Grace to you!
 
One of the wisest sayings of Saint Thomas Aquinas with regard to virtue is: “Virtue stands in the mean of two extremes.” 
 
We say in our common language that too much of anything is bad. Sleep is good. Too much sleep is terribly bad. It’s laziness. Another example: Generosity is a wonderful virtue. However, when generosity to the poor means enabling the poor not to do for themselves what they should, then that generosity isn’t good either. It makes the poor not own their unique identity and self-image as people capable of working and earning their living. 
 
In Saint Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, we see this measured language of the balance between extremes. He writes: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil 2:12-13).
 
We are who we are in Christ by the grace of God. This grace, God’s life in us, which enables us “to will and to work for his good pleasure” is not our making or merit. Yet, we are not to presume this grace, never to take it for granted. Saint Paul uses a strong language to remind us of the need to do our bit in the grace work “obey” and “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12). 
 
This is similar to what Saint Augustine tells us that the “God who created you without you cannot save you without you.” 
 
Nothing in life comes easy. Nothing we ever get comes to us on a platter of gold. God gives grace, but we have to accept the grace and work with the grace for it to bring about salvation and fulfilment in our lives of God’s plan. 
 
Some will say, but the Psalmist tells us that the Lord promised, God gives blessings to people while they sleep (Ps 127:2). But that Psalm was to remind us of the need to cooperate with God and not to go it alone. In that Psalm, we see the same balance between grace and work, inspiration and perspiration. 
 
God isn’t going to do for you what you must do for yourself. God isn’t going to make your bed or tie your shoes. God isn’t going to research the information for you to have a better future. He gives you the inner strength and grace and directs you with intuitions and answers. Did you listen when God spoke? Did you obey when God inspired? 
 
Blessings flow to those who know that in life and in the spiritual life, when we cooperate with God and do our bit, we become the best we have been called to be. It is in doing so, we become great. 

​As the old saying attributed to St. Ignatius (though it is contested if he indeed said it) advises us to keep working as if everything depended on you and praying as if everything depended on God. Such a balance is key to faithfulness and success. 
 
God love you. God bless you.,
 
Fr. Maurice Emelu 
 
 
[Wednesday Week 31 Ordinary Time B: Phil 2:12-18; Lk 14:25-33]

Grace to you!
 
A man became very apprehensive of his mom’s calls, especially when the calls became more frequent. When the mom called in that manner, often, the man is under the weather, dealing with one crisis situation or another. Though he tried to downplay what was going on with him, his mom was not convinced. Mom has a way of sensing something isn’t right. Some call it a kind of telepathy. I call it a unique love intuition. 
 
Parent-child relationship is a unique intimacy that goes beyond mere physical likeness. It’s profoundly spiritual. Parents generally know their children much better than the children may be aware of or acknowledge. They pay attention. The change of facial tone, tone of voice, sleeping habit, dress code, eating habit and walkout schedule, etc., are not ignored. Parents pay attention to small details and often correctly guess what may be going on. 
 
Did you know that with God, the creator who loves us with an everlasting love, nothing about us is ignored? The all-knowing and all-loving God sees us through and through. As the Psalmist says, God knows us and our innermost thoughts (Ps 139:1-3). God pays attention to the minutest details about us and God sees even the insignificant events or circumstances that worry us. Not only does God see, God also cares.
 
Sometimes we fear about out life, our future, our family and our career. Fear is a natural human phenomenon. It’s important we know that in our fears, God is closest to us. 
 
The Lord Jesus reassures us that even the fear of persecution should not deter us from loving God and glorifying God. 
 
“Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins? Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God. Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows” (Luke 12:6-7). 

Think about this God’s message: nothing, no matter how insignificant, could escape God’s knowledge and providence. In the same way, no suffering you endure, and no persecution you experience would ever be ignored by the Lord Jesus Christ. Every good you do has a reward and every witness of faith is pleasant to God. 

If you were to know the impact of your endurance and witness of faith in the communion of the heavenly, flowing like a stream of graces for many thousands and thousands of years after you, you would probably want more and more opportunities to bear witness to your faith in God and in the Church. No persecution is without enduring value. No suffering is in vain. 

