SUNDAY HOMILIES FOR YEAR A

By Fr Munachi E. Ezeogu, cssp

Homily for 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time - on the
Epistle
Home > Homilies > Year A > Sunday 27 Gospel

Why Worry When You Can Pray?

Isaiah 5:1-7 Philippians 4:6-9 Matthew 21:33-43

The story is told of one of Napoleon's generals, Massena who, with his
army of 18,000 soldiers besieged an Austrian town that had no
defences whatsoever. The town council met to discuss how to
surrender. Just then an elderly man, the dean of the town church,
reminded the council that it was Easter and suggested that they hold the
usual Easter services and put the problem in God's hands. The council
took his advice, went to the church and rang the church bell to
assemble the townsfolk for worship. Napoleon's forces heard the joyful
ringing of the bells and concluded that the Austrian forces had arrived
to rescue the town. Immediately, they broke camp and beat a retreat,
and the town was saved.

This story illustrates what Paul is saying in today's second reading

from the Letter to the Philippians. Faith in Christ affects how we face
the problems of life. Whereas people who have no faith usually
respond to life's problems with worry, people of faith respond to life's
problems with prayer. As we can see in the story of the Austrian town,
worry only makes us surrender in weakness to the challenges facing us.
In prayer, on the other hand, we raise our hands to our all-loving and
all-powerful Father, who is able to draw us out of the pit into which we
have sunk, even if it should take a miracle to do so.

And so Paul enjoins us: "Do not worry about anything, but in
everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your
requests be made known to God."(Philippians 4:6). First Paul
reminds us that prayer is not simply reading a shopping list of our
needs before God. It also includes thanking God for the blessing of life
and faith that we enjoy already ("thanksgiving") and lifting up before
God all other people and their needs ("supplication"). Much of what
passes for Christian prayer is too self-centred. But Christian prayer
should be God-centred, just as Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord's
prayer. From that prayer we learn the fours components or ACTS of
Christian prayer. Christian prayers is made up of A-C-T-S. "A" is for
Adoration, in which we praise God for His goodness. "C" is for
Contrition, in which we ask forgiveness for our failures. "T" is for
Thanksgiving, in which we thank God for blessings received. And "S"
 is for Supplication, in which we ask God for our needs and the needs of
all of God's people.

"And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will

guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (verse 7).This is
what happens when we learn to take all our problems to the Lord in
prayer. We trade our stress and worry for peace of mind. It was George
Mueller who said that, "The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith,
and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety."

"Beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is

just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is
commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything
worthy of praise, think about these things" (verse 8). The second
thing Paul teaches us in this passage is that prayer is more than just
praying. Prayer is not just what we do on our knees. It also includes
what we think about all day long. Prayer includes what Norman
Vincent Peale calls "positive thinking." A person of prayer is a person
who thinks always of what is true, honourable, just, pure, pleasing,
commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise. Paul does not ask us to
spend our days thinking about our needs, our failures or what is wrong
with the world, as some of us tend to do.

"Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and
heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you" (verse
9). Finally, prayer involves action. A person of prayer should be a
person of action. The formula, as the saints tell us, is to pray fervently
as if everything depends on God, and then to act decisively as if
everything depends on us. The key to finding peace in a world of stress
and distress is not worry but prayer, thinking positively, and doing
what is right We start here now in church with prayer, we leave church
and continue with positive thoughts, and we follow it up with doing the
right thing. That way, the peace of God will be with us.

SUNDAY HOMILIES FOR YEAR A

By Fr Munachi E. Ezeogu, cssp
Homily for 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time - on the
Gospel
Home > Homilies > Year A > Sunday 27 Epistle

Giving God His Due

Isaiah 5:1-7 Philippians 4:6-9 Matthew 21:33-43

Two brothers went treat-or-tricking and collected some eggs. The elder
said to his younger brother, "I will give you one dollar if you let me
break three eggs on your head." The little boy knew it was going to be
a painful experience, but because he needed the dollar he agreed. The
bigger boy then went on to break an egg on his brother's head. His
brother took it with an "Ouch!" Then he broke the second egg on his
little brother's head. This time it really hurt and his little brother cried
out in pain. But the young lad was determined to get his dollar. So he
braced himself for the third and last egg, but his senior brother walked
away laughing. "Come on, bring on the third egg," said the little boy.
"Nope!" said the bigger brother, "I don't wanna lose my dollar."

One could dismiss the story as kids playing pranks, but there is
something more serious going on here. It is called breach of contract.
We are talking about the sense of responsibility, the recognition that
every privilege we enjoy comes with a price tag. Like the big brother in
our story, some people go about trying to take advantage of others, of
the society, and even of God. We see that in the parable of the
rebellious farm managers in today's gospel, who enjoy the benefits that
accrue to them as managers but withhold the benefits that should go to
the landowner. Think of the story that was in the media some time back
about some Nigerian women who seized the facilities of an oil drilling
company complaining that these companies enrich themselves from
their land without giving back anything to the owners of the land.
Today's gospel calls for responsibility and accountability in our
dealings with God, which include our dealings with our fellow human
beings.

Jesus directed the parable at the Jewish leadership of his day. The
parable has a lot to teach us about stewardship. As such it has very
important lessons for church leaders in particular but also for all of
God's people in general. We all have at least received life from God.
Life is given to us in trust. We are expected to cultivate and manage
this life in such a way that it bears good fruit - fruit that we can present
to God the owner of our lives on the day of reckoning.

The parable teaches us a lot about God and how God relates to us. First
we see the PROVIDENCE of God. "There was a landowner who
planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it,
and built a watchtower"(Matthew 21:33a). Before God entrusts a
responsibility to you, He makes provision for all that you will need in
carrying out the responsibility.

"Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country" (verse

33b). This shows God's TRUST in us. God does not stand looking over
our shoulders, policing us to make sure we do the right thing. God
leaves the job to us and goes on vacation to a far country, so to say.
God trusts that we will do the right thing. Unfortunately many of us
don't. The story also highlights God's PATIENCE with us. God sends
messenger after messenger to the rebellious managers who would not
render to God what is His due. With each messenger, God provides
another chance for us to put an end to rebellion and do the right thing.
Finally there comes a last chance. God plays His last card and sends
His only son. If we miss this last chance, then we've missed it. In the
end we see God's JUDGMENT in which rebellious humanity lose their
very lives, and their privileges are transferred to others who are more
promising. The picture is that of a provident, trusting, patient, but also
just God.

From this we can learn a lot about ourselves and how we stand in
relation to God. First we see human PRIVILEGE. Like the managers
of the vineyard, everything we have is a privilege and not a merit. This
is what we mean when we say that everything is God's grace. Grace is
unmerited favour. Another word for this is privilege. Life itself is a
privilege which can be taken away from any of us at any moment.
Privilege comes, however, with RESPONSIBILITY. We are ultimately
responsible and accountable to God for the way we use or abuse our
God-given privileges. God has given us all that we need to make a
judicious use of all our privileges, yet we retain the ability to abuse
them. This is called FREEDOM. The Parable of the Wicked
Husbandmen, as it is called, is a parable on the misuse of human
freedom. Let us today pray for the wisdom and the courage never to
abuse our privileges but rather to make a judicious use of all the
privileges and opportunities that God gives us.