Homily For The 4th Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year A.

Zephaniah 2:3, 3:12-13; Psalm 145:6-10; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31; Matthew 1:1-12.

 “FROM HAPPINESS TO BLESSEDNESS!”

By: Rev. Fr. Charles Onyeka Ezejide.

·       There is a strong desire to find happiness at all costs in everyone. We try to find reasons to make ourselves happy and have fun despite the many things around us that should make us sad. We are not ready to stop at anything until this happiness or joy is found.

·       What makes each of us happy differs from person to person? For some, their happiness lays in the amount of money they have, some it lays in how influential they are, for some, it lays in how vast their connection and league of friends are, for some, it is in how much approval they get from people around them etc. what makes people happy can be really vast, but our focus today is not just being happy but that kind of happiness that guarantees blessedness or eternity.

·       Christians are called to ensure that their search for happiness secures them eternity, and that is exactly the reason why we were created in the first place. Our simple catechism tells that “God made us to know him, love him, and serve him in this world and to be happy with him forever in the next”. The “next” as a word here refers to the world of blessedness or eternity, where we shall behold the beatific vision.

·       The truth is that the happiness most of us desire and seek may not guarantee us eternity because it is centred on mundane things, ephemeral things. And this search for happiness in the wrong places and in the wrong things can only make us excited and have momentary pleasure. But the life of blessedness is true and eternal happiness.

·       Today, the Lord wants our happiness to guarantee us salvation where we shall behold him face to face, devoid of pains, disappointments, sickness, sorrows, etc. This is what it means to move from happiness to blessedness.

·       Of what good is our continued happiness in this world, and then miss heaven? That will be the worst tragedy of the Christian faith; no wonder the scripture states clearly “what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and suffers the loss of his soul” (Mk. 8:36).

·       Today in the Gospel (Matthew 1:1-12), Jesus, the new Moses, mounts the podium of Moses on the mountain to give us the new law – the secrets to true happiness since the old law is seen as a burden. However, Jesus does not abolish the old law but simplifies and improves upon them.

·       So we must ask ourselves, if our happiness must guarantee blessedness, what must it entail? The Gospel tries to answer the question by listing the Beatitudes, which also means blessedness. It simply means that if you want your present happiness to be eternal and true, then we must learn to be poor in spirit, we must learn to be gentle, we must learn to thirst for justice and what is right, we must learn to be merciful, we must learn to keep our hearts pure, and we must be peacemakers. However, to be all of these comes with a lot of challenges and difficulties, but our consolation is that after all these, our happiness will transcend into blessedness.

·       Having examined what leads to blessedness, the Prophet Zephaniah in the first reading (Zephaniah 2:3, 3:12-13), tells us that the life of blessedness goes hand in hand with seeking the Lord in integrity, seeking him in humility, and doing these puts us on the path to blessedness.

·       We must also realise that humility is at the centre of the life of blessedness and true happiness. St. Paul in the second reading (1 Corinthians 1:26-31) reminds us to never despise the days of humble beginnings, when we were nobodies until we encountered God, until God blessed us.

·       Hence, all we have and are but the grace of God, and we must always keep that in view in all we do and in our relationship with others. We were lifted by God for a reason. We were taken or lifted from the slum and villages by God and made influential today so that we too can lift others and better their lives. “He chose you, the weak, the nobody, the unintelligent, the unattractive to shame the strong (1 Corinthians 1:27-28). This is purely the grace of God.

·       Dear friends in Christ, we must realise that we are everything we are by God’s grace, we must not boast or brag, and if we must boast, then it should be in gratitude to God for what he has done for us.

·       The life of true happiness that leads to blessedness is not in how much we have but in how many people we have helped and influenced positively, those who, through us, have also been lifted just as we were lifted.

·       The gospel acclamation tells us that God has revealed the mysteries of the kingdom to us (Mt. 11:25). And that mystery is the key to true happiness that leads to blessedness.

·       In all of these, we must realise that humility is key, no wonder the psalmist reminds us that “how happy are the poor in spirit; theirs is the kingdom of heaven (blessedness).

·       We are God’s children. He wants us to be truly happy, beginning here in this world and finding perfection in heaven. So, He wants us to experience His loving presence in every moment of our lives. The Beatitudes will help us cast aside distractions in the world and focus our sights on God alone. Let us conclude with these words from St. Augustine: “The pursuit of God is the desire of beatitude; the attainment of God is beatitude.”

·       May God bless his word in our hearts through Christ our Lord, Amen!

·       Happy Sunday!!!