Be not afraid of those who can destroy the body or utter all sorts of calumny against you, call you names because you are a Christian, a believer, a Catholic. Smile and say with the apostles, “we are privileged to suffer for Christ” (Acts 5:41; Phil 1:29).  I am glad to be on your team O Lord Jesus. Your team is the true love team, the grace team and the team of the redeemed. 

Be bold. Be resolute. Be courageous. 

God love you. God bless you.
​ 
Fr. Maurice Emelu
 
[Friday Week 28, Ordinary Time: Eph 1:11-14; Lk 12:1-7]
 
 
 
 

Grace to you!
 
It could be a challenging task to clear the reading desk of a senior academic. You are not certain what is important and what isn’t; and though the table is very messy, for the academic, every little piece of paper on that desk is very important.
 
This scenario isn’t the case only with scholars; many of us have messy desks and untidy rooms. We have gotten used to keeping things in a particular way that any attempt by a cleaner to place them in another place, perhaps more appropriate spot, is uncomfortable. 
 
The above analogy, though simple, has huge implication on the way we look at things. Many times, we get used to a certain way of living and thinking, so much so we ignore the core, what really matters. Finding a routine is good, easier and less stressful. However, in many other cases, it could be a barrier to the Spirit. 
 
Consider the legalism in many of our cultures, some of which may not necessarily be in line with our Christian faith. Coming from Africa where traditional culture is key, I know this first hand. 
 
On a number of occasions, Jesus confronted legalism among his followers and his brethren. One case is when a Pharisee invited him for dinner. See the setting as documented in Scripture: “The Pharisee was amazed to seethat he [Jesus] did not observe the prescribed washing before the meal.The Lord said to him, “Oh you Pharisees! Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil. You fools! Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside? But as to what is within, give alms, and behold, everything will be clean for you” (Luke 11:38-41).
 
Harsh as this may sound; Jesus was hitting home his objection to hypocrisy and legalism; practices that ignore the essentials of true holiness under the guise of external observances. 
 
The problem of the Pharisee in this above story wasn’t because of hygienic concerns. It was because of a broader rite of ritual impurities. The presumption was that because many of the things the hands touch could have been contaminated, one must be ritually washed—even if the hand has been thoroughly washed—before one could eat. 
 
Ritual washing is a religious ceremony and follows a strict format. It includes pouring water out from a cup or jar, first twice over the right hand, and then twice over the left hand; making sure the unpurified hands do not touch the water used for the ritual before it is poured. While this is going on, a prayer/benediction is recited: “Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with Thy commandments and has commanded us concerning the washing of the hands.” Then the hands are dried with a towel before the meal is taken. 
 
This ritual seems pleasant and the prayer is even beautiful. However, the belief that if the hands were not ritually washed, any food taken with them would contaminate the entire person was erroneous. It makes purity or holiness a matter of physical things rather than inner transformation and virtue. 
 
Remember when Jesus stated that it is not what goes into a man that makes him unclean, but what comes out of him (Matthew 15:11). It’s all in line with his teaching here.
 
May we always realize that external observances are useless without interior transformation—the practice of virtue. May we be inspired to keep, not simply the letters of the law, but the spirit, and thereby open our hearts to the love of God and one another. Amen.
 
God love you. God bless you.
 
Fr. Maurice Emelu 
 
[Tuesday Week 28, Ordinary Time: Gal 5:1-6; Lk 11:37-41]

Grace to you!
 
A friend got a ticket for crossing double lines on a highway. You know that feeling of “Oops! The cops! Please have mercy…” 
 
His violation was way beyond the officer’s leniency. He knew the ticket was coming. Surely it did. 
 
By the time the bill came, at least $500 of hard-earned money was gone. He had the choice to go to a driving school; otherwise, the violation would be in his driving history. He chose to go to the driving school. Smart. The lesson he learned at the school is my inspiration for telling this story. 
 
After the driving school, a happy and confident friend shared how grateful he is after getting the driving violation ticket. 
 
“How do you mean?” I asked. 
 
“I didn’t know that I didn’t know many rules about driving these days,” he replied.  
 
It’s been long since he went to driving school and he seems not sure what certain traffic rules are. This is dangerous for him and for other commuters for that matter. 
 
“After attending the driving school,” he continued, “I have become absolutely confident about myself at the wheel. Sighting cops, going through unmarked roads, I know exactly what the rules are. The knowledge of the rules has made me freer and increased my confidence level at the wheel,” he concluded. 
 
