Grace to you!
 
Concerning giving back, there are at least two philosophies of life. They are "We live when we receive," and "We live when we give back."
 
Following these two philosophies of life are two groups of people: Those who believe they have come to receive and those who believe they have come to give back. The one philosophy of life says, "I am here to be served." The other says, "I have come to serve." The one seeks the crown and gets the cross. The other embraces sacrifice, the cross, and receives the crown!
 
These two classes of people exist in virtually every organization. In meetings and prayer rooms of church ministries, they are present too. They may be subtle. Look carefully, you will notice. 
 
You will notice the first in that humble man who is always looking for how to volunteer. He does so with a big smile. You will see the second group in the other man who rarely volunteers, and seldom gives a cup of coffee to anyone. Yet, he is always whining about how nobody helps him or sees things his way.
 
In our everyday life, we experience these opposing philosophies. One is opposed to the other because when one is upheld, the other is suppressed.
 
I find in the mission of the twelve (Mt 10:7-15) the Lord's insight into choosing to be givers rather than receivers. The key players in the story are Jesus, the twelve apostles, and those to whom the apostles were commissioned and sent to evangelize.
 
The Lord sends. The missionary or evangelizer doesn’t send oneself. It is Jesus who sends. The directives are pretty straightforward. No hangovers. It has to be done with every measure of detachment and generosity. The evangelizer, the missionary, must be disposed to give without charge. First and foremost, he has to be the giver. 
 
How about the evangelizer’s sustenance? The Lord promises the people would provide. “The laborer deserves his wages” (Mt 10:10). 
 
Wait a minute, one may say. How would this work in real life? 
 
I suggest it lies in our realizing that both the evangelizer and the evangelized, the pastor and the parishioners, the minister, and the people have to think of themselves as givers, not merely receivers. As Saint Paul, adapting Proverbs 22:9, reminded the Ephesians during his farewell address: "Blessed is the hand that gives than the hand that takes" (Acts 20:35).
 
The person who receives God's Word should realize that he or she has a spiritual obligation to give back. Give to your Church. Give to the poor. Give back to your community. Give to others. Preachers should also see their role as that of givers and not careerists whose desire is to work for pay.
 
If the work of evangelization must be set apart from other economic relationships, it must be built on the gospel truth, not based on trade-by-barter deals. A spirit of Christian generosity must be the watchword.
 
Call it complementary? Yes, because if all give, all will complement one another.  Subsidiarity? Yes, for regarding ministry, we help one another as God wills; a person’s strength should support another’s weakness; a person’s surplus, provision for the needy.
 
May there be a generous disposition in the ministry. Amen
 
God love you. God bless you.
 
Fr. Maurice Emelu
 
[Thursday Week 14: Hosea 11:1-4, 8c-9; Matthew 10:7-15]

Grace to you!
 
I reflect on the need for Church organizational structure and passionate leaders. 
 
I recently ran an idea concerning a big diocesan project by a friend who is an expert in strategic business planning. I noticed that my friend made little or no contribution to the project's nature and funding source. Instead, he suggested I take as a priority, the personnel training and succession planning regarding the project's future, and advise the bishop of that diocese on specifics of personnel planning and human resource management.
 
Many ideas die not because people don't have the financial and infrastructural resources to execute them. It is because they don't have the right personnel to lead and manage. Many times, churches struggle due to poor staff and human resource management. Anyone who is trained in leadership and management understands this fundamental reality.
 
When I read the gospel of Matthew 10:1-7, I am fascinated by the brilliant example the Blessed Lord Jesus, the leader par excellence, leaves for the Church. The Lord's mission of bringing about the reign of God has to be continued. He had to train, inspire, mentor, commission, and equip those to further the mission after him. He had to set up a structure in which his authority and Spirit will lead, so his mission will spread to the whole world (Mt 28:19-20).
 
For those clamoring for a church without structures, a free-for-all spiritual experience without commissioned leadership or organization, be sure you are asking for the kind of Church the Lord commissioned. A free-for-all spiritual experience sounds nice. But is it the Church the Lord founded?
 
