Peter Ireorji, MSP - Homily Thursday, March 21, 2019

Why did the rich man go to hell? We are not told that he acquired his wealth by foul means. The reason we have difficulty pinpointing why the rich man went to hell may have a lot to do with how we think of sin. We often think that we sin only through thoughts, words, and deeds. We forget that a fourth and very important way we can sin is through our omissions. Yet we forget this last criterion, the sin of omission. The rich man of Lk 16:19-31, saw Lazarus hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked and sick–but he chose not to see him. He was spiritually blind and thus, he did not see. In not seeing, he did not act and in not acting, he omitted the compassion and sharing he should have given Lazarus. So the rich man is condemned for his sin of omission. Today the Lord challenges us to enter the world of the other and let the other to enter our world. That, in a sense, is what Jesus himself did. He entered our world and invites us to enter his world. We can do the same for each other. When we cross the threshold into the world of the other, into the world of those who are very different from us in all kinds of ways, we may discover that we not only have something to give the other but a great deal to receive as well. Shalom!

Peter Ireorji, MSP - Homily Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Jesus asks James and John, “Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?” Matt 20:22. If they were prepared to share his cup, to throw in their lot with him, to follow where he leads, even though it may mean the cross. In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.” Yet, he went on to drink that cup to the full on the cross. At the last supper, he drank of the cup, and then gave the cup to his disciples, who also drank from it. Yet, a little later, they deserted him and fled. In spite of what they promised, James and John would not follow when the going got hard. We too are invited to drink from the Lord’s cup, the cup of the Eucharist. In doing so, we are expressing our willingness to go where he leads and walk in his way. Jesus teaches that way of self-giving service of others, as against lording it over them. We pray that in talking the Lord’s cup today, we would be faithful to what that action signifies—walking in the footsteps of the Son of Man who came not to be served but to serve. Shalom!

Peter Ireorji, MSP - Homily Monday, March 18, 2019

Mercy, forgiveness and love are in short supply today. Most relationships between people are built on what one can gain from the other and how the relationship will help one. It is rare to see (even in relationships between members of one family) selflessness and generosity. Yet, this is what Jesus calls the disciple to and expects that the disciple will live such a generous life. One way we can develop mercy and give it to our neighbor is to be able to know ourselves, face and accept our own sins and mistakes (self awareness). Being able to accept the shameful state of our lives, the truth behind us which God sees-all on our own, with no comparisons and no useless judgments- will only enable us to share God’s love and mercy with all men. This way, we begin to think and see like God as we look at one another. Shalom!

Fr Peter Ireorji MSP - Homily for 2nd Sunday of Lent year C, March 17, 2019

In Luke 9:28:36, Peter, James and John saw his glory as God; his face was brighter than the sun and his clothes dazzling white. And the voice of the heavenly Father was heard: “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” This experience filled them with such an overwhelming and indescribable joy and all that Peter could say was: “Master, let us erect three booths here.” They had a glimpse and taste of heaven and they wished to remain there forever. There are times in our lives when things do not go the way we plan, when all that we plan goes awry, when the road seems steep and the going is difficult, when every step that we take is laboured and arduous, when we cannot see or understand and, when we feel like giving up and giving in. It is at times like these that we, like Peter, wish we had stayed on the mountain. It is at times like these when we, like Abram, might like some tangible proof, some sign. Yet, the Transfiguration of Jesus, and the attitude of Abram, teach that God continues to walk ahead of us and, though we may not be able to see him as clearly as we would like, God is there. This is why Paul calls the Christian community at Philippi to join him in imitating Christ. This means that they must be able, like Christ, to look beyond and not be weighed down by the trials and tribulations of the world. It means that they must continue to have faith and trust at all times since trials and tribulations are always temporary and passing. What is permanent is God’s unconditional love, manifested in his Son, Jesus Christ. Our confidence is not in our ability to overcome the challenges that come our way, but in God’s grace that we constantly receive in, and through, Jesus Christ. Shalom!

Peter Ireorji, MSP - Homily Saturday, March 16, 2019

Our vocation as Christians, is to become perfect, in God’s image. Just as God loves us, each of us is called to respond “with all your heart and with all your soul. Being perfect means being loving to an extraordinary degree, loving our enemy, praying for those who persecute us, who make life difficult for us. Being perfect consists in loving in the way that God loves, which is with a love that doesn’t discriminate on the basis of how people relate to us. This is the pinnacle of Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. The fact that Jesus calls on us to love as God loves shows that he does not consider this call unrealistic. We may not be able to love in this divine way on our own, but we can do so with God’s help. Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Shalom!

