A GOD WHO TURNS EVIL TO GOOD/ST CATHERINE OF SIENA;
Readings: Acts 8:1b-8; Psalm 66; John 6:35-40
The martyrdom of Stephen marked the beginning of the general persecutions of Christians. Initially, the apostles were arrested and beaten but now Christians were being sought, threatened with violence and murdered.
At first glance, the death of Stephen is meaningless. This young man with a ministry of eloquence and power was killed brutally and his God could not defend him. This is the kind of situation that makes some people question God.
However, the outcome of the death of Stephen shows that God is always in control and He is able to turn evil to good. Whatever happens, He must have allowed and whatever He allows is for a purpose.
Our God uses pressing circumstances to guide us into his will, sometimes we have to be shaken out of our comfort to do what God wants us to do.
The persecution forced the disciples to do what they had been reluctant to do even though they had been commanded to do (Acts 1:8). The persecution served to spread the message. The Christians began to talk about Jesus wherever they fled to. Stephen was stoned but we see another Character today, St Philip. He bore courageous witness to Jesus with signs and wonders in Samaria. The sorrow and pains in Jerusalem brought joy to the Samaritans; this is part of God’s plan.
Jesus told the people in today’s gospel; I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. The will of the Father is ultimately that the Son should die to redeem the world. His death was thought to be a tragedy but God allowed it because it is in what we call the greatest evil that the greatest good is meant to come out. That is the God we serve, a God who turns evil into good.
This message is to reassure us that whatever we may be going through now, God has a plan and He is able and willing to turn everything around for His glory.
St Catherine of Siena
Today is the memorial of St Catherine of Siena
St Catherine of Siena was born in Siena 1347. Jesus appeared to her at the age of 6, she dedicated herself to God at the age of 7; she refused all arrangements to make her marry the husband of her late Sister Bonaventura. After much prayers, fasting and divine intervention, she was allowed to join the tertiary of the Dominican order. She lived a life of prayer, fasting and abstinence.
In 1370, She was commanded by a vision to leave her secluded life and enter the public life of the world. She was filled with the love of God and her neighbour dedicating herself to active service of the poor, the sick and the aged.
She worked assiduously for the reform of clergies, for the restoration of the seat of the Papacy from France to Rome; she advocated for the supremacy, rights and liberty of the supreme Pontiff, she worked for peace and harmony among Italian states and between other cities. She is greatly remembered not just for her piety, stigmata, charity and spiritual writings but her political boldness to “speak the truth to power.” She died at the age of 33 on the 29th of April 1380 in Rome after eight days of stroke.
Why should such a Holy Woman die of stroke at such a tender age? This again is a kind of situations again that makes us want to question God. But in all, God allows things for a greater good and for His glory.
In 1970 Pope Paul VI declared her a Doctor of the Church because of her inspiring, orthodox and spiritually nourishing writing. Her body was found incorrupt, 50 years after her death. Pope John Paul II also proclaimed her one of the patron saints of Europe in 1999.
May her prayers help us to trust in God’s goodness in our lives especially when circumstances around us are distressing.
Sermon preached by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Okami on April 29, 2020