FR REMI HOMILIES/REFLECTIONS AND SERMONS

SIN IS THE SICKNESS OF THE SOUL, WHICH ONLY JESUS CAN CURE Matthew 9:9-13 Good morning dearest brothers and sisters in Christ,  following the Gospel reading of today, the Holy Mother Church guides us to contemplate sin as the sickness of the soul that only Jesus can certainly cure. In our local parlance when one is described as “the walking dead”, it is mostly in reference to a person who may appear physically sound but is spiritually dead.  In the eyes of people, the person may look alright bodily but deep down in the soul, the person is a walking corpse. Friends in Christ, just as the human person can be physically sick, so also the human person can be spiritually sick. Just as there are causes of physical illnesses, so also is the cause of spiritual sickness. Sin is foundationally the sickness of the soul. It thwarts the union or communion of the human person with God; and terminates the channel of the inflow of graces upon the soul. It is pertinent to note that all sinners...

THE BLESSINGS AND GIFTS OF GOD ARE NOT ALWAYS MATERIAL Matthew 9:1-8 Good morning dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, today the Holy Mother Church enjoins us to reflect in the liturgy of the word, the truism that the blessings and gifts of God upon us are not always material. They are in certainty mostly spiritual. This is designated even in the cure of the paralytic. We are told in the Gospel of Matthew 9:2, that “when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, 'Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven”. For Jesus, the curation of the human person is holistic: both spiritual and physical healing. But first, it proceeds from the spiritual and then to the physical. Often than not, people stereotype the blessings of God to mean only material manifestations and little if any at all is said of the spiritual benefits we receive from God. It is important to note that the primal mission of Jesus is to free humanity from the slavery of spiritual evil which is sin. To save humanity...

H OMILY ON THE SOLEMNITY OF SAINTS PETER AND PAUL (APOSTLES) STABILITY AND MOBILITY IN THE CHURCH Acts 12:1-11 2 Tim 4:6-8,17-18 Matthew 16:14-19 Good morning dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the solemnity of two extraordinary pillars of discipleship; the outstanding St. Peter and the impressive St. Paul. These two amazing apostles, though, were diverse in personality and mission both were assigned in the tradition of the church the same day of celebration which is the 29th day of June.  History holds that on the 29th of June in the year 258,  the remains of these two remarkable apostles were brought and deposited in St. Sebastian's Catacombs in Rome before the remains were eventually moved to their respective places: the remains of St. Peter were restored to the Basilica in the Vatican, whereas the remains of St. Paul were restored to the Basilica of St. Paul. A church was built at the catacombs in the 4th century and was celebrated on the 29th of Ju...

MATTHEW 8:23-27 A story was told of a group of youths who organized an excursion to an Island. When they got into the boat to travel across the waters the captain of the boat who was an elderly man invited them to pray along with him but the youths were not interested and were busy exchanging pleasantries, chatting, laughing and doing all worth not. After prayer, the captain rowed the boat. Now, halfway into the waters, the wind was against them so much so that the boat was about to capsize. You could hear the youths shouting 'Jesus, Jesus Jesus', some urged for immediate prayer, and while they were praying the captain was busy steadying the boat. When they got to the island eventually one of the youths courageous asked the captain why he didn't join them in prayer and the captain responded that he had prayed at the beginning, entrusting the journey into the hands of God, the turbulent moment was the time for him to get serious with the work of steadying the boat and not to...

THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP (HOMILY FOR MONDAY OF THE 13TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME JUNE 2022 (Matthew 8:18-22) Good morning dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, there seems to be a parallel understanding between the Gospel of Matthew 8:18-22 and Luke 9:51-62. The slight difference is that in Mathew the person who approached Jesus in the first instance was tagged a 'scribe' where as in Luke it was just a man whom they met a long the way.  Be that as it may,  the first circumstance gives us the picture of a scribe who seemingly was attracted by the personality and teachings of Jesus Christ. Obviously, his profession could have been an asset to Jesus' missionary work e.g personal secretary. But Jesus didn't capitalize on this credit of the scribe and rejected him. This could probably be a case of one who was hasty in decision-making; probably born out of the peripheral without having recourse to a deep-seated conviction and commitment. The scribe tells Jesus: “I will follow ...

ATTITUDE TOWARDS RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE (HOMILY OF THE 13TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEARC Good morning dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, today is the 13th Sunday in the ordinary time year c. The Gospel reading began by telling us of the true determination of Jesus to enter Jerusalem against all odds. We are told that “when the days drew near for him to be taken up, Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Lk 9:51). Jesus had prior knowledge of what awaited him at Jerusalem; his passion, death and resurrection (Mk 10:34). Yet this did not dissuade him from having his heart set upon Jerusalem, toward the accomplishment of his mission. Beloved in Christ, we must not also be deterred nor discouraged by the challenges, obstacles and difficulties we encounter in our primal disposition to do good. Let us remember that a crown cannot be won without undergoing deprivation: 'no cross, no crown'. The Gospel accentuates the religious tension that exists between the Samaritans and the J...