Before choosing the twelve apostles (Mt 10:1-7), the Lord Jesus taught his followers how abundant the harvest is. He contrasted this with how scarce the personnel who are willing and enthusiastic to serve. He admonished them to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send more laborers to the harvest (Mt 9:38). I reflected on this in a previous essay.
 
Next, he showed an example by selecting twelve out of his numerous disciples to become chosen leaders to carry on the mission. Rightly called the pillars of the Church with the prophets before them, and Christ as the chief cornerstone (Eph 2:20), the apostolic college is evidence of that structure. 
 
By asking the disciples to pray, I believe they were praying for themselves and for many after them to be open to divine invitation to serve to promote God's reign. That prayer continues.
 
Pray for the same petition. We need more passionate messengers of the Lord. As you pray, open your heart for the possibility to serve the way the Lord desires. 
 
Scripture mentions the names of the twelve (Mt 10:1-6). So, they were real people, not imagery characters. Those were ordinary men without exceptional training. None of them had elitist portfolios. Yet, the Lord saw in their heart the desire to serve first before leading. Hence, he chose them.
 
No need to count yourself out of the mission because you suppose you aren't qualified. What it takes is a passion, love for the Lord's cause, and the desire to serve. The Lord does not call the perfect or qualified. Rather, he equips anyone he has chosen and makes them fit for his mission through the power of his grace (see I Cor 1:27-29).
 
Robert Greenleaf, the servant leadership theorist, once said that great leaders have the desire to serve first. Hence, when they have the authority, they lead well. Fr. Robert Spitzer of Magis Center suggests great leaders lead from the heart. They are passionate and homed in on the vision. I would say they own the vision and mission and live them in their lives.  
 
I am praying that we keep the mission of the reign of God alive wherever we find ourselves. Amen.
 
God love you. God bless you. 
 
Fr. Maurice Emelu
 
[Wednesday Week 14 Ordinary Time: Hos 10:1-3, 7-8, 12: Mt 10:1-7]

Grace to you!

Have you ever been in a situation where you couldn't help yourself, or rather, where you needed a helping hand? Reflecting on those moments may help to appreciate the relevance of friendship, relationships, support systems, and intercession. 

Seeing documentaries about war veterans, I am always fascinated by the veterans' sacrifices for each other at the battlefront. They put their lives on the line to bring wounded soldiers to safety, often carrying them on their shoulders amidst the whizzing sound of blazing bullets over their heads. No weight of a wounded friend is unbearable in the face of war and deadly weapons. 

Consider your spiritual life. Isn't it the case that sometimes you need somebody to pray for you? Other times, you feel the weight of other people's burdens, prompting you to become an intercessor. Responding to those promptings is a holy service. It is a blessing. 

Many times in our spiritual life, the faith of the family or community of believers lifts our spirit. Take, for example, the prayers of your mom who ceaselessly mentions your name during her daily Masses, Bible readings, rosaries, or other prayers. It could be the prayers of your friends who shared your prayer-burden when they heard the news that you or your loved one was diagnosed with a terminal disease. These prayer-support systems carry you on the wings of faith to God, who alone can help you. 

You may not even believe in the power of those prayers, but your doubts wouldn't stop God from doing what He is capable of doing. God is able, providing in abundance what you need at those moments.

You may be encouraged to see how the Blessed Lord responds to intercessions for you or others. Matthew 9:1-8 records the story of the healing of a person with paralysis by Jesus, the Lord. In this case, the Lord didn't merely respond to the person with paralysis because of his faith. Scripture reports that Jesus was drawn by the faith of the people who brought him. "And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, 'Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven'" (Mt 9:2). After that, he healed the man as he will heal us too. 
There may be people around you, in your family, at your workplace, in your community, or among your online friends who may need your faith-support to re-ignite their faith. 

It would be fantastic if you and I, as believers, rediscover the power of intercession. It could be a powerful tool, a spiritual weapon against the name-calling, bad blood in many communities, and the spirit of vengeance and hatred. It could foster spiritual health and victory against the real or imagined injustice done against us or someone we know. 

Believers are the salt of the earth and light of the world as they provide for what is lacking. They model the way. They spice the horrible taste of the world with the graciousness of prayer, sacrifices, and love. Their intercessions avail much. 

