power of the spirit of God animate us with wisdom to choose to live by these words, to act them out in our daily lives and embolden us to share their message of justice, fairnmess and liberation to all, amen!
May we be that city on the hill…and may our lights shine wipe away all that is done in darkness and all that is evil, Amen, amen, amen!

Wey your cross? A beg, pick am up and carry go, jo-o!
byNoel Ihebuzor on Sunday, 20 June 2010 at 19:15
I am sharing readings from the catholic liturgy for this Sunday with you. I have also included my own naive reflections on these readings.I have decided deliberately to focus on the Gospel reading and indeed on the last part that has wordings that anticipate Calvary and the culmination of Christ redemptive and salvific mission.

Noel

 
The beauty of the beatitudes
06 February, 2011, 19:24:25 | Noel Ihebuzor
http://www.usccb.org/nab/013011.shtml
The readings of Sunday 30/01/2011 were on the Beatitudes. The wonderful thing about the Beatitudes for me is the way they subvert our worldly logic. They overflow with paradoxes. Strength becomes weakness, and weakness transforms to become strength, sorrow becomes the access point to joy, poverty to wealth and inheritance and it goes on!
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” the poor in spirit becoming heirs to the most enduring kingdom launches us into this logic where our “taken-for-granteds” are suddenly challenged and a new and fresh jolt given to our worldly ways of thinking. What is not happening? Paul takes us to the heart of this subversion of our conventional logic when he says
Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise,
and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong,
and God chose the lowly and despised of the world,
those who count for nothing,
to reduce to nothing those who are something,
Incidentally, Mary speaks on this same type of subversion in her Magnificat…the elevation of the lowly and the humbling of the arrogant…and this same theme points the way to God’s physical, salvific and symbolic response to those in need. The responsorial psalm too touches in part of God’s care for the lowly. Yes, but even more it reminds us of the faithfulness of God, His ability and constant willingness to protect the poor, the orphans, the strranger, the homeless, It tells us of God’s immense compassion, a compassion that leads HIM in His mercies to feed and clothe the poor and the destitute, to restore sight to the blind and to lead those who have gone astray or are in need of direction,
But I am drawn back to the Beatitudes and their promises. And their beauty and the cadence in their structure! It is not for nothing that the wordings of the beatitudes have now become the lyrics of a chart busting album. But beyond the elegance of the prose, I should say poetry, I have found them to be rich as guides and instructions for useful living. Indeed, I find them exploding in challenges for me to examine my life when I read them as personal questions posed to me by our ever loving God!
Am I meek? Am humble, lowly in spirit? Do I shun conceit and arrogance? Do I recognize God’s supremacy and strength? Do I recognize that my strength comes from God? Am I sold to the pursuit of power and position? Am I loud, boastful, a show off, a shine-shine bobo?
Am I poor in spirit? Do I recognize my shortcomings before God and man? Am like the Pharisee who went before God on a self praise campaign and self promotion? Do I always want to be seen as all knowing, believing that I have the monopoly of wisdom and insights? Am I the typical ITK ; the I Too Know, so full of myself that I know everything save perhaps the humbling truth that I am completely ignorant of the profundity of my ignorance?

Do I hunger for what is right and just? Do I seek for what is right for myself and others? Do I speak up when social ills are being visited on society or do I maintain a convenient and expedient silence? Do I look the other when the rights of others are being violated? Do I demonstrate social vision? Do I work for the creation of community social capital and to use these to deliver services to myself and others?
Am I merciful? Do I forgive wrongs? Do I forget wrongs? Or do I have a constantly updating database of wrongs done to me which I log into to regularly to refresh my mind? Do I show compassion for the poor?
Do I have a clean heart? Is my heart like that of baby? Clean and clear with no thought of mischief, of evil of cunning, of deceit and deception, of falsehood?
Do I make peace? Do I create the conditions for peace? Where there is disharmony, do I magnify it or do I try to bring the estranged and warring parties to a new and common ground? Am a disciple of conflict resolution or do I simply add fuel to a brewing crisis?
Where my answer to any of these is negative (and I must say I come frequently up with negatives in this self-examination) then I sit back and marvel at what mercies and graces of God I exclude myself from as a consequence! I then quickly try to correct myself, recognizing my errors and asking for divine graces to move beyond them.
Read in this way, the question after going through the beatitudes is no longer “is there a lesson for us in these readings”? Rather the emphasis shifts to my behavior, to my current limitations and to the things and God’s goodies I am excluding myself from as a result of trying to live by human logic. Suddenly it hits me that I short change myself when I live by human logic and then I ask God to let his logic prevail to let His will be done and to ask that His light leads me to recognizing and accepting and living by His Wisdom.
The Beatitudes speak to us today. Are we willing to listen and learn…and from learning to then truly live? Herein lies the beauty of the beatitudes – the fact that they challenge us and also indirectly point us to the path of holiness and amity with God and man. Incidentally, the word beatitude derives it root from a Latin word, BEATUS, which means “blessed”!
May God bless us and sustain us in our effort to live His words and seek His face, amen.
Noel

 
Swords into plowshares….
byNoel Ihebuzor on Tuesday, 30 November 2010 at 18:59
http://www.usccb.org/nab/112810.shtml
As I am sharing this Sunday’s readings (28/11/2010) from the catholic liturgy with you, I am unable to stop my mind from flashing back to half a century ago, yes, you heard, (sorry, you read) correctly. Then I was young, my eyes were hazel brown, my hair was full and I was dashingly handsome, men were men and women were women (I steer clear of trouble as I refuse to quote a famous line from the passport of Mallam Iliya which I read in 1964 – “when men were men and women were won by those who deserved them” as I am not sure I would have won any woman if such situations had been allowed to prevail – thank God!).
Where was I? yes, when fifty years ago when I was young, this Sunday would signal the commencement of Xmas season and mood, and the great DB (my dad) would go shopping, and soon two huge goats would be bought and brought to our quarters, and Val and I would spend time looking for grass to feed them….Yes, advent, ekeresimesi, and soon the air would be full of “Noel, Noel Noel …Val is the king of Israel” playing from the huge black record on our family grammar phone we wound manually and with pins that we scraped on the floor to sharpen whenever they blunted! (“Val is the king” and not “born is the king” it had to be since that was the only way to manage sibling rivalry as my elder brother would be otherwise incensed that a whole song was dedicated to me during the festive period…and so DB came up with the ingenious solution of persuading us, especially Val, that the word we thought was “born” was actually “Val”. My younger brother followed all of this with amused indifference – after all, had DB not told him earlier that the full import of his name was that he was the LAMB of God!)

Those were days…but back to the special significance of this Sunday.
Yes, the first Sunday of advent announces Christmas. It announces an important period in the church’s calendar. It announces for me a period, a season of Reconciliation, Return, Reunion, Restoration, Rejoicing and Renewal and the Recommencement of the Re-enactment of our Salvation – God and man reconciled, Emmanuel – God with us, Angels and shepherds, earthly kings and a heavenly prince, Grandeur and Humility, Royalty and Simplicity, the imminence of the kingdom and the need for us to prepare, to be on the alert and even readier than Ever Ready batteries!.Four Sundays from today, it will be Christmas, and a week after we are in a new year. You will be amazed how the weeks will rush bye in the coming days…..I can smell Kreesmos, the season with a reason!
Finally, permit me to share with you my rambling reflections on the following lines from Isaiah (taken from the first reading) whose beauty, symbolism, cadence, simplicity and force amaze, fascinate and inspire all at the same time.
“They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; No nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord”!
The first two lines should be familiar – they adorn the walls of the UN building in NY. They are a strong message for peace, amity and harmony among nations and peoples. Swords, spears, pruning hooks plowshares are all indexical and metonymic in their functions in this passage – swords and spears representing wars, violence, discord, hatred, enmities – all that is destructive. They are opposed to instruments of production, instruments that feed and sustain humanity, instruments for transformation and growth. Amazing how Isaiah manages to make a convincing case how we as humans can tame the savage part of us and convert all that destructive energy into positive force…and all that is possible when we work in the light of the Lord. When we walk in the light of the Lord, instead of beating our neighbor or our spouse or our partner, we beat our swords into factors of production. Whenever however we surrender to the dictates of our raw and savage impulses, we succumb to darkness, and the dark day of the sword and spear is upon us, bringing with it misery, suffering, destruction and all that is ugly and vile. We lock ourselves into a spiral of violence. We all lose in the end, both victor and vanquished because the victory of the victor is transient – most times it breeds resentment and hatred in the vanquished who bids his/her time to strike back, to revenge, to avenge – in the end, all that live by the sword die by the sword! Let us therefore renounce the sword and the spear. Let us therefore say No to the culture of violence which the sword and spear symbolize.
But swords and spears manifest in different forms and shapes. They can manifest as the sharp tongue, the slandering tongue, the punching fists, the kicking feet, hatred, grudges, the swindle, the expropriation of others, exploitation, the bullying others, aggression, intolerance, spouse battering, bigotry, brutality etc. All these stand between us and our fellow human beings and create obstacles between us and God, a God who comes knocking on our doors waiting to be let in, especially in this period of advent. The peace that advent promises is only possible when we tame these destructive feelings and negative inclinations that seek to invade us and dominate and damage our relationship with neighbor and God. Can we try to tame and domesticate them for good? Can I invite you to check which sword and spear dominate your life for now? Can I challenge you to try to still the voice of self-righteousness that wants to make you believe that guilt lies elsewhere, that deceptive voice that seeks to exculpate you and inculpate others? Ignore that voice and do a good scan and when you have identified your own sword and spear, take them out and convert them creatively to positive energy for constructive action.
Our God comes to you. make smooth the highway he will travel to reach you, prepare your abode, spruce up your abode – mental, physical, and spiritual, so that God finds a good reception when He comes such that He can reside and abide with you.
Enjoy this first Sunday of advent, enjoy Advent, and may we prepare well to receive the prince of peace in dignity, in peace and with total joy! – AMEN!

