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Homily For Passion (Palm) Sunday, Year A.

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Isaiah 50:4-7; Psalm 22:8-9. 17-24; Philippians 2:6-11; Matthew 26:14-27:66. “THE PAIN THAT LEADS TO GAIN” By: Rev. Fr. Charles Onyeka Ezejide. ·        Today, the church celebrates the triumphant entry of the Lord into Jerusalem. Entry into his passion, death, and resurrection. Today, the Lord Jesus begins the final weeklong journey for our redemption. This week is heavily loaded; the temptation and trials of Jesus will be enormous, but the truth is that the pains he will endure will eventually lead to our gain. ·        Today’s liturgy is characterised by mood swings of the initial joy of proclaiming Jesus as the King of kings, and then suddenly it changes to a sober and sorrowful mood where the king must be made to die for his subjects. ·        It is a sad experience to witness the people who once welcomed you as their King of kings and Lord of lords turn and chorus, “Crucify him! C...
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Homily For The 5th Sunday Of Lent, Year A.

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  Ezekiel 37:12-14; Psalm 130:1-5. 7-8; Romans 8:8-11; John 11:1-45. “LENT: MOVING FROM DEATH TO LIFE” By: Rev. Fr. Charles Onyeka Ezejide. ·        Today, the church celebrates the 5 th Sunday of Lent. By this celebration, our journey with Jesus in the wilderness (Lent) is almost over. This should naturally fill us with joy and excitement because where we are going is closer to where we are coming from; we must learn the lessons and imbibe the discipline for better Christian living. ·        In today’s reading, God shows us his power over physical death with a firm assurance of a new life that has no end in the new world he will inaugurate. Hence, the season of Lent at this stage should be a period of preparing ourselves to move from a temporality (death) to live (eternal life).  ·        Dear friends in Christ, Jesus expects us during this season to constantly learn how to ...
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Homily For The 4th Sunday Of Lent (Laetare Sunday), Year A.

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  1 Samuel 16:1.6-7.10-13; Psalm 23:1-6; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-41. “THE CHOICES OF GOD” By: Rev. Fr. Charles Onyeka Ezejide. ·        Today, which is the 4 th Sunday of Lent, is traditionally known as the “Laetare Sunday”. It is so-called because the church wants us to rejoice in the joyful anticipation of Easter. Since Easter is closer to us than when we started this Lenten journey, we must rejoice because our redemption is close at hand. ·        Today, more than ever, there are many reasons why we should be joyful. We should be joyful because God’s ways are not the ways of man, and if men were God, then maybe we would have all perished. ·        This is exactly what we see in the choice of God for David in the first reading (1 Samuel 16:1, 6-7, 10- 13) over the rest of his brothers. Humanly speaking, David fell short of the requirements to be King in Israel, but here we se...
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Homily For The 3rd Sunday Of Lent, Year A.

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Exodus 17:3-7; Psalm 95:1-2.6-9; Romans 5:1-2. 5-8; John 4:5-42. “LENT: A SEASON OF HEIGHTENED “THIRST” By: Rev. Fr. Charles Onyeka Ezejide. ·        Fasting, Prayer, and Almsgiving are the three pillars of Lent. While fasting, a lot of people employ various models of fasting, especially from food and drink. Those who fast from food and drinks or embark on “dry” fasting, that is, fasting without drinking water, are not aliens to what being thirsty is. The tongue can be really dry and yearning for a drink. The question is, what do you thirst for when you thirst? ·        Today, the church celebrates the third Sunday of Lent. Our journey with Jesus in the wilderness is far spent. We are almost halfway into the journey of self-denial and self-discipline. And because the journey is halfway done, our temptations are gradually becoming unbearable. ·        In the first reading (Exodus 17:3-7), ...
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Homily For The 2nd Sunday Of Lent, Year A.

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  Genesis 12:1-4; Psalm 33:4-5.18-22; 2 Timothy 1:8-10; Matthew 17:1-9. “SHIFTING GROUNDS FOR THE KINGDOM” By: Rev. Fr. Charles Onyeka Ezejide. ·        Today, the church celebrates the second Sunday of Lent. On this day, we continue in our struggle to conquer sin and the self, so that we may be focused on God. Can we say that we are making progress on our journey with Jesus in the wilderness? ·        This season of Lent enjoins us to keep up the struggles; it is difficult, and temptations are heightened especially as the day goes by, but we must realise that the more sin grows, the more the grace of God abounds (Rom. 5:20). We should use this grace of God to fight against sin and temptation. ·        Dearly beloved in Christ, we cannot master the self, conquer the self and flee from sinful passions and inclinations to sin if we do not daily find time to be “alone”. I repeat, the ...
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Homily For The 1st Sunday Of Lent, Year A.

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  Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7; Psalm 51:3-6.12-14.17; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11. “THE BEAUTY OF BEGINNINGS ” By: Rev. Fr. Charles Onyeka Ezejide. ·        Today, the church celebrates the first Sunday of Lent, Year A. In this season, we journey with Jesus in the wilderness. This journey in the wilderness is a moment for reflection, repentance, and renewal. ·          On this first Sunday, the reading of the day wants us to reflect on the beauty of beginnings. New beginnings are often met with resistance, suspicion, and doubt, but once we dare to make the first move, it becomes our reference point from then on. ·        In our spiritual lives, we also have beginnings. These beginnings may be when we first received the faith, when we were baptised, when we received our first Holy Communion, when we were confirmed, and when we attended our first Life in the Spirit seminar. Th...
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