Readings: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Psalm 118; Luke 7:36-50
From today’s first reading, I want us to reflect on two important messages.
I. The importance of right doctrine.
St Paul told the Corinthians, “…keep believing exactly what I preached to you- believing anything else will not lead to anything.”
Many people have said that what we believe in life doesn’t really matter, it is how we live. Standing on this kind of argument, many people have relativised truth and reduced doctrine into a matter of opinion.
This is so pathetically true in the aspects of marriage, family life and human sexuality, in the final destiny of souls, the role of Mary in our salvation, in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and validity of the sacraments. How can anyone forget the heart breaking survey taken in America in which 70 per cent of Catholics do not even believe in the “real presence.”?
The simple message of Paul to us all is that it is not just how we live that matters but what we believe. In actual fact, what we believe affects how we live. We need to know, accept, believe and hold perseveringly unto the truth in order to be saved.
II. Be thankful for grace and be fruitful in grace.
St Paul today looked back at his life; he recalled his life as a persecutor and an enemy of the Church. He looked back not in guilt but in gratitude to God for the saving grace show to him. He confessed that He owed everything in his life to grace and this grace has not been fruitless in him.
In the Gospel of today, we see how a woman broke strict Jewish protocol just to express her gratitude to God for the grace of forgiveness, sanctification and justification that she has received.
It is the tale of two people who understood the place of grace in their lives, two people in whose lives grace was fruitful.
Dear friends, let me close this reflection with two questions:
1 How grateful am I for the graces I have received? The grace of forgiveness, the grace of being alive, the grace of spiritual strength and renewal through the sacraments, every blessing God has sent my way?
2. Has the grace of God been very fruitful or has it been fruitless in my life?
Sermon preached by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Baraka-Gukena Okami on September 17, 2020.