Noel

 
The elevating power of humility
byNoel Ihebuzor on Monday, 30 August 2010 at 05:18
http://www.usccb.org/nab/082910.shtml
I am sharing Today’s readings from the catholic liturgy with you along with some of my rambling and uncoordinated reflections on them.
The uniting theme I see for all the readings today is HUMILITY. Our God, through these readings invites us to be, become and remain humble. The gospel chooses a social event we can all relate to – a wedding, to illustrate how critical it is to be humble. In a world where we all grow up acquiring assertiveness, self-focus and self-marketing as key survival and social mobility skills, a message that focuses on humility is not very likely to receive a very warm reception. Yes, such a message could be perceived as irrelevant, outdated and infact, subversive. And yet the same message we could see as subversive with its key focus on humility should indeed be one of the principal chapters in our little journey companion, our VADE MECUM of useful precepts for a happy life on earth and hereafter.Humility is salutary and elevating for all of humanity who God created in an act of humility (making humanity in His own image and likeness) and boundless love. Later when humanity fell from a combination of a failure of humility and unbridled aspiration, God again reunited/reconciled Humanity to Himself through another act of love involving Jesus Christ who himself was and is a perfect model of humility. However, in life, it is not uncommon to find that we as humans turn away from God’s precepts for effective living, given what we consider to the unpalatable nature and “subversive-ness” of God’s logic. Yet our judgments on such matters are flawed precisely because of the time bounded-ness of human rationality! For are we not reminded, and correctly too, that what is wise to us humans could be folly in God’s scheme of things.
But let us return for a moment on the situation in parable and you will immediately also see why it is prudent and practical to show humility. You arrive at a social event, Mr or Mrs“Big Stuff”, you immediately place yourself high, on the high table, as the expression now goes in Nigeria. Someone higher than you arrives and the Master of Ceremonies promptly moves you down – you are down stepped, rank shifted but to a lower level! You lose face! You are embarrassed! You could have avoided this with some humility! Also remember that God comes against the arrogant and the proud…and I suspect you begin to appreciate the double jeopardy your pride, arrogance and lack of humility are leading you to.
Let us now turn and look at the rewards of humility. Christ humbled himself even to become a man and further to endure death on the cross and because of this humility, He has been elevated above all creatures and sits at the right hand of God. The image of the suffering servant in Isaiah 53 stands in sharp contrast to that of the Messiah clothed in glory! The difference is clear. You humble yourself, God exalts you, God elevates you. You elevate yourself, God humbles you! This is the complete reversal of logic, at least to us humans.
The Beatitudes overflow with this same reversal of and challenge to conventional wisdom. (I use “conventional wisdom” in the sense that JK Galbraith, that famous scholar and economist, used it to describe a self-serving, convenient and “feel good”wisdom/belief that is in vogue even when its purveyors know that it is not always true – here, expedience and convenience triumph over truth and true wisdom). But let us return to our main theme of the uplifting value of humility, how by lowering oneself before God, you actually get to elevate yourself. Read Matthew’s account of the “Sermon on the Mount” and you will notice this subversion. You will be jolted by it. On the question of humility, verses 3 and 4 are most apposite, though there is an internal coherence in all these “reversed” values for it is only when one is truly meek and poor in spirit (read poor in spirit to mean “one who disdains haughtiness, egoism, arrogance, self-pride and abandons himself/herself willingly to God’s superior reason and logic”) that one become clean of heart, can show mercy, become a peacemaker etc etc. And notice the rewards – inheriting the earth, admission into the kingdom of heaven, comfort, receivers of mercies unlimited!
Wow, real wow! Wetinunadey wait for. Oya let us all HAN LELE and forward quick march to the barracks of humility – to borrow Zebrudia-Jegede type of language!
The Magnificat, which I call Mary’s love song also takes up this theme of humility. Read it loud, recite it and dance along with it and live it its core message in your every day life. See what the Lord has done to His lowly servant. Read it and marvel – see how God has exalted the lowly Mary, how he has filled the hungry with good things! yes, God elevates and rewards the humble, those who like Mary called themselves the handmaid of the Lord, and those who surrender to his love, to his wisdom, to his beautiful purpose. Contrast this to the “reward” of the proud, the rich, the conceited whom he has scattered with their conceit and sent away empty. Read empty to also mean “deflated”, like a balloon that has pin pricked and which now engages in a zigzag of uncoordinated and direction-less motion as air escapes from it. Soon the former swollen balloon becomes hollow, form-less and crumpled and devoid of any bounce. Yes, it is now emptied…of its former force, of its former appeal, of its former beauty! All that dengue posing don vanish patapata. All thatshakara don go…all datwakakuru-kere don finish. Ditto for the arrogant bounce! Given all this, the wise must flee Vanity, Arrogance and Self Pride like pests.
Yes, Choose humility!Leave behind your haughtiness, leave behind your pride, leave behind your sense of power and might, leave behind your self seeking…yes, leave all these things behind – they are vanities, yes, vanity upon vanities and lead us nowhere except to trap us in a ever widening circle of quick sands of beauty seeking, land grabbing, election rigging, embezzlement, corrupt practices, rent seeking behavior and arrogance all of which end up sucking us into a morass of emptiness, spiritual, emotional and social, to bottomless emptied and emptying voids somewhat akin, and here I stray dangerously into physics, to Einsteinian type black holes from which once sucked in, return and escape are virtually impossible. Vanity, arrogance and self pride are like malignant tumors – once you allow them entry and they invade you,…in no time, they will be crowding the live tissues and suffocating and choking the living daylights out of you. Flee them. Run from them. Run to the new life. Embrace the new life, a life that stresses humility, kindness, mercy, openness to God and neighbour, contentment.
Take a look around us and notice how those who have humbled themselves, those who have reasoned along the elevating humility lines of John the Baptist have been elevated.have stood out in contemporary history – Gandhi was an epitome of humility – yet his greatness lay there-in. Buddha was humble, so was Confucius. Coming closer home, Mother Theresa, Mandela..each story tells itself.
Two men person go into a place of prayer – and one spends time running God through a documentary of achievements, good deeds, alms giving, fidelity in religious observances, self appraised moral correctness. The other simply kneels down and recalls and accepts his/her sinfulness and shortcomings and asks God for forgiveness and Grace to move ahead and beyond. God accepts the latter not the former! The message again is clear – God accepts the humble and comes against the arrogant.
So are you humble and what are your indicators?
tolerance for other’s views?
self abasement?
openness to criticism?, accepting you could be wrong?
not boastful, not arrogant? not conceited?
self examination?
simplicity, temperance?
Am I humble – I knew you would ask and would indeed you did not ask me – but since you do, I am not sure that I am, but I recognise my weaknesses and seek to address them. I seek humility, I flee pride, I seek the simple life, I seek God’s favours and His Graces for a life of faith, hope charity and humility and my journey is to learn and practice and to live these virtues. May it also be your lot to have these same graces, Amen.
I need to feel your Amen – say it LOUD. Better, now I can feel you!

 
Love as the enabler and opener
Two in one – decongesting my draft box of write ups that have been in draft form for too long – can you imagine – I drafted these during lent and they have been in mail box gathering cyber dust!
http://www.usccb.org/nab/021311.shtml
http://www.usccb.org/nab/022011.shtml
The readings leading up to the commencement of lent this year are very rich in challenges
For a start, they challenge us to abandon hate and embrace love….this indeed must be the spiritual foundation for the peace movement message – make love, a message incidentally which has now been severely abused and distorted from its original pure intentions in anumber of quarters and circles.
Then there is the challenge for us to be holy as our God is holy and to forgive and to bear no grudges or hatred in our hearts. We are not to seek revenge. Rather, we are enjoined in Leviticus to love our neighbour as ourselves and not to let the very act of reproving our neighbour become an occasion for us! Hard stuff!
The gospel message is even deeper – move away from the mosaic law of an eye for an eye and embrace unconditional love. Yes, love your enemies, pray for those who prosecute you, if someone wants to take your tunic, give him himor her your cloak as well, someone wants you to go one mile, do not argue, instead go two miles….and wait for this, when slapped, turn the other cheek! I remeber one of my parish priests when I lived in Kwali, Abuja, one Rev Fr. Mike Ekpeyong telling me one evening with this typical efik accent – “Noel, Christianity har-o! The thing hard well well” and He was spot on. For what the religious life demands of us is the taming of the savage. Indeed the challenge is to total surrender and a renunciation of our raw and untamed instincts. It is a challenge to genuine giving and genuine kindness where the act is done without any thought of reciprocation
For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?
Do not the tax collectors do the same?
Yes, the message here is clear – true love gives without thought of reward or reciprocation. It does stands in contra-distinction to what for want of a better term I will call hard investment love, the hard nose business investment driven love which gives lavishly and with pomp and display and anticipates direct returns on investment. This is the calculating instrumental emotion we all so anxiously want to pass off as love. You only need to go to the funerals or marriages of any of the relations of our worldly big wigs to see this type of investment love and giving in action – a giving which is calculated and driven by a calculating and shrewd lavishness. Ask the same person to give to a poor beggar on the street and the wells of kindness immediately dry up and the hand that was so lavish some second ago freezes, hardens and becomes like stone! As Zebee would say to Ovuleria – Fafafa foul! Our God does not want any of that. Give to all, to those who you love and to more importantly to those you do not know, driven by the same spirit as drove the now famous samaritan man!
Hard message to swallow! Christianity hard-o! yet this is the core of it! and the gospel passage ends by urging us to perfection as our God is perfect. Islam makes the same demands too of the faithful – for the Prophet Muhammed (SAW/PBOH) said –
“Spend in the name of Allah and do not hold back lest Allah withhold His blessings from you” underscoring the fact that the major religions converge on the social and redemptive power of giving.
The Sunday before this, the readings enjoin us to choose to live by the commandments of God. We are offered a choice between fire and water, between good and evil and between life and death. The person who chooses to live by the commandments, by the Laws of God, is blessed by God.
Blessed are they whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the LORD.
Blessed are they who observe his decrees,
who seek him with all their heart.
We must pray for God’s spirit to guide us to choose wisely as our capacity for sound choices is limited by too much focus on the here and now, by our vanity, by our shortsightedness and by our obsession with our imagined intelligence.
For in deluding ourselves that we are wise, we are simply being vain. True wisdom can only come from God and we must seek His face and His ways as we pray in humility
Instruct me, O LORD, in the way of your statutes,
that I may exactly observe them.
Give me discernment, that I may observe your law
and keep it with all my heart.
A person who prays thus and who keeps God’s laws in his/her heart has embraced true wisdom, not the wisdom of this age as Paul is anxious to point to his readers. Such a person in choosing wisely to live by God’s laws manifests immense love for God and by that act then walks into the full circle and embrace of God’s love. The rewards defy description
What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard,
and what has not entered the human heart,
what God has prepared for those who love him,
The gospel reading on its part for this particular Sunday packs plenty of punch. We must shun anger, evil thoughts, lustfulness, harsh words, the cutting remark, hurtful comments. We must avoid all occasions of sin and here the message is put so forcefully and so dramatically as to drive it home – if your eyes cause you to sin, pluck them out. if your hands cause you to sin, cut them off! what could be more dramatic! And in all of this the message of amity, reconciliation and communnal cohesion emerge – if you have a grudge against your brother, better reconcile with him before bringing your offerings to God’s altar. Settle your differences with persons you are in disagreement with. These are hard messages to swallow and even more hard to digest! They conflict with many aspects of life here on earth and with our natural inclinations.
We are challenged to renounce conflict and to seek peace. Hard and impossible as these may sound, there is plenty sense in these prescription. For enmity simply breeds more enmity and can only be broken by the cessation of enmity. The world is replete with examples of what happens when enmity is left to run wild and the dogs of hatred are unleashed. So here is suggestion that may read as emerging from an overdose of pacifism – let us commit to wiping off all of our enemies and thereby end enmity! and my recipe? Simple – make all your enemeies to become your friends. You only need to read Isaiah’s idyll of where sheep and lion commune in bliss to derive inspiration to join this crusade for peace and an end to hatred.
Concluding words
In the end we must always remind ourselves of the richness of God’s mercies and love. He awaits us, as a father awaits the return of a prodigal son. He is willing to welcome back to His ways and favours once we return as Psalm 103 assures
He pardons all your iniquities,
heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
crowns you with kindness and compassion.
Yes, indeed, The Lord is kind and merciful.
Let us return to him with humble hearts as His compassion on His children has no limits, He abounds in compassion and is ever willing to blot out all our transgressions. He is
slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
Not according to our sins does he deal with us,
nor does he requite us according to our crimes.
May your reading and reflections on these rambling reflections lead you to positive thoughts and actions, to compassion, to forgiveness and to the true religious life – a life summarised simply as one characterised Love of God and love of neighbour and the oursuit of Godly virtues – amen.

