THE SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT

COMING DOWN FROM THE MOUNT - LUKE: 9:37-50

"Oh faithless and perverse generation..."
"It needs very pure intention, as well as great spiritual discernment, always to recognise the divine voice" - R.H. BENSON
Lord it’s good to be here…
Jesus was not the type to fall easily into illusions: Human beings are fickle, lacking consistency. He knew that the day will come when the same people will act differently. So he warns his disciples to prepare for the worst that will happen to him. Sometimes in our lives its also good that we do prepare also for the worst incase what we want doesn't work or sabotaged. Of course I am not prophesying doom but to awaken your other world you always do not like to review or look at, but eventually will come some day.
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A humble man receives praises the way a clean window takes the light of the sun. The truer and more intense the light is, the less you see the glass" -Thomas Merton-
If you pass near some of our parish churches on Sunday, at Communion time, you are likely to see a long line of people, their body turned towards the church, moving away quietly to their homes. These are people who would have protested against Peter. While Peter says: "Lord it is good to be here", they, probably would say, "Lord it is good for us to be else". The other day, while traveling up-country with a bus, in this bus there was this preacher preaching with his heart out really. I tend to believe that this kind of thing only happen in Africa, I stand to be informed. I wondered whether the people were listening, I was fascinated all through being by "fellow colleague", could say AMEN. But my fears were "are the people in the bus attentive as I was?" probably not. They may be used to this kind of sermons. I bet you, usually when you are focused you simply need silence around you, a noisy place "takes your peace away", like this bus preachers. I am not discrediting "my fellow colleague" in the ministry but "a place for everything and everything in its place" my father could always recite that to us as children to grow up and style up.
St. Paul reminds us of our call to holiness. In the first reading he says: "What God wants is for you all to be holy": He says that the way to holiness is a virtuous life, an upright life, chaste and honest in all we do. We may easily find these exhortations tiresome and boring. They may even cause an uneasy feeling in us. After all, we have heard them so often: Catechism at school, and perhaps from our parents.
To overcome vices, there is only one way, practice of virtue. The virtue, the value of fasting is given to us. The aim is always the Holiness.
Just think about today’s gospel what do you think? What have you learnt in regards to yourself? Is it going to affect you day, your week, and your life? Mind you, if a Hindu or Buddhist heard it read, he would probably take great interest, for Christian there is nothing exciting; we know it all too well! And yet this is our weakest point! What we think we know best is what we know least, parents and children, masters and servants, wives and husbands. "One thinks s/he knows the other quite well that s/he feels no need of consulting, speaking together. One may conclude that they no longer love one another, and no longer know one another". Such is the effect of Habit! It breaks up homes, kills love, and undermines faith.
This reminds me of a Christian who asked me after celebrating Mass what was the use of the bells during Mass. Is it to wake up the congregation for what is about to take place. The apostles too had these habits like ours. They were living with Jesus everyday, yet they did not know him. They needed a shock, a light, a revelation, a vision, which would make them wake up to "who it was that was living in their midst".
Lent is a time of conversion. If we are truly converted, we shall know Jesus better, and the better we know him, the greater will be our love for him and then we shall agree with Peter "Lord it is good for me to be here" as a member of a Christ’s body, as a converted Christian, carrying after my Lord. The cross of his Law the law of love, love, love, love, love of God and my neighbor. It is good for me to be here as one of the praying family of God, today, tomorrow and always. Amen.

"The eyes are blind when the mind is else where" - Latin Proverb

Padre Joseph Nyamunga Mubiru
P.O.BOX 15318-00509
NAIROBI-KENYA
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