Peter Ireorji, MSP - Homily Friday, March 15, 2019

Jesus calls his disciples to a virtue deeper than the virtue of the scribes and Pharisees. A major commandment was “You shall not kill.” The call of Jesus goes deeper than that; it goes below the actual act of killing to the underlying attitudes and emotions which lead people to kill or injure each other. If we come to worship God and there are feelings of anger, revenge or hatred in our hearts, then our worship remains incomplete. It is only an external worship and not true worship. God does not need our adoration, but if want to adore him it must also come from within. We need to look below the surface of what people do, to cure the underlying passions. We need a renewal of the heart and mind, a true “repentance” Today as we endeavor to abide in the Lord and adhere to His word, let us always ask God that we are removed from any conflicting and hurtful relationships and that we may not be any man’s enemy, but instead remain a true friend of all, yet always faithful to a covenant relationship with God. Shalom!

Fr Peter Ireorji, MSP - Homily Thursday, March 14, 2019

Today Jesus once more presents to us the requirements for discipleship. He said: “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Lk 9:23. Lent is traditionally a time for self-denial. We ask ourselves what it is we need to let go, to give up, in order to follow the Lord more closely. We all have something we need to let go off; it might be some excessive attachment that is holding us back, or some habit that is not serving us well. Self renunciation is more difficult today than in the past because we live in a culture which encourages us to indulge ourselves. We can easily think of self-renunciation as something negative. Yet, the giving up, the letting go, is always with a view to life, to living life to the full. A true disciple of Christ decides to do the will of God whatever the cost may be. When we do this for the Lord, we deny our old sinful drives and motivations but instead desire and choose to do God’s will for our lives. We effectively take up the cross at hand.  By doing such an act, we lose our old self and we begin to become the new person that God will enable us to be. Shalom!

Fr Peter Ireorji, MSP - Homily Wednesday, March 13, 2019

You have to sympathize with Jonah. He has had some rough times before Jonah 3:1-10. First, God gave him an impossible mission: to convince the people of the world’s most sinful city to change their ways or risk having their city destroyed. He hopped on a boat heading in the opposite direction, hoping to escape God’s call. When a storm came up and raised such waves that the ship seemed doomed to sink, the sailors figured he was a jinx and tossed him overboard. He was swallowed by a gigantic fish, which finally spit him up on a beach. He decided maybe he would try it God’s way. He made his way to the wicked city of Nineveh where, with much trepidation, he preached God’s message: “Change your ways or my God will destroy your city.” He was certain that these folks were not about to listen to one of their enemies. But, as we heard in the first reading, they did indeed repent and God spared them. And was Jonah delighted? Not a bit! He went into a magnificent pout because God had made a fool of him by forgiving those wicked folks. A prophet’s life is a hard one! Our wickedness probably doesn’t rank with that of the Ninevites, but we are painfully aware of how short we fall of perfection. This season is our opportunity to pause and take stock, to heed the prophets God has sent to dwell among us. He calls us to seek him with true repentance, humility, and the honesty to see our sins for what they really are – a rejection of his love and will for our lives. God will transform us if we listen to his word and allow his Holy Spirit to work in our lives. Shalom!

Fr Peter Ireorji, MSP - Homily Tuesday, March 12, 2019

The address of God as “Father” brings out the intimacy of the relationship that disciples and God share. The opening petitions indicate that prayer does not begin with one’s needs, but with the glory and honour due to God. God’s name is and will be honoured by all men and women, since God as revealed by Jesus is primarily a God of mercy, forgiveness and unconditional love. The kingdom of God has come in Jesus and is also in the future when God will be all and in all. This is a situation in which God will show himself to be king as he has done in the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus. As Jesus constantly did God’s will, so it will continue to be done both in heaven and on earth. It is only when God’s will is done rather than one’s own that there can be true and lasting peace and harmony. Despite petitioning God for something as stupendous as the kingdom, the disciple also acknowledges dependence on God for something as regular and ordinary as bread. God’s forgiveness is unconditional and without any merit our part however, in order to receive this forgiveness which God gives graciously and gratuitously, we must have to remove from our heart any unforgiveness, resentment or anger that might be present there. The prayer ends with a final petition that God, who always leads the people, will not bring them into a time of testing, when the pressure might be so great as to overcome faith itself, but that he will save them from the ultimate power of evil. While we must acknowledge our dependence on God for everything that we need and regard him always as the primary cause, our attitude to others must be one of acceptance and forgiveness. Shalom!