Vanity is nothing, Values are everything!
byNoel Ihebuzor on Saturday, 07 August 2010 at 18:04
http://www.usccb.org/nab/080110.shtml

I am sharing the readings from 01/08/2010 as well as my mini reflections on them. I shall be focusing on the search for true and enduring values , a must for us all if we are to move beyond our current impasse in development in most African countries. To move forward, we must shun vanities, and rediscover and embrace true and enduring values

The first reading is very sobering and unless read in its proper context, could be interpreted as an invitation to resignation, to withdrawal, to despair, pessimism and even to nihilism. However, read in its proper context as an invitation to suscribe to, abandon our selves to and align our efforts to God, the true, unchanging and ultimate source that confers meaning and essence to our earthly existence, the passage induces a wonderful eureka feeling – at least that is what it did for me. The same theme of the futility of a focus on earthly possessions comes across strongly in the gospel reading and takes my mind back to distant echoes from catechism classes as a young child when the expression “what does it profit a man (or woman) to gain the whole world and suffer the loss of His (her) soul”? struck me and has stuck on me ever since then?
How true Christ’s words ring today – “Guard against greed”. And how particularly apt for all and sundry in challenged third world economies where greed, kleptocracy, cronyism and insatiable materialism have become gods, have skewed our visions, corrupted our thoughts and thinking and are slowly snuffing the life out of our countries. And yet all that is vanity – and the effect of such vanities is there for all to see. Yes, you see them in the emptiness of lives in spite of plenty, the impossibility to climb on to the trajectory of development despite huge and lavish natural resource endowments, the hollowness of life when saddled with unimaginative leadership that defines itself by reference to material acquisitions only, parliaments that vote huge and sinful pay rises for themselves whilst the people they are supposed to serve wallow in abject and deepening poverty, the vicious cycle of gloom and slide down to the slippery slopes of developmental stasis and frigidity, yes, all of these are evidence of vanities, vanities upon vanities. As greed hypertrophies, the conscience whittles and atrophies, and calluses surround and clutter the soul and mind of the greedy and crowd out good sense and moral responsibility – and we sink further and further as blindness overtakes the nation. Our greed blinds us. Our vanity blinds and we become slaves to material things even as we enslave others and mortgage our nations. But as our poverty enslaves, we become poorer as persons – and this is precisely the tragedy of the man/woman who has sold his/her soul to the pursuit of material things – the tragedy of poor empty lives despite being surrounded by trappings of affluence and materialism – and this is the sad story of Africa. There is a tragedy in the affliction/psychosis which I describe, for want of better words, as the vanishing satiation point syndrome. Devotees to the pursuit of vanity upon vanities are prime examples of sufferers from this psychosis, which sadly enough is also self inflicted. They suffer from this debilitating affliction which is fuelled by their greed and which feeds in turn on their greed. They eat without ever being filled, without ever being satisfied, drink and yet are forever thirsty, build fortresses and yet are forever insecure and fragile, surrounded by wealth yet wretched to the core in every sense of the word. They eat, eat and eat and consume as they are also consumed and hollowed by this psychosis – nothing is safe, nothing is sacred. Nothing better symbolizes how vacuous and impossible this type of life is than the illustration of the snake which swallows its own tail!.All because of vanity, all because of false values, and all very sad and debilitating in manifestation and impact.
Salvation will only come from a rediscovery of true value, from a recommitment to the source of all goodness, from a return to the virtues that our God teaches us. If you want these in short hand, please read Galatians 5, 22-23. There the fruits of the spirit are laid out. These are virtues and make for a virtuous life and for progress in societies
May God inspire us to live these virtues for our own good and to His Glory, Amen.

The good Samaritan as the model for engaged and true love
byNoel Ihebuzor on Sunday, 11 July 2010 at 22:03
The parable of the Good Samaritan, (along with that of the Prodigal Son), is one of the parables in the Christian scriptures that suffers no explanation. It is simple, direct and very human. So, one runs the risk of boring the reader by any efforts, no matter how well meaning, to unpack and to reflect on it.Indeed, it is only with lucid and transparent parables like these two that the Igbo proverb which says that “if a proverb said to you during a conversation has also to be interpreted to you before you can understand it, then the bride price and dowry paid on your mother’s head were wasted” has any claims to any truth value!

So, two comments only (since I know that the bride price and dowries paid for our mums were not wasted), and I hope I can keep these short and simple…· Who is my neighbor?

The parable shows that it is everybody and all of us! For if a Samaritan could go the extra mile for a Jew, not minding cultural and religious differences, then we can do better. The Samaritan demonstrated his love of neighbor by action and thereby also confirmed his love of God. For the love of God is manifested through devotion to God and also through good works to humans who are created in God’s image and likeness. We cannot honestly say we love God and yet are unable to show love for humanity.

The ordeal the man endured at the hand of robbers – what is its significance?

For me, this ordeal symbolizes all forms of violence and injustices that men and women go through in the process of living and for which they will need some human assistance to respond to, cope with and hopefully move beyond.And the incidences of violence are there for all of to see – physical violence, gender based violence, the battered housewife who lives just next door, the young person suffering from emotional trauma, the victims of hatred whose emotional scars are there for all to see, victims of kidnappings, resource rich environments being constantly despoiled by insensitive multinationals, the little man and woman who are victims of indifferent bureaucracy, perversions and miscarriage of justice, the innocent who is suddenly turned into the criminal because of his/her voicelessness and powerlessness, the woman denied access to basic medical care because kleptocrats have emptied the state coffers, the socially excluded, those who “drink and eat poverty” in situations of plenty, the victims of greed, persons stripped of their dignity by a callous and uncaring system, the person who was rigged out of a post he very clearly won, the lady who suffers social harassment and sustained violence in the workplace …..they are all there. And we are sometimes like the Levite and the priest, we simply walk on bye…..we have more pressing engagements, “wey my own inside, owo le kan mi mbe? Which one konsine me sef….etc etc.And we walk on bye and do our best to dismiss the disturbing spectacle from our thoughts, from our minds….to shut out the strident pleas for help of the needy, yes we often walk on bye and past and engage in sophistry to rationalize our inaction and our refusal to care and to act, we reel out excuses though the reasons we give simply do not convince even us ourselves!· And so what next?

Observe the story line in the parable – violence, a victim, a situation of hopelessness, human compassion, human action, selfless uncalculating human action, then a solution and hopeless solution is reversed, hope is restored and healing commences. The Samaritan saw a situation, he analyzed, he identified the needed intervention and he intervened.
Perception, reflection, decision to commit, decision of what to do and action. No sterile agonizing – just plain focused action. Being a good Samaritan involves focused and strategic action. Know what the situation demands, know your capacity and limitations, deploy, act.
God invites us today to become good Samaritans. It is only proper that we do so. After all He set the perfect the perfect example of total unselfish love when He emptied Himself completely for us. It also makes good economics. His word tells us that with an investment of Love of God (with all your heart, might and soul) and love of neighbor, you gain eternal life. Rock solid practical economics and good business sense would steer us in the direction of the right choice, the right business decision and the right investment, since any cost benefit analysis would show that your returns on such an investment are limitless.
Reach out today and help somebody – you will be surprised how you would have rescued someone from the prison walls of suffering, from self pity, sorrow, from a loneliness that gnaws away at the soul and opened him/her up to God’s love manifested through human agency. I touch on this phenomenon in one of my poems – a song for onye obi oma m, ndi obi oma, and I have also provided a link line to this poem which I pasted in an earlier note on Facebook. It is worth reading! I cannot end without pointing out the key message/theme of helping others finds expression in some of the songs that are now part of our music culture – forgive me if I got the titles of the songs wrong
“Lean on me” – Bill Withers…..yes, we all need someone to lean on. Be a good Samaritan. Lend a shoulder, lend a wiling ear, lend a hand , lend your time, show some empathy.
“Reach out and touch” – Diana Ross. Yes, reach out and touch someone and make the world a better place!”Heal the world, make the world a better place” – MJ – do something today to assist those in need and to heal our fractured society…..and hear the voices of those who hum along with MJ as he sings “Hold me… lift me up… I am only human” Yes the voice that sings, that cries out to be held up, to be helped out is only human… and so much like you! He needs your compassion and action. Be God’s willing instrument to help him/her move forward and beyond, for he/she is made in the image of God who is love and who is our model of self lessand total love!

Happy sunday

A voice for social justice

http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/071110.shtml
http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/092610.shtml
http://www.usccb.org/nab/

Today’s first reading again returns us to the theme of social justice and to social inequities. We hear the Prophet Amos still railing against the high and mighty, who live in opulence whilst the rest of the people languish in poverty. Beds of ivory, lamb chops, best oils…all betray this extravagant lifestyle in the midst of poverty…and then the direct condemnation of such lifestyle as wanton revelry which will be done away it. Sounds familiar? Same question I asked last week, and I am sure it the answer is YES.
The gospel reading – the encounter between Lazarus and the rich man with its very stark and I should add very disturbing depiction of pathos and images of poverty – a poor person who would have eaten the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table, his covered with sores….I will skip the other detail in the story which I find extremely disturbing, is left starving whilst the rich gorge and stuff themselves with food and all the delicacies of the period. I see this story not so much as a condemnation of being rich but rather a condemnation of the uncaring mindset. It is the condemnation of a man who has become imprisoned by his wealth to the point that he fails to see the poverty around him. It is the condemnation of a man who has the resources to help but who refuses to. It is a condemnation of a man whose soul has been corroded to the core by his obsession with wealth. His wealth has destroyed him. I recall lines from one of Bob Dylan’s song – “A hard rain a-gonna fall” where Dylan talks of a man who was wounded in hatred. Let me borrow from Dylan and say that the rich man here was wounded by richness and that his obsession with wealth has produced a festering wound that has left huge holes and sores all around his soul, even larger than the sores on poor Lazarus. How can you have and not care? How can you have and not share? How could a man’s soul atrophy to such an extent?
And yet our society is characterised by these same tendencies, these same cleavages, these same indifference where excessive wealth comfortably co-habits with extreme misery and poverty, a society where those can care refuse to care, and look the other way, a society where basic social services are almost non-existent whilst the rich fly out to the best medical facilities even for headaches, a society where communal resources are siphoned by the strong few to sustain a life of wanton revelry.
Bob Dylan, now every one will know how fond I am of this artiste, asked key questions in his song “Blowing in the wind”……these are hard questions asked to an uncaring world but which demand reflection and answers all the same!
Our responsibility is to bring these questions to the attention of policy makers, to call policy makers attention to the need to act to address poverty, to join with others to give voice to the voiceless, to give hope to the wretched in our societies, to restore decency and dignity to the Lazarus of our societies. Our inspiration should be as in the epistle to Timothy to aspire to eternal life and to a fitting and caring life here on earth in a life where we pursue “righteousness,
devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness” and I should add social justice, equity and poverty alleviation. May God grant us the Graces to these and more. Let me hear an AMEN to that.

