Fr. Peter JEMIBOR

Beloved in Christ, the first reading of today is one that affirms the fact that God’s ways are not our ways. God sees what we humans do not see. This is clearly illustrated when Samuel went to the house of Jesse to anoint David as king. The Israelites were ruled by Saul; their first king. However Saul disobeyed God, and God asked Samuel to anoint David as the king of Israel. when Samuel got to the house of Jesse, he saw the first son Eliab and immediately thought he was the one because of his statue and appearance but God rejected him and said “the Lord sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance but the Lord looks on the heart” this is a very strong message for us as Christians.

God is not concerned about our outward appearance but looks at the heart. Some of us as Christians we look so beautiful, our outward appearance seems so perfect but our hearts are completely far away from God. Our hearts are so rotten with evil desires. We must know today that God is interested in our heart; we cannot appear to be Christians yet we harbor hatred and jealousy in our heart. We cannot appear to be Christians and we treat people around us without dignity. We cannot call ourselves Christians, if we are completely soaked in immorality. What God looks at is the heart – let us ask ourselves today, how clean is our hearts? God can only dwell in a heart that is clean. Let us therefore see that we remove the stain of sin and evil from our hearts.

     More so, we see how God directed Samuel to anoint David; we need the Spirit of God too in our life to guide and direct us. Have you lost the sense of purpose and direction in your own life? Then return to God to redirect your path back to purpose. God will never mislead us rather he will always lead us to our purpose – just as he leads Samuel to anoint David.

       St. Paul in the second reading admonished the people of Ephesus to walk in the path of light and by extension he admonishes us too today, to come out of our darkness of sin and walk as children of light; for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.. Christ is the light and as Christ’s faithful we are children of the light hence we must live a Christ-like life. Dear friends as we intensify our Lenten journey, we must do away with sin, we must dispel the darkness of evil thoughts, the darkness of pride and envy, the darkness of backbiting and gossip, dispel the darkness of immorality and corruption, we must dispel all that contradict what we stand for as children of light. We are challenged therefore to shine forth the light of Christ, to radiate the virtues of love and kindness, the virtues of humility and forgiveness. Today we are encouraged to shine the light of Christ in our families, places of work, classroom wherever we find ourselves.

     In the Gospel, Jesus healed a man who was born blind – imagine, dear brethren, being in darkness since birth. However, his encounter with Jesus brought about a divine transformation in his life from darkness to light. In ancient time, it was considered that God punished people who sinned against him with blindness or madness (Deut. 28:28). So, the disciples asked Jesus when they saw the blind man, “who sinned? this man or his parents” since he was born blind but then Jesus told them “it was not that this man sinned or his parents but that the works of God might be made manifest in him.” This is really important for us to know as Christians that sometimes certain things happen to us not because God has coursed us but it’s happening to us in order for God to manifest His glory through us that others may come to believe in God. For example Job experienced misfortune but at the end of his challenging times God blessed him in double fold all that he had lost. So when we go through some challenging moments let us not be discouraged but wait patiently and persevere in our faith in God and at the right time God will manifest his glory in our lives.

     Furthermore, we see in the gospel that the blind man witnessed to Jesus boldly before the Pharisees who questioned him about his healing. In fact, the Pharisees had to call the parents of the man to inquire about the blindness of the man, the parent however accepted him as their son and the fact that he was born blind, but could not answer how he was healed of his blindness; they said “ask him, he is of age, he will speak for himself.” The parents were obviously afraid but then the blind man stood his ground to witness to Jesus before the Pharisees who questioned him.

     Dear friends, the courage of this man is what is required from us as Christians – to bear witness to Jesus wherever we find ourselves; to testify to the goodness of God even when we are confronted with martyrdom.

Today, let us be courageous enough to bear witness to Jesus, let us be courageous enough to bear witness to the truth and let us be courageous enough to reflect the light of Christ to the world.

May God grant us the courage to remain faithful to Him through Christ our lord Amen.