Fr. Emmanuel Megwara, MSP - Homily for Friday Week 28 Ordinary time - October 16, 2020

DATE : 16/10/2020, Friday of the 28th Week in Ordinary Time (A) EVENT : St. Hedwig and St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Virgin and Religious (Opt. Memorial) COLOUR : GREEN READINGS : Eph. 1:11-14; Resp. Psalm 32:1-2,4-5,12-13; Luke 12:1-7. THEME: GOD DETESTS PRETENCE Greetings beloved people of God. I welcome you to "My Catholic Homily Digest". As we celebrate the memorial of Ss. Hedwig and Margaret Mary Alacoque today, I want to reflect with us on the theme, " God detests Pretence". Beloved, one of the greatest lies that can be told is lying to oneself. Many of us are so conscious of our public image that we do not want any iota of negative comment to be made about us. And to keep up with this bloated idea of self image we perfect the act of pretension in almost everything we do. Listen, there is a big difference between prudence and pretence. While the former helps one to work towards holiness, moderation and perfection, the latter is a calculated attempt to deceive others with a false impression of goodness or holiness. Beloved, in Revelation 3:15, St. Paul challenged the Church at Philadelphia, that due to there pretence, "they are neither hot nor cold, good nor bad. Hence, they would be spit out". Child of God, pretence makes us liars and deceivers, it gives others a sense of how righteous we are when in reality we are not. Pretence puts a dark mask on our face, preventing others from seeing and knowing who we really are. In today's Gospel reading, Jesus likened the Pharisees to yeast, leaven and hypocrites, who make a public show of purity and perfection while inwardly they are full of all kinds of rubbish evil thoughts and dealings. The truth of the matter is that we can only fool men by our hypocritical and pretentious lifestyle, but we cannot fool God. We can fool men that we are religious people, that we are prayerful, that we are superhuman devoid of sexual feelings, that we hardly get angry, that we are always heading to Church, meeting, practice or appointment, that we always say the truth and that our intentions are pure towards them, but we can never hide the true contents of our hearts and secret actions before a God who searches the heart and can see even in the deepest darkest. As we reflect on the readings and theme of today's homily digest, I will leave us with the words of Archbishop Matthew N'dagoso of Kaduna Archdiocese when he came to ordain some of our MSP deacons as priests in 2013. He said: "If you must pretend and wear a mask, do not wear a mask that is too thick. Rather, where a mask that is a little bit light so that people can struggle to see through and know where and how best to help you". And I add, instead of pretence, work towards prudence, and gradually with the help of God, you will create a good image of yourself both in the sight of men and God. God bless you. Oh that today you would listen to his voice harden not your hearts (Ps.95:7-8) LET US PRAY : Lord Jesus, may the light of your word free my heart from the deception of sin and consume me with a burning love for righteousness....Amen HAPPY WEEKEND TO YOU BELOVED (BARKA da JUMA'A) @ Fada Emmanuel Nnamdi Megwara, MSP. ⛪