The “wise servant” and social justice
I am sharing the readings from today’s catholic liturgy with you along with my puny effort to reflect on portions therefrom.
I have also included an audio of it
http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/10_09_19.mp3
http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/091910.shtml
I will be focusing on the first reading today because the gospel reading leaves me confused. For how could a clearly dishonest servant be held up as a model of prudent behavior and even be rewarded by his master. The two key dangers in governance of common goods are there in this gospel story – moral hazard, information asymmetry and principal agent problems. The dishonest servant has clearly exploited the information asymmetry in his favor and used another person’s resources to feather his own nest, to build alliances for himself which will cushion any hardships that could come with his imminent retirement, to further his own agenda and build cozy fall backs for himself. I need a theologian to help me out here, how can a dishonest person be held up as a model for prudent conduct? Pragmatic and street wise, yes, he certainly, moral, he certainly is not!
I can see people who have mismanaged or embezzled funds being comfortable with this scripture and trying to buy redemption through excessive largesse with misappropriated funds, and there are quite a lot of these in our countries.
But dishonesty is dishonesty…and I am happy when I read that the person who is dishonest in small matters will be dishonest in large ones. Ditto for honesty and trustworthiness. May we be found trustworthy and honest in whatever situation we find ourselves in, for it is only by so doing that we will be able to hold up holy hands in supplication to God our father.
Let me now return to Amos, a solid model of a social crusader in the old testament. Amos lambasted the social decadence in Israel at the time he wrote. He comes against the flourishing culture of social injustice, the high-handedness of the mighty, their exploitation of the poor, their lack of social and moral vision and their abandonment of reason and decency to the gods of crass commercialism/materialism and greed. Sounds familiar? Yes, reading Amos, one gets the uncomfortable feeling that Amos must have been catapulted forward in time to Nigeria or to the typical third world country where greed, corruption, maladministration, suffering in the midst of plenty, abject poverty and failure of basic social services have become the norm. How can we be so poor when we are so blessed with natural resources? The answer is to be found in the new god of greed that we all worship. How can be so low on all the indicators of development? Why are infant mortality rates, our under five mortality rates, our maternal mortality rates, our illiteracy rates and our rates of water borne infections so high? Why has our public education system collapsed to the point that our primary schools have become a factory to turn out semi-illiterates? What explains the thriving culture of sorting in our higher institutions? Or the epilepsy that characterizes our power supply and the death of our public water and works systems? And the fake drugs? And rent seeking behavior among public servants? And the farce of our elections and the total failure and sometime outright disgrace that leadership in virtually all the levels – federal, state and local government have become. Public service is no longer about serving. It is now about stealing and stuffing one’s pocket. Leaders have become leeches. And false scales and false measures, metaphors for cheating, now abound in the public and private domains – and shackle both the predator and his/her prey. What accounts for this sad state of affairs that now plummet us down the slippery slopes of regression and retarded national development?

The answer can be found in the collapse of the moral conscience and fast paced disappearance and death of any sense of decency and public service. They are clear indicators of our flight from God, even when our lips are full of declarations of our love for him. But God is not deceived nor mocked.
Let those who do these things turn around now, even if like the dishonest and street wise servant and use their dishonest wealth for socially beneficial purposes. The words of prophet Amos are clear – God sees and does not forget.
May God lead all who have transgressed back to the paths of true repentance. May he cause them to aspire after true values and flee the worship of mammon.

God’s awesome powers of forgiveness and the Lord’s prayer
http://www.usccb.org/nab/072510.shtml
Let me attempt a mini-midi reflection of today’s readings. I will focus on God’s awesome power for forgiveness and the way and manner he is willing to stretch and stretch His mercy to forgive us and draw us back to me. This comes across very clearly in His dialogue with Abraham in the first reading for 25 July. Notice the way Abraham comes back again and again to stretch God’s compassion – a compassion he instinctively knows is so generous and can expand and stretch and imbued with such resilient elasticity that it even defies Young’s modulus. Notice also Abraham’s personal rapport with God – it is this rapport that gives him the courage and humility to ask. Such a rapport is the reward of the Godly, and should we become like Abraham, we should also be able to enjoy such a rapport with our God who is full of mercy and compassion. Notice also Abraham’s concern for others – He is holy, has found favor with God and yet is anxious that not just his family but others around him should be saved. Finally, allow yourself to be seduced the repetitive style of the exchange between God and Abraham – it is poetry, it is beautiful and it allows the enormity of the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah to come across. In the end, the destruction of Sodom is not from any failure of softness in the heart and generosity of God but in the hardness of the hearts of a sinful and obdurate nation. God wants the repentance of the sinner and invites us all with open arms – let us go to Him in contrition!
And then the main course – our Lord’s prayer – wonderful, punchy, short and a winner any day. Wonderful prayer! Say it and reflect it on. Say it and act it out. Praise God when you say Hallowed be their name. Act to bring God’s kingdom closer to those around you. His kingdom is truth, peace, justice and righteousness. What have you done today to bring the qualities of that kingdom closer to those around you? Ask for His forgiveness for we are all sinners. But also note what you ask for – you ask God to forgive you so that you can forgive those who have wronged you and or in the same manner as you forgive those around you. Can the unforgiving spirit truly pray this without heaping heaps of charcoal on his/her own head? and then our daily bread – here we trust in God’s muniscience and we ask for what we need, not for superfluities, not for the unnecessary and wasteful surplus…no, we ask for what is sufficient for our daily needs, for here I have interpreted bread in a broad sense to reflect human needs that cover the range in Maslow’s now famous hierarchy of needs.
May God grant us the spirit to know what we truly need and the spirit of contentment to treasure and appreciate what He gives us! Amen.
and now I must stop here otherwise my reflections on these readings risks lengthening from a mini-midi to a maxi! And I hear that there is a world of difference between the two!

For wisdom and guidance
byNoel Ihebuzor on Tuesday, 22 June 2010 at 11:32
I am sharing readings of the 30/05/201 from the Catholic liturgy as well as my brief reflection on them plus an exhortation based on them with you

The readings invite us to reflect on the immensity of God’s wisdom and the OMNISCIENCE of the Master Craftsman. He sees us, He sees all, He knows all. He sees us in our problems, in our dark moments, in our moments of choice, at our cross roads, in our uncertainties, typically exemplified by – “will this be good for me, will he/she be good for me in the long run/long haul?”, He sees us in our dilemmas and the mental turmoils these can cause us – “to be or not to be”. He sees us as we try to query the future and engage in our usual habit of crystal ball gazing (The Nigerian music group “Resonance” captured this well in one of their songs – so Chi ma! (God only knows), a sonfg that is laced with wonderful lyrics, overflowing with deep spiritual wisdom of the type that only comes from the recognition of and surrendering to the supremacy of God’s wisdom. Asa, the Nigerian singer, also touched on this un-knowability of the future, the impossibility to know the morrow in one of her songs). Only God alone knows the morrow. Yes, indeed, only God alone knows and He sees us in our today as we survey our past and try to visualize our future. And God’s vision and Knowledge are not bound by space or time. With Him, existence is one continuous seamless tapestry from the moment when, in an act of love, He created it, to when He redeemed us and reconciled us to HIMSELF, right up to today and into what we call the future.
It is so easy for us to forget these facts, especially in moments of difficulty, uncertainty and life choices, when rather relying on God’s wisdom to lead, guide and illuminate us, we tend to use only human wisdom, something which is limited in time and space and whose efficiency can also be vitiated by emotions. Our emotions can become strong blockers in moments when we need to choose and decide. At those moments, we need divine guidance most.Just ask God to lead….his filtering and screening systems are fool proof!He is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient, yet full of Rahman and Rahim, yes abounding in Grace and Compassion. And His Grace suffices unto much and Leads us in all we do.

Let us then pray that God pours His wisdom into our hearts, that His spirit imbues us with the gift of discernment, that we learn to trust in Him, that we learn to approach Him at all moments, especially when we are heavy laden and weary by the choices we need to make, that we learn to open our hearts and ears to His voice and that we learn to say, “Father, take control, let not my wisdom prevail, but YOURS – Father, take absolute control, and as You do so, fill me with your Grace, fill me with Your Spirit, which is Life”! Lead us, kindly light. Let your wisdom prevail May your heart resound with a large “amen” as you read this!

Noel

http://www.usccb.org/nab/053010.shtml
o

Divine appointment
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/082111.cfm
Today’s readings are on God’s ways, their inscrutability, the permanence of divine protection/rescue, provision, providence, and the authority and confidence that come with enablement from God.
Some points worthy of retention emerge
• Divine appointment cannot be challenged. It enables and it empowers. It gives authority to go forth.
• God’s love is eternal and it last forever. God’s love manifests itself in several forms – the assurance of His presence, the constancy of response, divine rescue and divine protection. God does not forsake the work of His hands. He heard david. He will hear you when you call on Him.
• The depths of God’s wisdom, the richness and diversity of that wisdom are unmeasurable and inscrutable. None of us can know the mind of God. His ways are inscrutable and He has no need for huamncounselors. This should come as a useful piece of advice to those who would want to serve as advisors or counselors to God. God is sufficient within Himself and sufficient to manage Humanity.
• And there is the manifestation of the empowering and revealing power of God’s wisdom as Peter makes the famous assertion of truth. The same Peter, yes, this Peter whose ups and downs in his journey of faith and encounter with God are so dramatic, this fellow same who is very much like with all his weaknesses, quick urges, sudden urges of faith, faith outages and flat outs…flips and flops, yes, it is to this same Peter that God in His wisdom chooses to reveal this ultimate truth of Christ! It is this same Peter who qualifies through this act to succeed Christ and to lead the flock! Christ’s interaction with Peter is rich and varied – from response and rescue when Peter sinks as his faith evaporates as waves come as he Peter walks on water, to name calling (get behind me satan) to pity (during the denial scenes) through to patience and and encouragement. But never did Christ write him off, never did christ caste him off. Never did Christ condemn him ….and since we are much like Peter, so too will it be between us and God. For God’s love is eternal, it is patient. It is a love that understands us, that accepts us with all our imperfectrion and comes to our rescue to help us up each time we slip and fall on the slippery slopes of our journey faith and redemption. All that God wants from us is that openness to His wisdom and that bounce back, that get up and go each we fall.
May God grant us the wisdom to be open to his Grace always.
may God’s love always be upon us as we cast all our hopes in HIM.
May God who is and who will be fill us with wisdom and invest us with authority to make a difference in whatever life calling He puts us in.