Ironical, isn’t it? 
 
Confidence grows by knowledge. If you know what you should know, you are freer to follow the paths you know you should. Making better choices become easier. Being more informed is a plus. Self-confident people are self-aware; their confidence grows with knowledge and experience. 
 
Many people are threatened by the concept of the law. We know, as Saint Paul said, simply following the law doesn’t justify believers (Romans 3:20). He would also say that the knowledge of the law is death, meaning that if there were no law, there wouldn’t be the knowledge of its violation – sin. And the just God wouldn’t punish either. But this is too simplistic an interpretation of the bible.  
 
A more Christ-like attitude is one based on the positive spirit for which the law has been given. It isn’t a testament of death, but of love and life – to show us the way to live. When a scholar of the Law asked Jesus what he must do to gain eternal life, did Jesus not summarize it in two positive responses, based on the law – love of God and love of neighbor? (See Luke 10:25-37) 
 
Jesus even showed him that the love of neighbor isn’t simply regarding a fellow brother from the same family, race or clan, but anyone who is a human being. God’s Law makes us free for love. Remember that beautiful biblical passage: “They shall know the truth and the truth shall make them free” (John 8:32). 
 
Knowing what God expects from us is a confidence builder. This is not only in the moral sense, but also in spiritual discernment. Many times, I have listened to the agonies of people who wonder—I am not sure what God wants me to do now? Such a feeling could be frustrating. 
 
But for those who know the will of God, the law of God, and are so familiar with how God relates to them, their faith is a different story. Their spiritual life is admirable. It’s like a house built on a solid foundation. 
 
I pray you know the law of God and the will of God, so much so that you are confident about what God expects of you. Thus, through the power of God’s grace and the Spirit, you live freely with what you know. Amen. 
 
Be a confident believer. 
 
God love you. God bless you.
 
Fr. Maurice Emelu 
 
[Monday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time: Galatians 1:6-12; Luke 10:25-37]
 
 

Grace to you!
 
We continue our reflection on 1 Corinthian. Today, we focus on love as the greatest of all gifts. 
 
Every now and then, events happen that reveal the beauty of human life transformed by the grace of God. Every now and then, amidst shattering news concerning the Church and her integrity in the world, we have living testimonies of sacrifices worth sharing. Such is the news that broke three days ago, from the eastern part of Nigeria.
 
September 16, a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Onitsha, Fr. Charles Chukwukelue Ebele drowned in the River Niger. The River Niger is the major river in West Africa, covering about 2600 miles running through the Guinea highlands to the borders of Mali and Niger Republic across the Gulf of Guinea into the Atlantic Ocean. It is the 3rd largest river in Africa.
 
Sometimes, the river can be turbulent as to pose danger. Unfortunately, the river became so turbulent that the boat in which Fr. Ebele was began to capsize. The priest noticed that another person in the boat may not have a chance of surviving if the boat sank. He undid his life vest and gave it to him. 
 
The boat finally capsized. The priest couldn’t make it before the coast guards arrived. He gave his life for another. He died for sacrificial love. He is the most recent example of heroic love comparable to Saint Maximilian Kolbe’s. He is a real case of the Titanic moving story. 
 
Stories of love touch us in most profound ways. In those stories we connect at a deeper level, to the best of human aspirations. Such was the most moving reality of God’s love. We are moved to read how God so loved us to the point of the Son giving his life for us (Jn 3:16). 
 
It is the purest love that lets oneself be poured out for others. A life for others is a true testament of pure love. Such is the greatest. 
 
Saint Paul writes to the Corinthian Church and to us about the nature, necessity and the role of the spiritual gifts in the Church (I Cor 12) [See yesterday’s reflection for my thoughts on this]. 
 
Next, he speaks of the greatest of these gifts, namely love (1 Cor 13:13). Of course, we know that love is one of the most misunderstood words today—from mere emotional or sensual connection to friendship or family ties, etc., an issue I don’t want to discuss here. 
 
However, if we see love as that which springs from God because “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8), if we see love as that which unites and binds us together as children of God, if we see love as that which makes us live not for ourselves alone but for others, if we see love as living in such a way that we are able to see in our most inner selves my neighbor as God’s image, and relate to that neighbor based on the love of God, then we are living in love. 
 
