From: joachim omolo ouko
Father Omolo Beste’s Homily
Sunday, May 18, 2014
Today is fifth Sunday of Easter. Today’s first reading taken from Acts 6:1-7 is quite a challenge to us all. It depicts how nepotism and tribalism entered the first Church as the number of disciples continued to grow. The Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.
The Hellenists were the converts among the Jews who had returned to Judea after having lived abroad in the Greek world and still spoke Greek and had adopted Greek cultural elements. The Hebrews who were also the Christian converts among the Jews born and raised in Israel complained that Hellenists should not be treated equally as Hebrews since they were from different tribe.
Another reason why the Hebrews neglected Hellenist widows in the daily distribution was because in those days women didn’t inherit property; their livelihood depended on what their father or husband brought home. If none of them existed, widows could “glean” and pick up the leftovers after others’ fields had been harvested.
When the twelve chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch, whom they set before the apostles, Stephen was stoned to death because he said it was not right to neglect Hellenist widows since they too were children of God, created in his own image and likeness just like Hebrews. Stephen himself was a Hellenistic Jew attempting to prove that Jesus is the Messiah in a Hellenistic place of worship.
In our modern time we can call the killing of Stephen political assassination, the killing of individual citizens who oppose the government which is corrupt, tribal, and which is not open to reform. Such murder cases lie unresolved in court registries and in police files because of government conspiracy to cover up.
The second reading taken from 1 Pt 2:4-9 is yet another big challenge. We are invited to come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, and, like living stones where we are called to build our spiritual house.
Rejection may be emotionally painful because of the social nature of human beings and the need of social interaction between other humans is essential. Jesus was rejected, yet he counted this as nothing compared to the love of God.
Unless you build your rejection into Jesus’ spirituality, it can really hurt. It inflicts damage to our psychological well-being that goes way beyond mere emotional pain. We all have a fundamental need to belong to a group (or tribe). When we get rejected, this need becomes destabilized and the disconnection we feel adds to our emotional pain.
In the Gospel taken from Jn 14:1-12 Jesus is challenging us not let our hearts be troubled. In our sufferings we still need to have faith in God. What we should acknowledge is that suffering and sorrow are a part of life.
When you’re angry and bitter, you can still cling to Jesus in the midst of your tears. You can grab onto him and refuse to let go until he brings you through it. You’ll find, to your surprise, that he holds on to you even tighter than you hold on to him.
Jesus is calling on us to have faith in God in our sufferings because he understands better what means suffering and sorrow. He knows about being hurt. He remembers the terrible moment on cross. That is why he is calling on us to have faith also in me.
In his Father’s house there are many dwelling places. “If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be”.
No one comes to the Father except through Jesus. If you know him, then you will also know his Father. “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.”
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail obolobeste@gmail.com
Omolo_ouko@outlook.com
Facebook-omolo beste
Twitter-@8000accomole