Noel

Rx – One tablet of forgiveness X 7
byNoel Ihebuzor on Sunday, 20 June 2010 at 20:50

The central and unifying theme is that of forgiveness. Our God is rich in mercy and forgiveness and invites us to be likewise.

Did he not create us in His own image and likeness? If He abounds in Mercy and Compassion, then He enjoins us to be likewise. See the way Christ forgives the woman whose sins were many – He forgives her completely – He literally hit the “Control + Alt + Delete” for her sins and her past – all is wiped away and He draws her to Him, to His Grace, recognizing her deep contrition (her tears were flowing) recognizing her self abasement at His feet (she is wiping his feet with her hair), and rewarding her faith.
Ditto for David – he sinned, he recognized the deep wrong he had done (read Psalm 51) and he humbled himself and confessed his sins to a prophet of God. Notice that even in the most painful of death, Christ reaches out in forgiveness to those who had crucified HIM. Yes, our God is rich in forgiveness, once we approach HIM with contrition and humility. May His forgiveness be yours this sunday and always.
Yes, His word tells us – If my people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves and pray, He will forgive us our sins and heal our land. Let us approach Him with contrition, Humility and Faith – He awaits us – His arms open to welcome us back.

But as we pray for God to forgive us, let us go forward this Sunday and forgive all those who we think have wronged us. Control+Alt+ Delete those wrongs of theirs against us! It is difficult but with God’s Grace we can do it. There are two reasons for doing this – we earn more graces with God when we forgive others and secondly we free ourselves from the prison of hate we often trap ourselves in because of strong feelings against others.
Come on, have a go, make a list of persons you are holding grudges against today and start today forgiving them – you will feel lighter and freer as you do so. Remember also the line in the Lord’s prayer as you commit to forgive others. FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES JUST AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US. If you refuse to forgive, you are praying that God should also not forgive you…a key logical implication of this prayer we often conveniently overlook!

and now I come to the last part of my reflection on these readings – we need also to forgive ourselves – and I know people who find it difficult to forgve themselves for faults and failings in the past and who keep on carrying these forward in their every day lives. Forgive yourself…you need to do that before you can really approach others to forgive or to seek their forgiveness.

Finally in church today, I witnessed a very touching event. The priest said he had not prepared any homily but simply wanted to read to us a true story of the experiences of a young man called Matthew obtained from a recent retreat conducted by a priest from his congregation. The story goes thus – Matthew’s father walked away from the home when Matthew was 11 following years of unhappy marriage with Matthew’s mother. Matthew then grew up very resentful, hating his father, and going into all manners of anti-social behaviour as expression of his rage and hurt, including drugs, petty crime etc. He finished school still raging, could not keep down jobs and went about life hating people and simply being unhappy. In all of this period, Matthew’s mum had refrained from making hateful comments about Matthew’s father and whenever the children asked her what happened she would simply say, when you are old enough you will either find out or ask your dad. She also always told the kids that their father was still their father, irrespective of what he had done. She simply went about doing her best and coping with all the challenges, pains and difficulties of single parenting but never cursing nor bitter. She also tried to help her children manage their pains and their sense of hurt. Eventually, she succeeded in encouraging Matthew to go for a retreat and Matthew did, not because he believed in it but simply to get his mum off his back. At the retreat, the priest was preaching the message of forgiveness and the message got through in the end to Matthew who broke down and cried and cried. After the retreat, he went off in search of his father who lived in the same town, found him and knelt down and begged for his forgiveness for having hated him all these long years. And the father simply asked – and what do you want me to do now? and Matthew said, please forgive me for hating you. and the father went into his room and came out with a letter Matthew had written to him some years back – “Dear Mister, or can I even call you father, I want to tell you that I hate you and that I do not want to either see you or to have any thing to do with you all the days that I shall live. Your ex-son, Matthew”. At this point, the priest choked and started crying in front of the congregation…and from the pew where I was sitting at the back of the church, my heart went out to him, I really felt sorry for him and films of moisture covered my eyes…and I just hoped no one had noticed big soppy me making a fool of himself in church. Why did I also feel this strong? Perhaps it was because I recognized and appreciated the priest’s strong sense of compassion and how deeply some other persons’ personal tragedy had touched his spirit. Matthew’s father forgave him and Matthew found peace and is now a pillar of the church in his district. I felt also drawn to this story perhaps for another reason, personal, intense – which was that I had read a letter with almost the same wording written to some one I loved and still love very dearly…and wished that the story in this particular case I am linked to had also ended this way and that significant adults had also being as positive as Matthew’s mum…but alas, wishes cannot be always be horses!

The centrality of forgiveness
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/091111.cfm

What do these reading speak to you?
There is a uniting theme in all three readings and they speak powerfully to me and I hope to you too. They speak to me of the centrality of forgiveness and related to that the importance of anger management. For forgiveness, the messages are at two levels
Forgive, so that you in turn will be forgiven. If you do not forgive, how do you expect to be forgiven. When we say the Lord’s prayer and ask God to forgive us our sins in the same manner as we forgive those who offend us,very few us realise to what extent we could be condemning ourselves and asking God not to forgive us if we have failed to forgive those who offend us. Have we forgiven those who offend us? Read the Gospel passage and see what happens to the unforgiving servant in the parable for his hardness of heart – he is taken away to be tortured! Key message here – if you do not forgive, torture awaits you. If you forgive, you will reap the rewards of forgiveness…and the appeal is clear. Let us call this appeal a benefit appeal or an instrumental reward appeal.
The second level situates the pleas for forgiveness at the spiritual level – Forgive because it is godly so do – if we are in the image of God in his original design, then we must conform to that image in imitating all His attributes – slow to Anger, Rich in Mercy and abounding in compassion. Message? Let your life here on earth be an imitation of God’s ways. This secures you happiness both here and in the hereafter. The rewards here are both spiritu-integrative and instrumental.

A related message that lies embedded in the readings is the recognition of the wrong doing by the offending party, approaching the offended party, asking for forgiveness and genuinely showing contrition. This is usually the difficult part in interpersonal relationships and one of the greatest obstacles to genuine reconciliation, peace and amity. Our reading of events and our ego defense systems usually act up and halt any proper recollection and interpretation of events leading to the crisis. It is usually the other party who provoked the crisis and soon the whole psychological process and the arsenal of projection are activated as we now struggle to protect our fragile sense of self. In relationships, our pride occasionally comes between us and any show of genuine contrition. We would lose face if we apologised. He/she should know we are sorry any how, Must he/she humiliate us by forcing us to say we are sorry? etcetc and so on and so on forth – meanwhile we wallow in pain and the cleavage widens and bitterness takes roots and ossifies. Read again the parable the parable and see how contrition is shown! The erring party abases himself/herself by going to the ground – in NVC, especially proxemics, the use of space – the horizontal and the vertical – is often used to reinforce a message. To be on the ground before someone is to reinforce the message – behold I have stooped low before you in recognition of the power and social and power differentials between us on this this matter at hand. Look at the verb of motion that is used to convey these two instances of abasement in the parable – fell to the ground and fell to his knees. Next time you offend someone, do not hesitate to show genuine contrition in culturally appropriate ways. The dividends usually outweigh whatever you may consider the momentary loss of pride!
So when we offend let us ask for forgiveness.
When people offend us, let also forgive, because anger and hatred can lead to other sins.
Anger is a “going-no-where” street – emerging health researches repeatedly confirm the harmful effects of anger and its links to such health problems as ulcer and cardiovascular disorders. People who forgive live and fuller happier lives.Unforgiveness, anger, wrath, hatred all come dressed up as well meaningself protection software but once you allow them to install, the un-install programme is difficult to run. Indeed once installed, they develop roots and their poisonous sap now soak your life and gradually destroys it. Economists talk of multiplier effects and negative externalities – and anger and hatred are perfect examples of negative emotions with unimaginable negative multiplier effects and damaging/hurtful externalities. So why install a software that harden your heart and hardens your arteries and ruins your life in the end – yes, anger and hatred destroy both carrier and their objects – the acid corrodes both the carrier and the person at whom it is directed.
As I said some time last year in one of Sunday rambling reflections, let us all learn to forgive. Let us all take one tablet of forgiveness every day. (Here is your prescription – Rx 1 tab 366 days..and twice any day your neighbor, your spouse, your partner, your child, your boss, your colleague annoys you!)

May God lead us to forgive so that we too may earn His forgiveness.
May God give us the humility to recognise when we offend and the courage to apologise and to make amends……for those who forgive and those who seek forgiveness fall under the broad label of peace makers …and the Holy Books of most religions tell us that they shall be be called the children of the Host High!

“If anyone wishes to come after me, he/she must deny himself/herself
and take up his/her cross daily and follow me”.

(I have deliberately squeezed in feminine gender pronouns in the excerpt – no irreverence meant – as some of you may know, I work for a very gender sensitive organization!)

Yes, if we must become true disciples of Christ, we must each carry our cross and follow Him. He carried a heavy cross for us….and won a crown of glory.So, Carry your cross, earn your crown, No pain for God, no Gain with God.

Question is – what is this cross? I could be wrong but I see the cross as having multiple manifestations and evolving as we go through the challenges that everyday living throws at us. Your cross could be a bad wife, a pub crawling husband, a spend thrift gambling husband, a reckless son, a daughter on drugs, a sick partner, a son who has done what he should not do, an aging mother, a brother on a sick bed for prolonged periods, a health condition that you are living with, an adolescent son who gets the neighbor’s daughter pregnant, an unfair boss, a physically abusive wife who beats the hell out of you, a foul mouthed and ungrateful husband, an erratic sister, an impossible and difficult mother in-law (an outlaw in your opinion, no doubt), an intrusive and noisy neighbor who believes that his latest home studio is best enjoyed at high volumes at 0500 hours, a control freak of a father who meddles in every detail of your life, and the list is endless. Your responding to these persons and the problems they throw at you with dignity, love, care, tolerance, compassion and prayerfulness difficult as this may be is the true essence of carrying one’s cross for me.

But I also think it is also important for me to stick out my naive neck and say what I think we should not confuse carrying one’s cross with. We certainly must not confuse it with self-imposed prisons we often lock ourselves up in when we are prejudiced, our self-inflicted difficulties as a result of errors that arise from our sins of pride, our unwillingness to forgive a hurt, our unwillingness to move beyond a relationship that onced boomed but that has now died, our hatred and rancours, our jealousies – deep and petty, our obsessions,…and I can continue. “I hate him with such intense passion that the mere thought of him simply spoils spoils my day”….”Oh She ruined my life the day she walked out on our relationship and I will never ever forgive her or ever trust women again” are not crosses…they are obsessions, which often atrophy to neurosis unless they are checked. Indeed we must pray to be freed from these – for they stand between us and God. They distort our vision and cloud our judgments and cripple us physically, spiritually, emotionally, socially and mentally – they are not crosses, they are obstacles in our race to salvation and to our living full and abundant lives on earth here as we run the race.