Fr Peter Ireorji, MSP - Homily Monday, March 11, 2019

We serve the Lord when we serve a needy person. Jesus made this clear when He said that any kindness shown to the hungry, the thirsty, the homeless, the sick, the destitute, and the imprisoned will be judged as having been done directly to Him Matt 25:40,45. He identifies so closely with the oppressed that serving them in His name is the same as serving Him. Whenever we extend help in the name of Jesus through acts of caring, Jesus Himself is there even though we cannot see Him. At the final judgment, people will ask, ‘when did we ever see you in need of our help?’ God’s presence was not always obvious to Jesus’ contemporaries, and his presence is not always obvious to us either. It comes to us not in signs and wonders but in weakness, in the needs of others, whoever they are. And someday when we stand before Him, He will recall our deeds of love performed in His name and say, “Well done!” Let’s keep on serving Him by serving others. God’s service is more than mere preaching but by deeds. We serve Christ when we serve others in need. Shalom!

Fr Peter Ireorji, MSP - Homily Friday, March 8, 2019

Many people felt angry when Isaiah accused them of being rebels against God Isa 58:1-9. They saw themselves as devout, zealous in religious practice. But the prophet pointed out that even while they fasted for religious purposes, they had not qualms about oppressing their workers. In which case, the religion they practiced was not really to please God, but to please themselves. Their ritual observance has become merely a traditional activity, something they are doing for themselves. Even on the days when they fast, they end up arguing and fighting, self-righteous and disunited. Today, we too can fall into this syndrome, putting questions of ritual on the back burner. Many seem to limit the ideal of “walking-with-God” to something that is fulfilled in a one-day-a-week commitment, by attending church. Some will do even this only if the Mass or service be held at a time that caters entirely to their personal preferences. We become so wrapped up in our own concerns, that there is hardly time for conversing with God our Maker. But helped by the words of prophet Isaiah, perhaps we can see more clearly the penance that God offers us as a special blessing, in the blessed season of Lent. It’s designed not as a time to indulge oneself, but as a time to think of others. The fast that God prescribes for us is to find the time to clothe the naked, to right injustices, to feed the hungry, and to make provision for those who have no home. It is to love my neighbour as truly as my own self. Shalom!

Fr Peter Ireorji, MSP - Homily Friday, March 8, 2019

Many people felt angry when Isaiah accused them of being rebels against God Isa 58:1-9. They saw themselves as devout, zealous in religious practice. But the prophet pointed out that even while they fasted for religious purposes, they had not qualms about oppressing their workers. In which case, the religion they practiced was not really to please God, but to please themselves. Their ritual observance has become merely a traditional activity, something they are doing for themselves. Even on the days when they fast, they end up arguing and fighting, self-righteous and disunited. Today, we too can fall into this syndrome, putting questions of ritual on the back burner. Many seem to limit the ideal of “walking-with-God” to something that is fulfilled in a one-day-a-week commitment, by attending church. Some will do even this only if the Mass or service be held at a time that caters entirely to their personal preferences. We become so wrapped up in our own concerns, that there is hardly time for conversing with God our Maker. But helped by the words of prophet Isaiah, perhaps we can see more clearly the penance that God offers us as a special blessing, in the blessed season of Lent. It’s designed not as a time to indulge oneself, but as a time to think of others. The fast that God prescribes for us is to find the time to clothe the naked, to right injustices, to feed the hungry, and to make provision for those who have no home. It is to love my neighbour as truly as my own self. Shalom!

Fr Peter Ireorji, MSP - Homily Thursday, March 7, 2019

Jesus says that if we want to be his followers we have to be ready to renounce ourselves. Lent is traditionally a time for self-denial. We ask ourselves what it is we need to let go, to give up, in order to follow the Lord more closely. We all have something we need to let go off; it might be some excessive attachment that is holding us back, or some habit that is not serving us well. Self renunciation is more difficult today than in the past because we live in a culture which encourages us to indulge ourselves. We can easily think of self-renunciation as something negative. Yet, the giving up, the letting go, is always with a view to life, to living life to the full. The book of Deuteronomy puts it very positively, “Choose life, that you and your descendants may live”Duet 30:19, and Jesus says in the in Matt 9:24, that whoever loses his life for his sake will save it. We pray this Lent that the Lord would give us the grace to keep on choosing life. Shalom!

Fr Peter Ireorji, MSP - Homily Ash Wednesday, March 6, 2019

As we receive the ashes on our foreheads, we take stock of the purpose of Lent: it is an exercise in cleansing and holy desire. It lasts forty days in imitation of the time Jesus spent in the desert before starting his public ministry. What is the purpose of Lent? It is to prepare us for a more effective involvement in our vocation as Christians. Our desires are far too small if we look for fulfilment only in what this world offers by way of transient satisfactions, but God wants us to have so much more; his very Self. During Lent we seek to tune in to higher desires our longing for God. In Matt 6:1-18, Jesus shows the way: prayer, fasting and almsgiving, the classic Lenten practices. Our eternity will be an eternal relationship with the living God in the Communion of Saints. That relationship begins in this life through prayer. While we should certainly enjoy food and the conviviality that often accompanies a good meal, we should also find a place for fasting, in order to sharpen our appetite for God. All of us resonate in some way to the ideal of almsgiving, could we perhaps do more to serve the needy, not so that people will consider us generous, but to imitate God’s generosity to us? God means to fill each of us with what is good; so cast out what is bad, and now is a favourable time to do so. Wishing you a spirit filled Lenten season. Shalom!