Saint Paul gives us at least thirteen criteria to measure the quality of our love. He writes: “Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Cor 13:4-7). 
 
Hence, to measure the extent of my love, these could serve as a prayerful meditation and question for me: To what extent am I patient with others, especially the ones that drive me crazy? To what extent do I show kindness to those who, in my opinion, do not deserve it? Am I bitterly jealous of others, their gifts and accomplishments?  Am I boastful of the gifts or blessings I have? Etc.  
 
Perhaps, a prayerful reflection on 1 Cor 13:1-13 this week, could help us to think more deeply about the quality of our love.  
 
May the Lord give us the grace to love as we are loved in God. Amen. 
 
God love you. God bless you.
 
Fr. Maurice Emelu
 
[Wednesday Week 24, Ordinary Time: 1 Cor 12:31-13:13; Lk 7:31-35]
 
 
 

Grace to you
 
Today’s reflection is an inspiration on the connection between faith, listening, obedience and action. 
 
People spend years learning and training in view of practice. Be it in the medical field, engineering, information technology, education and technical works, etc., months are spent to learn the skills. Theories are built and studied. Test practices are carried out. These are all efforts made so learners, “followers,” will be equipped for the real world, where they practice and continue to build on what they have learned. 
 
It would be as good as dead to learn something or to acquire some knowledge, and not be able to implement what one has learned. In fact, the proof of ones’ learning is in the practice of it. It is in implementation. Implementation is measurable. It’s what demonstrates that the person learned the principles. No one knows our mind and what is going on in our mind. No one knows to what extent we know what we should regarding our profession. People could measure it from what we say, write, and/or do. 
 
In our spiritual life, similar reality is the case. From the prophesy of Isaiah, we hear the prophet describe of his experience as one called and chosen by God. He goes through a period of learning. “The Lord Godhas given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him that is weary. Morning by morning he wakens, he wakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord Godhas opened my ear, and I was not rebellious” (Is 50:4-5).
 
The context of this prophetic writing shows us that what God was teaching and asking the prophet to do was not an easy task. It would result in a lot of inconveniences, persecution and trials. Yet the prophet says, “I turned not my back” (Is 50:5). Meaning, that the prophet’s determination to follow the directives of the Lord was not to evade the crosses that discipleship brings. 
 
Though, as we learn from the synoptic gospels (Mt 26:67; 27:30; cf. also Mk 15:19; Jn 19:3), and from St. Paul (Rm 8:33) that this prophesy was referring to the Christ, and that the early Fathers of the Church applied it to the Lord Jesus Christ, we could learn from it some lessons worth emulating as believers. The disciple of Jesus Christ is the follower in the footsteps of Christ. 
 
The Lord himself would teach the disciples at Caesarea Philippi what following him would entail and what it should be like. “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mk 8:34-35). 
 
Listening has the same Latin etymological root as obedience. It is ob-audirewhich means to hear, to listen or to obey. God calls the prophet to listen, to obey. Whenever the Lord calls us in ways only the Lord knows, some in simple ways, others through dramatic changes in life, it is an invitation to learn, to listen, to obey the Lord. Faith is a call to listen to the Lord, and to obey. It is a call to discipleship. 
 
Following the Lord is not a cherry-picking exercise where I pull from the basket what is only pleasant and leave what is unpleasant. Following the Lord actually often demands embracing the unpleasant, the painful, sacrifices, which otherwise we may not have accepted. 
 
It is, for instance, saying no to sinful desires. It is rooting out evil and injustice where I find it, even if my friend or family is the culprit and it would cost me my popularity or positional power. It is accepting to be called laidback in order to honor the integrity of my marriage, even if my business associates take the alternative as the norm. 
 
It is getting up from the comfort of my bed on a wintery Sunday morning, and going to church to worship. It is never convenient, yet it is the will of the Lord. 
 
It is stopping by the homeless shelter and getting my hands and blazer suit dirty in serving the poor in obedience to the Lord’s voice which whispered I do so as I drove by that neighborhood. 
 
It entails returning love for hate even when this makes me look like a coward. It means holding my tongue from gossip even if my friends would avoid me for doing so. 
 