Carrying one’s cross would involve self denial, helping others, doing your duty, serving with an open heart, understanding pain, showing empathy, helping those in sorrow to come to terms with their sorrow, reaching out a helping hand, forgiving others, conveying positivity, accepting your problems but looking up to God in prayerfulness, asking for His Grace and for a spirit of understanding, for a spirit of forgiveness and tolerance, yes for the gift of tough love. we must also pray that God should also give the opportunity to be like Simon of Cyrene – so that we can also help someone carry His or Her cross. And these Simon de Cyrene gestures need not be that dramatic – They could just be gentle word, the soft touch on the shoulder, the genuine smile of compassion…But these things are not easy, we all need critical perceptual shift and fundamental attitudinal adjustments to to begin to these things beyond just mere short lived dramatics and attention grabbing theatrics. But with God all things are possible – and I pray that He grants each one of us the ability and the willingness to carry our crosses and also to help others carry theirs. Let us have a spirit of prayer (Petition suggests something legal, so I prefer prayer) and spirit of Grace. With God’s Grace, everything is possible – we approach him recognizing our weaknesses and knowing an believing that His strength is made perfect in our weakness. But we must first show that willingness to carry our crosses daily. So, biko, jo-o, Bend down, carry!.No cross, no crown. No pain, no gain!

Noel

http://www.usccb.org/nab/062010.shtml
 
Using our talents – the journey to higher levels!
byNoel Ihebuzor on Sunday, 27 November 2011 at 17:24
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/111311.cfm
The link line takes us to the readings from the catholic liturgy for the 13th November, 2011. Permit me to share with you some reflection on these readings.
The first reading from the Book of Proverbs lists the qualities of a good wife – Prv 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31. I will focus on these qualities of a a good wife but I also believe that we can refocus the reading adapt it and from that process tease out also the qualities of the good husband! Gender balance and equity demand we do as much. I believe we can and should do. All we need to is to recognise some sexual division of labour in the household and to tailor our expectations and key roles for husband and wife around these.
A good wife is clearly an asset. Ditto for a good husband. Industry, diligence, wise resource use and management, kindness and compassion to the poor and the needy…and though the passage stresses her financial and economic contributions to the home, we are also reminded in an indirect manner of the more enduring qualities that make a good spouse
“Charm is deceptive and beauty fleeting”; Matthew Ch 25, 14-30.
This is very timely warning, especially to single persons who have a tendency to give undue prominence to looks, charm, beauty, body, shapes, biceps, cleavages etc in their search parameters for spouses. Read proverbs again. All that glitters is not gold and the physical appearance that you assign so much weight to is not the key ingredient for a happy union. Compatibility has dimensions that go beyond good looks and the physical – it includes the social, the emotional, the spiritual – and here a strong plea is being made to ALL young people in search of life partners to stop and reflect and not be carried away by the dazzle of beauty. Take time to know him or her.
The other passage focuses on talents and raises the following issues among others for me –
• Talents could be dispensed along the lines of ability to use
• Proportionality of use – We are expected to perform in the proportion to the quality and quantity of the talent that we are each given.
• Use of talents results in a net increase in the talents available – I will call this the increase in productivity function of use of talents
• More productivity attracts more rewards and more incentives – differentials in rewards do exist. And may I also remind us all of this important dictum which actually is an adaptation from the words of an ancient philosopher – Inequality is rewarding unequal work and output equally!
• Talent buried is talent wasted. There is even another principle involved here which aggravates the sense of waste – the opportunity cost principle – who can imagine what is lost because we refused to use our talents? Who can imagine what vistas that would opened had we used our talents. There is also what I will call the additionality principle – talent used creates waves which increase aggregate talents and effects – this is an extension of the productivity effect in the use of talents.. All this encourages us, indeed, challenges to discover our talents so that we can discover ourselves. It challenges us to look inwards, to discover our talents, to put a value to these talents by using them for in so doing we bring a unique contribution to the world, we prove our uniqueness and we add to the amazing universal kaleidoscope of liberating, value adding and ever expanding talent pool, output and happiness.
• Talent use involves some risk taking, it involves our willingness to step out beyond our comfort zones to test the waters – to take measured risks, to learn, to adapt and to engage and re-engage. To use the language of strategic planning, talent use will involve some an environmental scan for us to discover emerging opportunities that fit our talents. Yes, we must be willing to do some rough and dirty SWOT and to invest our talents in faith and hope based on a findings – but in doing this, we must “shine our eyes” as they say in naija pidgin.

Why do we not use our talents? Let me hazard a few guesses – inertia, fear, evaporating entrepreneurial spirit, low satiation points, fixation on the present, absence of role models, debilitating milieu, suspicion of the intentions of those who genuine desire to empower us, projection of malevolence on a benefactor, etc Whatever reasons account for our failure to use our talents, for our inability to rise and shine as it were, impoverishes us and impoverishes the world. Each of us needs to identify talent use blockers in our lives and remove them and move on to the trajectory of progress that God has designed for each one of us with the the talents that He has so graciously given us. Read Jeremiah 29:11
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” and derive some challenge from it

All talents are from our Creator. They are varied and can exist in a number of domains. Talents in music, painting, writing, preaching, teaching, counselling, sprinting, cooking, “husbanding”, “house-wifing”, research, listening, healing the sick, comforting the afflicted, carving, conflict resolution, humanitarian assistance, administration, management, planning….and the list can go on and on. And people are given in doses and units that align with God’s beautiful purpose in their lives. Yes, ALL talents are given for a purpose. The combined output when all humanity deploy their differing and varied gifts and put these to work creatively creates a symphony of perfection. It pays to liken talent deployment to different instruments in a orchestra – the beautiful music that emerges is from the interplay and interweaving of these instruments! If one instrument fails to play at all or fails to play at its optimal, it diminishes the output of the orchestra and the emerging symphony is poorer. Do you see your talents in this way
Last words? “Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What’s a sun-dial in the shade.” – Benjamin Franklin

May God grant us talents and grant us the grace to use them to advance His mighty purpose, Amen.

 
Re

flecting on difficult passages
byNoel Ihebuzor on Thursday, 24 November 2011 at 22:17
The scriptures present some situations where Christ appears to have been caught unawares and cornered as it were in a tight situation by his questioners/listeners who were anxious to “nail” him and get Him into some sort of trouble, either with the jewish authorities at that time or with the civil authorities, especially the hated romans.

Let me share a few instances and invite your reflection and comments;

The woman caught in adultery – Christ’s response is challenging. Let him who is without sin cast the first stone. As you can imagine, no stones were cast. The inference on the state of cleanliness of the accusers of the woman is clear. ALL, repeat, ALL, have sinned, as Paul clearly points out to us in one of his letters. But beyond this, what is the key message here? Tolerance and pussy footing with adultery? Forgiveness based on the recognition of human frailty? A caution against hasty judgment and condemnation of others? A message against the tendency of seeing the speck in our neighbour’s eyes whilst being blind to the beam in ours? A caution against our feelings of self righteousness and our tendency to what I call pharisee-like behaviour? Or just the case of a social rebel anxious to challenge the severity of harsh laws that do not allow opportunities for repentance and reform? Could the message also be on the power of jesus to forgive and redeem us? On his tender and loving compassion and His willingness to pick us up at our lowest moments when all have abandonned us and we come to Him with spirits broken? Could the message be that God does not want the death of the sinner but simply desires her/his repentance? And by the way, why the exlusive focus on the woman? It takes two to commit adultery, I am told! Does the story reflect gender relations as at the time of the writing of the scriptures?

The issues of taxes – This is a dicey situation. States collect taxes. Indeed taxes are one of the ways states increase their fiscal space from domestic sources. To refuse to pay tax is tantamount to challenging the authority of the state. It is rebellion. And yet some states are oppressive and use revenues from taxes to increase and sustain some of the state machinery for oppression. And in the context of Roman rule and occupation of Judea, this was case. And tax collectors were hated by the general populace as they were perceived as the associates of oppressive army of occupation. And so the question is asked – should we pay taxes? Can a crusader for social justice, moral freedom and spiritual liberation vote on the side of the hated romans? If He said a direct yes, His mission and moral stature would suffer some considerable dilution. If He said No, he would be providing fuel for a rebellion that was building up and which was in search a leader. He would also come head on against the Romans. So what to do? His response is a classic. Give unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God. Give to the temporal powers what is theirs and give to the spiritual power what is His! How do you read this? Providing justification for civil authorities? Justifying taxation? Playing the game of His interrogators – note that their intentions of his interrogators were also suspect – they wanted to trap him and He could read this. So intentions of your questioners do matter and can determine the answers you give? Leaving the choices open? or simply passing the buck?

Working on the sabbath? What is the message here? Challenging the validity of the jewish holy day? making the case for an interpretative and flexible approach to the laws? A case against unreflecting legalism in scriptural interpretation? Challenging us to return to a consideration of the spirit of laws and not with a fixation on dehydrated and insensitive formalist attitudes? Placing man at the core of it all by the reminder that the sabbath was made for man and not man for the sabbath? a plea for anthropocentricism in responses to laws? A plea to give preeminence to the reality of human needs and to let these override any rigid and doctrinaire attitudes in religious matters?

Other difficult biblical stories include the treatment of the man who responded to the invitation to the wedding but was wrongly dressed (what was his fault? He was invited from the roadside and thus did not have any opportunity to go and get dressed up! what is the message here? Be ever ready? You could be called up any time and when it does happen, have with you or on you some of the basic things that would enable you to observe and conform the basics of formality?)

The equal day rate paid to workers, including those who started at a late hour (what is the key message here? God’s generosity and His right to dispense Grace as He sees fit, the fact that He is not tied to our worldly measures?, That God always keeps His promises to ALL HE calls and who respond to His call, and it does not matter at what hour one is called – what matters is the manner in which we respond? Is this a caution to those who would want to monopolize God’s favors and dispense them according to their wishes and according to the time you joined the church or parish council for example?)

The parable of the wicked servant who made gains with his master’s creditors by reducing their debt to his master and therefore gaining their favors for use and call up when he would have been laid off. His conduct is an extreme case of what in economics and public administration is called a principal agent problem. (What is the message here?) Is this an endorsement of shrewdness? Does this not run the risk of elevating to a norm and rewarding being cunning? And note that the scripture says that the master commended the dishonest servanrt because he had acted shrewdly – Now, that leaves me baffled!)

In all of these and other passages where I struggle with finding meanings , my attitude is this – God’s ways are not our ways and His wisdom surpasses men’s collective wisdom. Is your attitude the same? In my confusion, the words from 1 Corinthians console and guide me
“For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known”
What are your thoughts? Your views could help me achieve greater spiritual clarity. Can you share them? I thank you in advance and look forward to rewarding and spiritually elevating exchange and sharing.