Fr Peter Ireorji, MSP - Homily Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Peter asked the candid question, “What about us? We have left everything and followed you.” Mk 10:28. He and his colleagues had given up much to be followers of Jesus. They may have wondered if it was really worth it all. We too have responded to God’s call, maybe not in such a radical way as the apostles who left their livelihood and family for a very uncertain future. Perhaps we might be tempted to ask like Peter; “Is it worthwhile trying to live by the values of the gospel day in and day out.” The answer is “Yes, in the long run it is worth the effort.” Jesus promises that when we give of ourselves for his sake, we will receive much more than we give up. In particular, we will gain a new experience of family, far beyond the confines of our blood family. We will find ourselves co-travellers with others who are trying to take the same path as ourselves; we will experience the richness of the church, as the communion of saints. That community embraces not only those of us still on our pilgrim way, but all who have passed beyond this life, including the saints, that great cloud of witnesses. Shalom!

Fr Peter Ireorji, MSP - Homily Monday, March 4, 2019

Have you noticed that when you’ve made great progress on your spiritual journey, Jesus smiles at you and says, “Ahhh, this is good, very good! The Father and I are very pleased with you.” But then he adds: “There’s something else I want you to do.” He knocks you off your chair of cozy self-contentment and invites you to more purification. I get so tired of that! That’s what happened to the rich young man who gleefully ran up to Jesus in Mk 10:17-27. He’d been dutifully obeying all of God’s commandments. With such commendable holiness credentials, he thought he had earned an open door to heaven. But Jesus knew that in the man’s heart he was self-satisfied while doing only the minimum and living a mediocre faith. So Jesus invited him to see the commandments differently. Notice that he did not condemn the man. Neither does Jesus condemn us when we need purification. He knows that we truly desire to be holy. With tremendous love, he brings to our attention the shortcomings of our obedience and teaches us the greatest commandment: the Law of Love. But we frown as that young man did.  Our flesh nature does not enjoy giving up its self-satisfied limitations that we impose on God’s commandments. This is why Jesus emphasizes: “For you, it IS impossible, but not for God!” Trusting God to do in me what I cannot do for myself has proven to be an excellent strategy. What sin are you unwilling to quit? What change have you been avoiding? Tell Jesus that you don’t want to stop justifying your sin, but give him permission to re-create you according to his loving kindness. Shalom!

Fr Peter Ireorji, MSP - Homily from 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time year C, March 3, 2019

Addressing his disciples through a proverb and parables, Jesus explicates what it means to be a true disciple Lk 6:39-45. The proverb about the blind leading the blind is a challenge to the disciples to be better qualified than those they seek to serve. This qualification has nothing to with degrees or diplomas, but everything to do with trying to be like Jesus. In so doing they will not look for faults in others, but will focus on the positives in them and at the same time constantly strive to become aware of their own shortcomings. This awareness of one’s own weakness will make one humble and also more accepting of others. Then truly will there be a synchrony between what one is and what one does, the being and action, the saying and doing. The former will inevitably be exposed by the latter. Discipleship, therefore, requires not just good deeds. It requires integrity and a purity of heart such as one sees in Jesus himself. The example of Jesus whose whole being was good must be our constant motivation. If we follow the example of Jesus, then people will say of us his disciples, see how they go about doing good. Shalom!

Fr Peter Ireorji, MSP - Homily Saturday, March 2, 2019

When people bring children to Jesus, the disciples try to stop them from doing so showing once again that they have not been able to understand what Jesus and the kingdom are all about. The kingdom is for everyone and is inclusive not exclusive. Jesus is emphatic in his response to their action that the kingdom does indeed belong to children and that anyone who does not become like a child can never hope to enter it. The point is not so much that one will be excluded but that one will exclude oneself. The kingdom is a gift and must be received as a gift. No human power can create or force it. The kingdom of God will come when we behave like little children. A childlike attitude means not only that one will be humble and spontaneous as children are, but also that one will acknowledge like a child has to do, his/her dependence. Many of us like to be independent and for some asking a favour of someone else is extremely difficult because they do not want to acknowledge their dependence on that person and so be indebted. We must realise that we are all interconnected and while we are dependent on each other in some way or other, we are primarily dependent on God. Shalom!