HOMILY ON THE BIRTH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST (SOLEMNITY) JUNE 24 Lk 1:57-66, 80 Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the birthday of St. John the Baptist. In the scheme of the calendar of the church, it is the only feast of birth celebrated beside the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ and that of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The date of today's feast came on the benchmark of the choice of date of Christmas which marks the celebration of the nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and of which six months interval stands between the two births. This is evident in the Gospel of Luke 1:26 within the dialogue between the Angel Gabriel and the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Angel Gabriel disclosed to Mary that her cousin Elizabeth is in her sixth-month pregnancy. So if Christmas is celebrated on the 25th of December, by implication the feast of the birth of John the Baptist is celebrated on the 24th of June.  In this homily, we shall reflect on how the birth of John the Baptist compares t...

OUR LIVES ARE REFLECTIONS OF THE QUALITY OF OUR PRAYERS Matthew 7:21-29 Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, today's Gospel reading reminds us that prayer alone without good works is insufficient to guarantee entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Jesus said to his disciples “Not everyone who says to me, Lord Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 7:21). Jesus reminds us today that prayer is both vertical and horizontal. Vertical because we lift our souls, minds and hearts to God our Father who is in heaven, and horizontal because the quality of our prayer depends on the way we live our lives in relation to our neighbour. So we live the way we pray and pray the way we live. Yes, the nature of our lives is a reflection of the quality of our prayer. Both the vertical and the horizontal go hand in hand. This is similar to the declaration in the letter of St. James that 'Faith without good works is dead (James ...

*THE CONSCIENCE AS THE EYE OF THE BODY *WHATEVER  IS INVESTED IN GOD, CAN NOT BE DEVALUED Matthew 6:19-23 Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, the reading of today speaks to us on the need to have a healthy vision and the necessity of investing our treasure in a safe location. Addressing these, Jesus said to his disciples, “do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Mt 6:19-20). “If the eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light. But if your eye is diseased, your whole body will be darkness” (Mt6:22-23). Beloved in Christ, the expression of Jesus should not be viewed in the literary sense of it. This is because Jesus wasn't responding to those who merely have eye defects: short-sighted, long-sighted, colour blind or even one-eyed person etc. Jesus was addressing t...

BEWARE OF FALSE PROPHETS 2kings 22:8-13, 23:1-3; Mathew 7:15-20 Dearest brothers and sister in Christ, King Josiah after hearing the contents of the Book of the law, we are told, tore his garment, summoned the elders of Judah and Jerusalem, priests, prophets and all the people of high and low degrees. He read to everyone all that was said in the Book of the covenant found in the Temple of the Lord. Standing beside the pillar, he made a covenant to follow the Lord and keep his commandments and decrees, with all his heart and all his soul. And all the people joined in the covenant (2 Kings 22: 8-13; 23:1-3). Beloved in Christ, in 2kings 21:20-22 we are told that king Amon, the father of King Josiah was a very wicked king who was evil in the sight of God. The grandfather of King Josiah, by name king Manasseh was equally evil and pernicious and committed all sorts of atrocities before God. Nonetheless, King Josiah differed in morality and sort the ways of God, renewing the demand of God...

PRAYER BRINGS US INTO THE FAMILY OF GOD Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, in the gospel reading of today. Jesus, while discouraging the act of babbling done by the pagans, instructed his disciples on how to pray. Firstly, Jesus educates his disciples that prayer brings us into the family of God.  The Lord's prayer begins by inviting us into the family of God who is our Father in heaven and invariably enables us to acknowledge that we are God's adopted children. So prayer in the family spirit is relational. The Lord's prayer carries 6 petitions: 3 refer to God and 3 refer to us.  1. Hallowed be your name : otherwise “Holy be your name”, invites us in prayer to admit that God is that supreme pure being without any atom of sin or depravity. Holiness means sacred, blameless, consecrated, Saint etc The holiness of God is graciously acknowledged even in the first 3 commandments given by God to Moses, which require: not having any other god before Yahweh, not using the name ...

HOW PREPARED ARE YOU AT THE APPOINTED TIME? 2kings 2:1, 6-14; Mt 6:1-6, 16-18 Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, William Shakespeare once said, “Death, a necessary end, will come it will come”. It is worth acknowledging that there is certainly an appointed time for all mortals to depart from this world. No one will take root in this world, and no one will live forever. When the time is up, my brother and my sister, it is up and there is nothing no one can do about it. Not even the best team of doctors can save you. There is no exemption to this: whether rich or poor, old or young, beautiful or ugly, tall or short, black or white, etc. It is indeed a necessary end. The sage will tell us that all metals at the workshop of the blacksmith go into the furnace eventually. What is of utmost importance is how ready are we when the appointed time comes. It could be sickness, old age, accidents, heart attack, etc. Anyway is a means. Beloved in Christ, today the great prophet Elijah, despite...