Reflections on parables and communication
byNoel Ihebuzor on Tuesday, 29 November 2011 at 23:32
Reading the Christian scriptures, especially, the New Testament, one comes across the parables and the generous use of parables to instruct and edify. Each one of us can remember at least one parable that has left a lasting impression on us. Here is just a quick pick from some of the parables in the New Testament – The good Samaritan, the parable of the sower, the parable of the wedding feast, the parable of the foolish virgins, the prodigal son, For me, two parables stand out and their central messages permanently etched in my soul. yes, you are correct – theyr are the parables of the Prodigal son and the parable of the good Samaritan. The former conveys the immensity of a father’s love, the contrition of someone who has done wrong and the reconciliation that follows, whilst the latter narrates genuine love expressed in genuine acts of love and sacrifice and stands in sharp contradistinction to the hollow religiosity and sham piety of uncaring persons of whatever persuasion and calling in life. Even after several years of reading a favorite parable, echoes of it and snippets of its key messages still keep on streaming through our minds and our subconscious and influencing our comments and our actions even without our knowing this. And so the question is this – why is that parables have the power? what is it in parable that makes them so endearing and their messages so perduring?
What follows below are some of my guesses why!
Parables reflect simplified and effective communication and usually involve using the concrete to convey to abstract. They simplify but they also create the “aha” effect
Parables use comparisons to instruct ….notice that some parables start with the construction “to what shall we compare”
They then use comparisons drawn from the world view of the listeners, and exploit comparisons/events based on the known to arouse curiosity, to encourage enquiry and incite reflection.
Notice also their use of a simple and unique story line to illustrate a complex point and in doing so, they deepen understanding, increase receptivity and open the minds to faith and to God. In doing all of this, the parables also invite the listener to reflect.
Parables involve dramatic use of symbols and imagery to convey, to call attention, to evoke either pity and compassion or strong distaste – wasting his money on riotous living and women, birds coming to pick up seeds, seeds falling on rocky soil , brigands setting on a traveller and dispossessing Him (sounds familiar?)
They also appeal to the experiences of the listeners……at that time of the writing of the scriptures, kingdoms, farming, wine growing and sheep rearing were key features of the society and the examples in parables exploit these realities as the stories are woven around kings, feast, vine, shepherd, sowing. In doing this, parables are exploiting points of interest, finding a good grip point to engage with the audience and using centres of interest as effective communication and interest arresting hooks/grips.
Notice one other special feature of parables – they are non threatening directly by their reference to events/peoples that are some distance removed (temporally and spatially) from the immediate listeners. This has the effect of engaging and retaining attention of the listeners till the killer punch is delivered! It is this ability of parables to use a specific to send a message that has both a specific audience and universal timeless application that represents their greatest beauty for me. It is indeed amazing – a specific story told to educate a specific audience but which still retains its potential for universal reference and use.

Most parables tend to have a central message and key theme – and it is this key message and the obviousness of meaning which provides the thread that bind all the events in the parable. By being simple and focusing on a key message and only the necessary and essential details, parables avoid information clutter and distractions which have potentials to impede the effective delivery of any message.

The other appeal of the parables is that though they convey a simple story, a close reading of some of the stories reveals their potential to communicate on multiple and hierarchical levels. Prima facie, they convey a direct message as I have said earlier, instructing us on a desirable virtue, in contradistinction to a related vice. They then rest their case, or so we think but we soon discover that the story does not end there because at the subconscious level, some aspects of the story continue to challenge us to reflect on their ramifications and invite us to ask to certain questions! And some of these questions can be very troubling, indeed agonizing as we reflect on the right and wrong of some aspects of the stories. As these questions arise, and they sure do arise.we begin to find that all is not so clear after all. And soon, we find ourselves being drawn outside our comfort zones as we begin a reflection which can be agonizing and lonely at times! We begin to ask questions. Suddenly we are worried because we begin to think that such questionings amount to doubts betray a lack of faith But this should not really be so. For to ask questions in search of deeper understanding is not synonymous with a loss of faith or incipient irreverence. Indeed such questions can lead to deepening of faith, for they ultimately and ever so often bring us face to face to situations where logic confronts faith and cedes gracefully to faith as a result of the acceptance of the limitations of logic. We also grow in religiosity and faith each time we are able to use a blend of rational and faith to understand the scriptures and are thus able to reconcile what appears to conflicts and contradictions in our spiritual journey on this earth.
Let me illustrate with a few examples of parables where the story line suddenly thrusts questions at us. Take the parable of the Good Samaritan, The Levite was headed to the Temple to officiate. If he were to stop and attend to the unfortunate wayfarer, he would be defiled and so not able to perform his Temple duties. Take the case of the son who stayed back and toiled with his father in the parable of the prodigal son. How fair is the denouement of the story to him? He and his friends do not get as much as a kid goat or small calf to party with but his rascal of a brother comes home to a grand reception, to what in igbo we call oririnankwari! So what is the point here here? Should we then all go live it up first, sow our wild oats, paint the town red and blue and then repent? And the Wedding Feast. Ordinary townsfolk were just going about their business and, all of a sudden, got invited to a banquet – obviously as an afterthought since the guests Mr. Rich had in mind failed to attend. They show up anyway, only for one of them to be cited for dress code violation and thrown into the dungeon. All parables reveal an uneasy dimension upon close scrutiny. Our challenge, is to reflect on them in an effort to arrive at a deeper truth. I have tried to resolve these conflicts and apparent contradictions by appeal to a message strategy which I will call over-riding dominant principle and core message focusing approach. This approach has the dramatic effect of either heightening the pathos in the event being narrated or increasing the salience and worth of the virtue in question or both! What then is the over ridingdominanrt principle and core message focusing approach in each of these parables I have just mentioned? For the Good samaritan, it is the superiority of concrete and instant manifestation of love over a narrow focus on religious observances. For the prodigal son, it would appear to be a demonstration of the profundity and prodigality of a father’s love, in this case, God’s love for our world. The wedding feast – very troubling but less troubling when seen as an invitation to be ever ready to respond at any moment that God will choose to invite us to His royal banquet.
Seen in this way, these troubling instances in these parables become appreciated as narrative techniques that are employed to improve the efficacy of message flow and communication, among many other possible interpretations.
Experts on Effective Communication advise us to do the following when engaging in verbal communication – use variety, be credible, use a hook, attract attention, hold attention, keep attention, gauge response, and to start with the most exciting part.
A close look at the parables shows that they contain all these aspects. The same experts on effective communication also point out to us the barriers to communication. These include
a) Language – speech and accent, dialect, non-specific meaning of words, double meaning jargon, technical language, woolly use of language, rambling, insufficient information given
b) psychological – emotive words, personality clashes, lack of interest; audience hostility
c) bias, prejudice and assumptions
d) content not suited to education, status and intelligence levels of your listeners
e) physical environment – noise and distraction from the environment
Again you will notice that the parables anticipate and avoid most if not all these barriers and succeed in delivering winning presentations
Our age is obsessed by the power point presentations, where illustrations and fly-in effects and the jazzing up the presentation often mask inadequacies in content, logic and flow, we would do well to read the parables and learn from them. In an age where verbose usage is often used to mask cognitive deficiencies, platitudes, the social irrelevance of the message or the lack of preparation of the speaker, we would do well to go to the parables and learn how to communicate…and to communicate with interest, focus and effect…and with economy, things which I know I will need to learn!

How Time Flies!
byNoel Ihebuzor on Sunday, 20 November 2011 at 20:33
Another catholic liturgical year ends today….Next week, the season of advent begins. Time has flown, almost a year has passed since last Christmas ….almost difficult to believe – simply amazing how time flies!
And the Sundays and the scripture passages have come and gone. We have read, we have reflected and have responded and we have learnt
And the key lessons – love of God, love of neighbor, forgiveness, humility, temperance, piety, tolerance, generosity, compassion, FAITH, HOPE and CHARITY. A number of events and themes have been covered in the Gospel readings – healing, redemption, miracles, temptations, fear, affirmations of faith, conversion, baptism, the gift of tongues, a life in the spirit – but a common thread unites all of the passages and the readings – the permanence of God’s love and His unending and OPEN invitation to humanity to salvation and to His royal banquet!
Today’s reading caps the essence of all christian teaching….Love God, Love your neighbour.

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/112011.cfm

Ez 34:11-12, 15-17
Psalm 23
Mt 25:31-46
Read these passages carefully and they summarize the whole of preachings of Christ on love of God and how this love manifests in the main as love of neighbour. Indeed, reading the gospel again leaves you with the feeling that the INPUT, OUTPUT, PROCESS and OUTPUT indicators of love of God are nothing else but love of neighbour, love of the needy and acts of compassion and charity towards these. The first three elements in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – physiological, safety and love and belonging are there – as concrete manifestations of love of God in our actions towards the needy and those ever ballooning portions of our society who are trapped in poverty, who are marginalised, ignored and rendered voiceless by a combination of greed of the ruling class, poor governance and un-imaginative and non-inclusive social policies.
Read the lines a gain and reflect –
I was homeless and you opened your house to me and gave me a place – Shelter! I was hungry and you gave me water and food – Safety! I was naked and you clothed me – Safety and self esteem rescue initiative. And for the least of my brethren, please read to mean those in the poverty infested quartiles of our society. And the numbers in the two bottom quartiles grow every day. The title for the 2011 Human Development Report of the UN is “Sustainability and equity, a better future for all”, a title which bring outs clearly the issue of widening disparities in access to education, water and health services between the two hemisphere on the one hand and worse still within the southern hemisphere. This is cause for sadness.
It also invites action – action at two levels – at the first level which I will call an immediate reactive level and at a second level which I will call the strategic proactive level.
When you give to the needy, you are showing love of God. When you give to your neighbour who is in need, you give to God. Remember the song – whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren, that you do unto me. Flip it round. whatsoever you refuse to do, to give to the least of these brethren of mine (add to the least of these sisters of mine, for gender balance), that you refuse to do unto me, that you refuse to give to me. But beyond hand outs and knee jerk/spontaneous giving, we can also give at the strategic proactive level. We do this when we support policies that provide better housing for all. We do this when we support and advocate for policies that permit greater equity to basic services. We do this when we speak up for the needy. And we are all in positions and have opportunities to do these things in our little ways, yes, we all have opportunities in our life callings for giving to and doing for the needy, to those whose lives are scarred by poverty, to those who are marginalised and who live on the fringes of society, to those who like Lazarus with their bodies covered with sores and the psyche strangled by want and their visions clouded by insecurity, sit in front of us even as we try to banish them from our sights and our thoughts whilst an indifferent and uncaring society and political class gorge ourselves with worldly things.

We can act and we should act. Refusal to act is complicity…and note that the gospel reading ends on a sobering note in eschatology – hell fire for those who refused to act in support of the needy and therefore showed their indifference to God!
Next week, advent begins, at least in the catholic calendar. Already, I can “smell” Christmas….Christmas is in the air.

