HOMILY FOR THURSDAY OF THE FOURTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR II. 11.07.2020.
MEMORIAL
OF ST. BENEDICT, ABBOT.
Today we
celebrate the memorial of St. Benedict, Abbot of Western Europe, born in Central
Italy in 480, he studied in Rome before withdrawing to Subiaco as a hermit, later
moved to Cassino as his character attracted many to the monastic life with an
inevitable increasing number. He is honoured as the father of western monasticism;
he had a profound and lasting influence in the Church. He wrote his Rule, which
set the standard for most of the monastic tradition in Western Europe.
Community was a
key feature of his monastic vision and he stressed the value of community life as a school for holiness. He saw the
community as a place of equality where each person was helped by everyone else
along the path of holiness. His primary occupation was liturgical prayer,
complemented by the reading of the Scriptures and manual work of various kinds.
For some of my friends that have little or no idea of what we do in the
religious house, the above are characteristics of our lives as religious.
The community as
a school for holiness helps us to be like God, living in community of God the
Father, the Son and The Holy Spirit. As indicated in the first reading, one of the
seraphims called to another and said, “Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of host.” They were not even directly addressing the
Lord God here. They are proclaiming His glorious nature and character to one
another, in the presence of the Lord, which has to do with the life of prayer
in religious community, and the repetition of the ‘Holy’ indicate the Three Person
in One God.
We may ponder on
what actually it means that God is Holy. Holiness describes someone or
something set apart from other people or things. An object can be holy if it is
set apart for sacred service. A person is holy if they are set apart for God’s
will and purpose. This is our purpose, we all have been called to a life of
holiness, not to entangle ourselves in sin, which makes us unclean like the
prophet of unclean lips who said, “Woe to
me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of
people of unclean lips.” Isaiah saw his sinfulness, and the sinfulness of
his people, mainly in terms of sinful speech. Realizing his unworthiness, he
desired holiness and his lips was touched by the angel with the burning coal,
in other to make the tongue eloquent with heaven’s flame.
In view of the
above, the office of reading for today’s memorial reminds us to, “Keep the
tongue from evil and our lips from speaking deceit; to turn aside from evil and
do good.” As we discipline ourselves in this aspect and being purged of our
unclean lips, then we can say like the prophet, “Here am I, send me.” We pray
through the intercession of St. Benedict to constantly long for life of
holiness as individuals and at community level through Christ our Lord. Amen! Peace
be with you!
Fr. Ken Dogbo, OSJ
Amen. Happy weekend and feast day of St. Benedict!
ReplyDeleteSame to you!
DeleteSt Benedict, pray for us
ReplyDeleteThanks padre for another excellent homily.
You're welcome! God bless you!
Deleteand with your spirit Father
ReplyDeleteThank much Padre. Indeed the community is out test of Christian living- a place of holiness.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome! God bless you!
Delete