Reading 1 Lv 23:1, 4-11, 15-16, 27, 34b-37
The LORD said to Moses,
“These are the festivals of the LORD which you shall celebrate
at their proper time with a sacred assembly.
The Passover of the LORD falls on the fourteenth day of the first month,
at the evening twilight.
The fifteenth day of this month is the LORD’s feast of Unleavened Bread.
For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.
On the first of these days you shall hold a sacred assembly
and do no sort of work.
On each of the seven days you shall offer an oblation to the LORD.
Then on the seventh day you shall again hold a sacred assembly
and do no sort of work.”
The LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the children of Israel and tell them:
When you come into the land which I am giving you,
and reap your harvest,
you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest
to the priest, who shall wave the sheaf before the LORD
that it may be acceptable for you.
On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall do this.
“Beginning with the day after the Sabbath,
the day on which you bring the wave-offering sheaf,
you shall count seven full weeks,
and then on the day after the seventh week, the fiftieth day,
you shall present the new cereal offering to the LORD.
“The tenth of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement,
when you shall hold a sacred assembly and mortify yourselves
and offer an oblation to the LORD.
“The fifteenth day of this seventh month is the LORD’s feast of Booths,
which shall continue for seven days.
On the first day there shall be a sacred assembly,
and you shall do no sort of work.
For seven days you shall offer an oblation to the LORD,
and on the eighth day you shall again hold a sacred assembly
and offer an oblation to the LORD.
On that solemn closing you shall do no sort of work.
“These, therefore, are the festivals of the LORD
on which you shall proclaim a sacred assembly,
and offer as an oblation to the LORD burnt offerings and cereal offerings,
sacrifices and libations, as prescribed for each day.”
Gospel Mt 13:54-58
Jesus came to his native place and taught the people in their synagogue.
They were astonished and said,
“Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds?
Is he not the carpenter’s son?
Is not his mother named Mary
and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?
Are not his sisters all with us?
Where did this man get all this?”
And they took offense at him.
But Jesus said to them,
“A prophet is not without honor except in his native place
and in his own house.”
And he did not work many mighty deeds there
because of their lack of faith.
I had a walk with someone yesterday at Burnham Beeches and we conversed extensively on different spiritual topics. Towards the end of our conversation, we started talking about challenges that many people are going through in life.
One of the things I learnt from the conversation is the need to always be grateful to God no matter what and never to take the kindness of God for granted.
In today’s first reading, God commanded the people of Israel to institute feasts and celebrations to celebrate his interventions in their lives at various points. He commanded them to institute the feast of the Passover, first fruits, booths etc.
On these feast days, they are to bring sacrifices of thanksgiving to God and ponder on His goodness to them. What is the essence of this?
God wants them to constantly meditate on his kindness in their lives, to teach them gratitude and to draw strength and faith from these events whenever they face difficulties in the future.
For us dear friends, God is saying some things to us too;
- We must learn to meditate always and show gratitude to God for what He has done in our lives at different points. Many times we are consumed with what we need and forget the immensity of what we have received. Psalm 103:2- “Bless the Lord, O my soul and never forget all His blessings.”
- We are invited to draw strength from God’s blessings and miraculous interventions in our lives to face any challenges we are facing at the moment and we may face in the future. That is, we could look back and say “God has done greater things for me in the past, He is able to handle this problem too.
- We are encouraged never to take God’s blessings for granted. In Numbers 11:4-6, the people of Israel called God’s food ‘worthless.”
In today’s gospel, Jesus visited his hometown. What a blessing of God for the people. Unfortunately, they lost it all because of their contempt, prejudice and lack of faith. Till today, many people still miss opportunities of blessings from God for the same reasons- contempt, prejudice and lack of faith.
May we pray that God may teach us how to ponder on His goodness, how to be truly grateful and to confidently trust Him in our present needs.
Sermon preached by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Okami on August 2, 2019