When I was young almost half a century ago, parents would be saving up to buy Christmas clothing for their children, goats would be bought to slaughtered on the 24th of December, and Val (may his gentle soul rest on in peace) always got the whole jaw of the goat because he was the first son…..how so unfair, and DeeBee would see to it that every child in our compound got new Christmas clothes…but that was ages ago! Yes, Christmas, Ekeresimesi- new shoes, knock outs, bangers and of course our masquerades where we competed to see which masquerade danced and entertained the best. And in this new age, all that is changing. Masquerades are now more aggressive, in the villages, they now block roads and extort monies from passers-by. The times, they are a-changing! In the larger society, I hear Christmas has now come to mean an increase in tempo of emptying corporate and government budgets and treasury with hastily drawn up and often spurious contracts…the spirit of kleptocracy is unleashed and roams savage and wild, and kidnappers take a cue …and what was for me a good soft period of the year has now become something frightening……yes, can this be Christmas? Things have clearly fallen apart …and I am no longer at ease, but I stray from the key message of this sharing – Love of God means love of neighbour, it means love of and love for the needy. Show some love today!

Advent – a season to create space for Grace
byNoel Ihebuzor on Sunday, 4 December 2011 at 13:32
I have put together reflections on six readings from the Catholic Liturgy (for the 27th November and 4th December 2011) in this sharing. My intention is to share with you what I believe are the social significance and challenges of the season of advent in our contemporary world. The link lines take us to the readings.
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/112711.cfm
First reading – Is 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7; Responsorial psalm – Ps 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19 and Gospel reading – Mk 13:33-37
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/120411.cfm

First Reading – Is 40:1-5, 9-11; Responsorial psalm – Ps 85:9-10-11-12, 13-14 and Gospel – Mk 1:1-8
All the six readings have a uniting thread – God’s coming, our return to HIM and to His ways and a call to be ready and on the alert for his coming! I also believe that advent is also a call for a return to values and actions that make for social wholeness, social inclusiveness and to the building of social capital.

Yes, reading the passages, one is reminded that advent is here, a season that celebrates the coming of God and our returning to him.
God comes to Man. Man returns to God. It is a journey that requires us to open ourselves up to God’s love and grace.It is a journey that requires that we open our homes and hearths, our hearts, our hands, our heads, our all to God’s coming so that We can receive HIM worthily.
He comes to save us through the act and gift of reconciliation. He comes also to renew us, to refresh us, to reanimate us, to restore us, to rebuild us, to rebuild bridges and to restore hope. Note also that the readings point us to three features of this coming. These are peace, righteousness and justice. In this kingdom, good and heart gladdening news will be preached to the poor, the broken hearted will be healed and captives will be freed. These assurances are in the prophetic message in Isaiah 61 and is again taken up in the new testament in Luke 4:18.

It bears repeating – God’s coming kingdom is one of peace, truth and justice as Psalm 85 indicates, When we pay attention to these features of that kingdom, then the social relevance and appeal of advent becomes obvious. Peace as the absence of wars, as the absence of hatred, as the absence of conflict and the absence of those social conditions that create the conditions for conflicts and wars. Truth as the respect for eternal values of integrity and moral uprightness. Lies stand in opposition to Truth, and lies are related to darkness, to concealment and a desire to distort and cheat. We are reminded that only the truth shall set us free. Justice is about fairness, godliness, equality of treatment, fair laws and inclusive social policies. That Kingdom is also one of Love, and with it all that love entails. Now add Truth, Peace and Justice and then use love Love to bind them and what do you have – SUSTAINABLE SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT! It is this kingdom that advent announces. It is this kingdom that the baptist announces. It is a kingdom filled with the fruits of the spirit as described in Galatians 5:22-23. It is a kingdom marked by life in full (John 10:10) and all that that signifies – security for all – food security, shelter security and health security and here I refer to health in its definition as encompassing the physical, the social, the economic and the emotional components of life. We are enjoined to give comfort to God’s people in Isaiah 40. How else do you give comfort except by supporting policies and initiatives that ensure that people’s social, physical, emotional, shelter, spiritual and social needs are met. We must all become like John the Baptist speaking up and urging people, governments, parliamentarians, social workers, the private sector to accept the principles on which God’s kingdom is built and to do all the needful at the policy, strategic, operational and tactical levels to advance the installation of that kingdom in our lands, and now. Yes, the promise of God’s kingdom is clear – life in its its fullness. It is about a kingdom of bloom as opposed to the present gloom we now know. But God’s kingdom which the advent announces is only possible if we open our hearts to HIM and herein lies the challenge of advent. Advent invites and challenges us to a new beginning, to engage in and commit to a radical value change process, a value change that goes beyond mere sterile and idle posturings.
The message in Isaiah 40 is clear even as it is couched in rich poetry, a poetry rich in cadence and overflowing with imagery and symbolism

In the desert prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!
Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low;
the rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley.
Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together;
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken

Prepare a way in the desert, build a highway for our God in the wasteland, repair roads, level hills, fill valleys, repair cracks – all these are appeals and invitations to a radical reform. It is an invitation to remove all those obstacles which stand between us and God coming to us. It is an invitation to us to recognise all those impediments which block our going to God. And these obstacles are legion. They include pride, greed, egoism, concupiscence, materialism, the grabbing urge, the narrow and blinkered focus, hatred, envy, anger, vaulting ambition, dishonesty, all of which arise because we allow the raw untamed and savage part of us to dominate our lives.

For advent to be meaningful, we must go beyond and tame ourselves, tame and subdue our raw instincts to grab, to steal and get rich, to cheat, to stab , to hate, to slander, to pillage and to engage in all manners of rent seeking and exploitative behaviour. These tendencies and habits are not getting us any where – you just have to see stasis in our countries and the progressive slide in to deepening poverty for an ever increasing percentage of our people. These are the outputs of our cracked up lives, the tragedy of a people who die of poverty in a land endowed with plenty. The vices I enumerate reflect the hardened lives of a nation where leadership is unable to lead, where leadership is lording it over the people, ministry is not about looking after the flock but rather about looting them. Ministers and public servants no longer serve but rather subject the people to all manners of abuse, exploitation and neglect. The roads to our hearts are broken. Our lives are cracked and our lives are in tatters…and all because we have drifted from God. Advent invites us to return to him, to receive him as he comes to us It is an invitation for us to prepare a space and a place in our heads, heart, home and hearth where God’s grace can install, flourish and blossom. Let us therefore open ourselves to God this advent. Let us receive HIM.When we receive HIM, when we level up the road and patch the cracks in our lives, when we remove the clutter of sin and cobwebs of materialism that stand between us and Him, our gains are immense. For in welcoming HIM, in our preparation to welcome and to receive HIM, we end up Healthier, Happier and Holier!

May God’s coming this advent free us and our country, may it free us from the captivity of sin, of poverty, greed, corruption, nepotism and selfishness. May the rhythms and desires of our hearts chime and rhyme with the ever lasting and life giving melodies of His wonderful plans for us in this land where He has installed us. May we do our part to be worthy of His kingdom.

God’s power of life
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/070112.cfm#.T_AfvJ2rK70.gmail
Just sharing today’s readings from the catholic liturgy with some brief lay comments of my own
The readings tell us the following
· God did not make death, death entered the world by the envy of the devil
· Justice is undying
· God’s anger lasts but a moment, and He changes our mourning into dancing. Psalm 30 is a beauty and something we should always read. It overflows with the assurances of the permanence of God’s love and His redemptive power
· Death and sin may have kidnapped the world in the past but God has paid a ransom for us. We read of a God who emptied Himself who emptied himself so that we may be full, who chose poverty so that we may be rich and who died so that we may have life
· The healing power of God in Mark 5 – the miraculous cure of the woman who had been afflicted of haemorrhages for twelve years! This encounter is charged with the power of faith and belief and the persistence of faith.
· God’s power over death in the narrative of the child restored to her parents – Talithakoum – Christ speaks and the girl of twelve is restored to her parents. This power over death and the raising of the dead to life foretells in many ways Christ’s own resurrection and contains within it an assurance that He too will raise us to life on the last day. It also recalls the raising to life of Lazarus, friend to Jesus and brother to Mary and Martha. Notice to in this gospel passage as in the case of Lazarus, the power and persistence of faith, the approach to God with assurance and certainty plus the willingness to wait on God’s time! Again the number twelve reappears!) Notice also the simplicity of the command of recall from death, the command that restores a child to the parents who must have been broken – just four syllables Talithakoum – name and command -Talithakoum! (Some Igbo Bible scholars and linguists, anxious to show the links between Hebrew and Igbo, have argued that TalithaKoum is actually the same as “Nwantakilikuniye”– which in Igbo means – child, get up ! But I suspect that this type of claim smirks of a certain effort to twist scholarship to prove some desirable ethno-cultural affiliations! By the way, I am not even sure that Christ in this specific encounter was speaking in Hebrew!)
What then can one take away from these readings for our contemporary reality, a reality that can be described as a valley of tears?
Our current socio-political stasis is not the work of God but of the devil to whom we have leant ear by our greed and concupiscence. The current morass we find ourselves is because we have fled justice and a country or people that flee justice will never develop.
We can reverse the situation by returning to God. He does not rejoice at our present discomfitures nor at the progressive erosion of our social capital, nor at the creeping and gripping poverty. He is a God who feels the pains of His creation and simply awaits us to reach out to touch his robe of salvation like the woman with the haemorrhages. He waits for us to approach Him in confidence and reverence to invite HIM back into our homes and hearts to heal us and rescue us from death.
Nothing more, just that. Can we do it? It is that simple. Abandon our present and reach out for an assured future with and in Him. It is easy . So, like the Nike Advert, can I ask us all to – “Just do it”!
Happy Sunday, Happy Month and welcome to the second portion of the year!

Reflections on the solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/062412-mass-during-the-day.cfm#.T-alTP8zGLk.gmail

Just sharing today’s readings from the catholic liturgy which celebrates the nativity of John the Baptist
John lived a simple life – see how and where God has elevated him.
John was always willing to speak the inconvenient truth (he actually lost his head for it), but see how great has been his reward and recognition.
John was humble and did not seek equality with Christ – see how highly Christ has elevated Him.
John’s statement about Christ is a classic in self effacing humility
‘What do you suppose that I am’ I am not he.
Behold, one is coming after me;
I am not worthy to unfasten the sandals of his feet.”
May we be as humble as John
John’s life was a life of holiness. May we all live holy lives
John called the world to repentance, and his own life own showed that avoidance of sin – He walked the talk and was thus credible. May we also be as credible as John.
John’s parents Zechariah and Elizabeth were examples of holiness and complete abandonment to the will of God. In their old age, God was to reward that trust by the gift of a child who was to play a pivotal role in announcing God’s salvific mission on earth. The lesson here is clear – nothing is impossible with God and in HIS time, he maketh all things beautiful and possible. Never give up.
May Power, Favor, Anointing and Capacity to Proclaim without fear multiply and bloom as they were in the life of John the Baptist. May we each be like John as through our words and deeds we announce a new kingdom of Truth, Peace Justice, Righteousness and Inclusive Development – Amen