For the sake of God alone (HOMILY FOR THURSDAY OF THE OCTAVE OF EASTER APRIL 2023

HOMILY FOR THURSDAY OF THE OCTAVE OF EASTER

Acts 3:11-26; Ps.8 & 5; Luke 24:35-48

For the sake of God alone

One of the laws of the 48 laws of power says: Never outshine your master. To outshine one’s master means to try to use your present opportunity to apportion to oneself the glory that is due to the one who has helped you obtain the opportunity. This makes it a form of disloyalty.

In the first reading of today, Peter and John were not disloyal to their master Jesus Christ. Yesterday we read how through the power of the risen Christ, they were able to make the lame man walk. Now, the lame man and the people around could only understand that Peter and John have made a lame man walk. They could not understand that it was the power of the risen Christ that was at work.

So, while the lame man clung to Peter and John, the people ran to them. These gestures already suggest the desire to worship or adore Peter and John as though they made the lame man work by their own powers. However, Peter and John immediately started teaching the people that it was the risen Christ that was at work, not them. This means that the honour they would have given to Peter and John should be translated into belief in the Son of God whom they ignorantly killed.

Beloved, we too will at one point or the other in our lives, find ourselves in the condition of Peter and John. By the grace of God, we have been and will be capable of some noble actions. The beneficiaries of our actions show appreciation and demonstrate some form of reverence to us. But, we must be careful never to attempt to “outshine the master”. Always and everywhere, let us direct all glory to God. It will save us from attempting self-messianism. It will also save us from pride which goes before a fall.

This will also mean that when the beneficiaries of our good deeds fail to show appreciation or decide to treat us with evil intent, we should not get so bittered that we then decide to give up on ever being good to anyone again. When we learn to do every good for the sake of God, we will both be consistent in doing good and far away from pride.