Homilies & Reflections
One thing I ask of the Lord. This I long to dwell in the house of the Lord,
all the days of my
life.
One thing I ask of the Lord. This I long to dwell in the house of the Lord,
all the days of my
life.
God who is eternal and is eternally of goodwill created man to be of goodwill as He is of goodwill. This proof is contained in the story of creation. There we are told that after God had created the universe and all it contained, He said, “let us make man in our own image, after our likeness.” (Gen. 1:26).
God created man in His image, in the divine image, He created him, male and female, He created them. (cf. Gen 1:27). God blessed them saying to them, “be fertile and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.”(Gen. 1:28).
From the foregoing, it is clear that God is eternally of good desire or goodwill, that is, the totality of God’s life is geared towards good desire. He is of good desire in all ramifications and so created man to be of good desire unconditionally. In other words, God created man out of goodwill or desire which is part and parcel of His reputation, His integrity, His majesty and His Omnipotence.
Although, the Catechism (Penny Catechism) teaches us that God created us to serve Him, that service of ours to him is forever not a condition for the creation of man, but it is a concomitant reciprocity arising from being made in the image and likeness of God, which is of goodwill or desire.
Although, the original Divine image of God with which manwas created to be of goodwill was dented, as it were, by the disobedience and subsequent fall of man, those in whom by the merit of the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, the original goodwill as been fully resuscitated with their voluntary disposition, the spirit of peace is upon them on earth. This is whatGloria in excelsis Deo declares: “Et in terra pax hominibus bonae vojuntatis (and on earth, peace to people of goodwill).
After saying that glory belongs to God in the highest heavens, the voice of the Spirit says, “and on earth, peace to his people of goodwill.” – Pax hominibus bonae voluntatis, that is, the people who have been privileged or disposed to receiving the grace of God by being of goodwill,are blessed with the peaceof God.
In the peace of God every conceivable good can and is actually generated. In other words, the peace of God in and through which the spirit of God operates, the one and only possibility is goodwill or good desire. Good desire gives birth to uncountable good things in the world. In and through man of goodwill/good desire upon whom peace or Spirit of God dwells the one and only supreme priority is the praise of God. The goodwill that is supremely predisposed to praising, adoring, worshipping, thanking and glorifying God is always most unable to be repredisposed to doing anything that offends God. He who is not predisposed to doing anything to offend God, should necessarily find it more difficult to offend his neighbour, because it will always be clear that by offending his neighbour the goodwill of God in which the peace of God is a traveller, a companion or friend will be disturbed. Disturbance to goodwill is an enemy of peace. An enemy of peace makes goodwill a bad will or a barren will that produces nothing but crisis or evil.
We are all witnesses to the fact that in the world, wherever there is true peace that comes from God upon those people of goodwill, the world and its people move forward in progress because they do exactly only what is of goodwill orGod's desire that promotes the dignity of man on earth so that man can in reciprocity say thank God, “praise be to God in all his doings: human development, scientific development, technological development and above all spiritual development.
In the world today we see alot of evil doings: God is being misquoted, misinterpreted. Many people now claim to please God if they hate knowledge (that book, that is knowledge is Haram = evil). Therefore they set out to kill their brothers and sisters who seek for knowledge in learning (Book).
In fact, absence of goodwill in which peace lives and travels leads to the commission of all kinds of evil: armed robbery, abduction/kidnapping, ritual killings, terrorism and many more of such evils. Those who indulge in these atrocities are not and cannot be people of goodwill and therefore the peace of God cannot be upon them, at all.
So, now, my dear brothers and sisters, let our humble prayer todaybe a call to God our merciful Father to pour his heavenly grace upon us and make us a people of goodwill who will be made worthy to receive peace in which we are sure of being liberated from sin and death, now and forever. Amen
Date: 2022-07-07 - 2022-07-08
The Burial Rite for late Rev. Fr. Christopher Odia-Ogedegbe comes up this week as follows: WAKE KEEP: 5:00PM, 9:00PM & 6:00AM on Thursday 7th July, 2022 @ Immaculate Conception Cathedral, Auchi FUNERAL MASS: 10:00AM on Friday 8th July, 2022 @ Immaculate Conception Minor Seminary, Ivhianokpodi
The Diocese history of Auchi dates back to the latter part of the 19th century when the first Roman Catholic Missionaries arrived at Agenebode in the present Etsako East Local Government Area of Edo State. Although, evidences abound of earlier contacts of the Christian missionaries with the indigenes of Agenebode and environs, the officially recorded date for this is 1884 when catholic priests started visiting Agenebode and environs from their then headquarters in Lokoja.
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