It means not texting or sharing that online message that promotes hate or falsehood; or not being part of a circle of fake news by sharing everything and blogging everything when I’m not sure of how true it may be. 
 
We know the quality of one’s faith, one’s disciple of the Lord through what one does. As Saint James says, “So also faith of itself,if it does not have works, is dead” (Jas 2:17).
 
Praying for the grace to live our faith in word and deeds. Amen.
 
God love you. God bless you.
 
Fr. Maurice Emelu 
 
[24thSunday Ordinary Time B: Is 50:5-9; Jas 2:14-18; Mk 8:27-35]
 
 
 

Grace to you!
 
In many ways, hospitals reveal human needs. In the hospitals, we witness firsthand our weaknesses. The strong and the weak, the wealthy and the poor share the same fate. They lie on that uncomfortable bed and are pushed around in ways they may not have tolerated. In the hospitals, we surrender to the limitations of our nature as humans. 
 
As we go through the emergency rooms, or the ICUs, sometimes we have that moment to reflect on our needs and inadequacies. In the hospitals too, we come close to the desire of many hearts to find answers. We want a miracle. We desire a savior. No one, not even the most stoic, wants to make the hospital a home. We want to be healed fast and get out of there. 
 
The hospital situation could be seen as a metaphor to humanity’s condition. Sickness that leads people to the hospital is comparable to sin that leads people to unfreedom. Sin and sinful conditions call for healing from our heavenly physician, Christ. As a priest, it’s incredible to witness firsthand the joy of freedom as people walk out of the Confessional, having been freed from sin and the state of spiritual unfreedom. For me, it’s far more exciting than someone walking out of the hospital healed of their sickness. 
 
Some of our brokenness as humans is social and structural. The people of Israel, for instance, witnessed firsthand the social dimension, and its implications for the group and for the individual during their exile in Babylon. They were taken to where they didn’t want to go. They were forced into the condition that was painful and humbling. The compassionate Lord responded to their call for healing: “Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you” (Is 35:4). 
 
We read from the teachings of the Church that the story of the exile is a pointer to the story of the human condition in need of a Savior, Christ. This relates not simply to a group but also to individuals, such as the case in the New Testament miracle reported by Mark (7:31-35). 
 
The man who was healed by the Lord in Mark 7:31-35 was described as deaf and with speech impediment. He needed a Savior. Though his situation was biological, and not his fault, by way of spiritual application, we could use it as relating to our spiritual needs too. The man is like anyone who lives in situations of spiritual needs, such as where they neither hear the good news nor proclaim the saving grace of God. He is like anyone bereft of grace by sin or sinful conditions. Conditions that prevent us from hearing or listening to God’s Word are terrible. 
 
The Lord would use different sensory gestures of touching, seeing, spitting, eye lifting to heaven, and groaning to identify with the person in need. He demonstrates his connection with the individual and as well as his power to heal and save. “He himself bore our sins in his body .... By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Pet 2:24, see also Is 53:4-5). The Lord fulfills the promise of the messianic era for which the reference of Mark 7:35 is tied to Isaiah 35:5-6. “He has done all things well; he even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak” (Mk 7:37).
​
What is your need? What is it that has tied us down that we live in a condition of unfreedom, unable to hear the whisper of God’s voice around us and unable to tell forth the beauty, goodness and truth of God’s saving grace? What is it that has taken our joy away and made us live in conditions that could be described like an exile, a desert or a wasteland? What is that need that calls for Christ’s redeeming grace? What is that sinful condition or painful past that has dulled our spiritual senses and made us lose sight of the holy, the pure and the love of God in us and in our neighbor? 
 
What is that situation that has made us insensitive to the poor and the vulnerable in our midst and, therefore, unable to respond to them not with sympathy but with compassion and equal respect? What is that situation that has made us place values only in what people have and not who they are? Just like the story in the Letter of James (2:1-5), what is that condition that has made us close our eyes to see in the poor in our church or community the same dignity as the big donor who enjoys our respect? 
 
Those situations call for the healing touch of Christ. In those situations, we need God’s saving grace to hear God speak and to respond accordingly. 
 
Praying that God will grant us the grace of spiritual awareness and freedom from sinful conditions. Amen. 
 
[Sunday Week 23 Ordinary Time B: Is 35:4-7; Jas 2:1-5; Mk 7:31-35]