The gospel of today, ends with people questioning ‘what will
this Child be?’. This is the question that immediately hangs upon our head once
we are born. Every serious Christian's life is a journey in answer to this
question. The secret to this answer is a sincere pursuit of our purpose in life
with honest fidelity to God’s instructions.
WE ARE BORN WITH A GREAT DESTINY! We are born eagles! Not
Chickens! No body is created with an insignificant destiny. God has earmarked a
great destiny for all of us. Our task is to maximize our potentials and achieve
our destiny. The plans he has for us are always great (Jer. 29: 11). Like
today’s first reading avers (Isaiah 49:1-6), the Lord ‘calls’ us before we were
born, ‘equips’ us and gives a unique ‘name’ (like John’s-unique, irreplaceable,
unlike no other). This ‘call’ is a call unto something; a position, a role, a
status…. This ‘name’ is also the symbolism for the uniqueness of the task,
roles, status, vocation that the Lord has allotted for us. Unfortunately, the
devil also has his own plans for each and every individual, and many end up
living out the plans of the devil and not that of God.
• Like
David in today’s 2nd Reading.
WE ARE BORN WITH A ‘NAME’: There is some sort of uniqueness
and specificity about our vocation in life which must never drown in the sea of
‘others. Today, Many have sacrificed their unique vocation (their name) in life
at the altar of trade-unionism, crowd mentality, *cultism, fake life, dangerous
imitation
EVERY CHRISTIAN IS CALLED TO BE A HERALD OF CHRIST: This is
the sense in which we all share in the vocation of John the Baptist. We all
have a duty to selflessly point out Christ to others by our lives, words and
comportment. We have a challenge to prepare a place for Christ in our lives and
hearts, but also importantly to prepare a fitting place for Christ in our
community and environment by helping to push back evil in order to create space
for Christ wherever we may be.
This is Kingdom service. This is the prophetic
summon of Luke 1:76 which binds us. We must ask ourselves today again, how
committed we are to it. We are called to represent the voice of caution, of
control, of kindness, of rebuke, of warning, of prophecy, of challenge …
wherever we are. John described himself as the voice and thereby taught us to
describe and define our selves by the role we have undertaken in Kingdom
service. In this light, what would you say you are? May God help us!
• CONCLUSION:
Just like John, ‘getting ready’ and ‘making ready’. We are
called today to imbibe this motif as regards our commitment to ourselves and
towards those around us. As the opening prayer insinuates, like John the
Baptist, we have a challenge of making ourselves and our world ready for the
constant coming and final coming of Christ our Lord.
• We ask
you Lord to give us the moral strength to re-examine again our commitments to
the questions, wonders, and destinies of our birth and to rise up to the
challenge and contribute in making the world fit for your coming. Amen
*Courtesy: Rev. Fr Simon Peter Dzungwe, who contributed from Ibadan, being a homily for Sunday, June 24, 2018.
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