  THE SCANDAL OF NIGERIA: SALVATION IN                              JESUS CRUCIFIED Homily of Bishop Emmanuel Adetoyese Badejo, Catholic diocese of Oyo at the  Funeral Mass held on June 17, 2022 for Multiple Victims of the St. Francis Owo Catholic Church Massacre WISDOM 3: 1-9c; 1 Cor 15:51-57; psalm 27 Lk 12: 35-40 I BELIEVE I SHALL SEE THE LORD’S GOODNESS IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING Your Graces My Lord Bishops, particularly My Lord bishop Jude Arogundade, Bishop of Ondo Diocese, Your Excellencies, particularly the Governor of Ondo State, Arakunrin Akeredolu, Monsignors, Priests Religious, Traditional Rulers especially the Olowo of Owo, Oba Adesanoye, the families and relatives of our departed ones and of other victims of the tragedy that has brought us together, the Christian Association of Nigeria, people of other faiths and confessions, my dear people of God, especially the faithful of St. Francis Cat...

NO EVIL GOES UNSEEN AND UNPUNISHED HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF THE 11TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME (14th June 2022) Ikings 21:17-19; Mt 5:43-45 Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, we are told that after having killed Naboth, king Ahab went ahead and took possession of the vineyard.  Thus, the anger of the Lord God blazed upon the household of King Ahab. Elijah was sent by God to King Ahab and Jezebel, to pronounce the punishment for the atrocious deeds they committed. “Thus says the Lord: In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, dogs will also lick up your own blood”, “and of Jezebel, the Lord said, the dogs shall eat Jezebel within the bounds of Jezreel” and of “the household of Ahab, God said, 'i will bring disaster upon you; I will consume you and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in israel” (1kings 21:17-29). Friends in Christ, this punishment finally came to past, for we are told that King Ahab founght against the king of Aram, and was struck by an arrow ...

THE EVIL OF COVETOUSNESS AND THE ABUSE OF POWER BY KING AHAB ( HOMILY FOR MONDAY OF THE 11WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME (ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA, PRIEST, DOCTOR)   Ikings 21:1-16; Matthew 5:38-42. Covetousness, the sage will say, is the father of unfilled desires and the bringer of the spirit of jealousy and envy. It is like counting the blessings of others instead of your own. Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, the reading of today presents to us the indiscriminate abuse of power by those in authority, in this case by King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, which inadvertently was birthed by covetousness (inordinate desire for another's possession). We are told of a Jezreelite, Naboth by name, who had a vineyard close to the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. There came a day when Ahab said to Naboth, “give me your vineyard to be my vegetable garden since it adjoins my house; I will give you a better vineyard for it, or if you prefer I will give you its worth in money. But Naboth answered Ahab, ...

A CONCISE SUMMARY OF LUMEN GENTIUM: DOGMATIC CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH, 21 NOVEMBER, 1964, PROMULGATED BY POPE PAUL VI Thesis Statement : For Vatican II Council, although the church is hierarchical, it is the family of God's people called in their respective states of life to strive toward holiness Chapter I – The Mystery of the Church: 1. Christ is the light of nations. The Sacred Council gathers together in the Holy Spirit to bring the light of Christ to the nation. The Church, in Christ, like a sacrament, is a sign and instrument, it desires now to unfold more fully to the faithful of the Church and the whole world its inner nature and universal mission. 2. God the Father offers to help us aim unto salvation as evident throughout the economy of human salvation. 3. By His obedience, Jesus brought about redemption. All men are called to this union in Christ. 4. Through the Spirit which dwells in the Church, God equips and directs and leads all faithful to perfect union with its S...

TRINITY SUNDAY Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be world without end. Amen Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the Trinity Sunday. A day we acknowledge and affirm unequivocally the God of our faith and that of the faith of the church which we profess; that there 3 persons in One God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Three distinct persons who are neither exchangeable nor interchangeable but are of the same being. There is one person of the Father who is always the Father distinct from the Son and the Holy Spirit. There is one person of the Son who is always the Son distinct from the Father and the Holy Spirit. There is one person of the Holy Spirit who is always the Holy Spirit distinct from the Father and the Son.  All 3 persons are co-eternal and co-equal. They are all perfectly one in the identity of their nature and perfectly co-substantial in their being. Each person ...

ST. BARNABAS, APOSTLE (JUNE 11) Dearest brothers and Sisters in Christ, today being the 11th of June, the church celebrates the memorial of St. Barnabas, apostle. A great personality whom though was not counted among the ‘Twelve’, had been exalted in the scripture as “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith” (Acts 11:24) and heightened by the church for the great missionary work he accomplished among the Gentiles. Barnabas, a Levite, and a native of Cyprus was first mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, where he was originally called Joseph and surnamed Barnabas which means ‘son of consolation or encouragement: one who comforts, strengthens and shows concern to his brothers and sisters (Acts 4:36). This was evident in the sale of his field, in which he charitably laid the money at the feet of the Apostles (Acts 4:36) and the manner he also acquainted the neo-convert Paul with the apostolic community (Acts 9:27) and ministered to the church in Antioch where the followers of Chris...