How about we take up the petitions of those spiritually paralyzed, emotionally, psychologically, and mentally crippled? How about we share in the prayerful burden of those who are deep in sin, one person at a time? Included are those who are forcibly opposed to our faith. How I love the saints in their commitments to pray for the sinful world. 

Don't you think to rediscover our roles as intercessors can help much? A prayer for a person each day is a holy service. Give it a try. You will be blessed. 

God love you. God bless you. 

Fr. Maurice Emelu
​
[Thursday Week 13: Amos 7:10-17; Matthew 9:1-8]
 
 

 
Grace to you!
 
I reflect on a moving encounter between the Blessed Lord and a man suffering from leprosy in the Gospel of Matthew 8:1-4. 
 
The Lord had finished the Sermon on the Mount. The sermon moved his audience in an incredible, astonishing way. They confessed they had never seen a speaker with such power and authority behind his word (Mt 7:28-29). After this, the Lord came down from the mountain. 
 
It was clear that, at least, many of the astonished audience committed to following him. His words were like never they had seen. The power of God's Word feels the same to anyone who has opened their hearts as Christ speaks through his Word in Scripture and the Church's liturgy. In both, he continues to speak and minister grace to those of us in need of it.
 
I suspect the Leper must also have been listening from a distance. Or someone may have told him about this great speaker with power in their midst. The seed of faith was sown in his heart. "Faith comes by hearing" (Rom 10:17). He embraced it and encountered far deeper healing, which began when his heart stirred to reach out to the Lord. 
 
I was fascinated by the movement from the Lord to the man and back to the Lord. We read that the Lord came down, then the crowd followed him (Mt 8:1). In our Christian life, the initiative is always God's first. We do not choose God first. God chooses us first and commissions us to bear fruit (Jn 15:16). From Abraham's call to the last person that will ever receive the gift of faith in Christ, God makes the first choice for us. So, Jesus taught and sowed the seed of renewal and then came down so people could receive even more of the incredible grace of his life. 
 
One could also relate this to the Incarnation's mystery that God stooped and became like us so we can become Godly. God revealed to us the God-self so we can be elevated to the God-life.  
 
Though God begins the entire process and nurtures it, we must respond so that the healing grace will renew us. One would not expect God to force himself on us. It is not in Divine character to do so. The Divine approach is like a gentle knock at the door, as the Lord patiently waits for us to open the door and welcome him (Rev 3:20) and heal.
 
We read about the Leper doing just that, welcoming the divine invitation. He came to Jesus 
“and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, if you will [wish], you can make me clean" (Mt 8:2).
 
He didn’t just come as a spectator. He came with a goal. He wasn’t a fan. He was a believer. More importantly, he came with a reverent heart. He knelt—a gesture of reverence and prayer—and prayed for his need. He may not have had a deepened faith that knows that God's love and compassionate heart is already pursuing the wounded. But he sure had sufficient faith as to hang on to the belief in the power of Christ to save and heal him. 
 
 
By saying to the Lord, "If you wish," he was confessing, he believed the Lord had the power to do so. This was an incredible faith since, at the time, nobody (except the Blessed Virgin Mary) knew Jesus was God.
 
"If you wish" is also a confession of the man's hopelessness before this sickness that has ostracized him from the community. It was a sort of tone of "you are my last resort for healing."
 
Finally, "if you wish" was the man's disposition to accept the will of God. It was a tacit acknowledgment that he was not pursuing the Lord because of the miracles he may expect but seeking the Lord's will. "If you wish" could also be seen as "thy will be done."
 
We know the Lord cares. We know the Lord wishes, wills that all be saved and come to him. We know the Lord does not lose anyone who has come to him.
 
Hence, Jesus did the miracle with an additional flavor of a touch of his hands. He didn't need to do so, because if he spoke his word on the sick, they heal. But he stretches out his hand and touches the infected spots. By so doing, he identifies with the man's brokenness, renewing his mortal body with his divine body. The meeting of our weak body by the Divine life is the healing that endures. 
 
Do you need healing from your wounds of sin? Are you in need of healing from other pains of the body and soul? Is your loved one or family in need of such? Today's encounter is a witness to the healing power of grace.  
 
The Lord is already waiting. He is waiting at your corner and in your home. He wishes to speak to you in Scripture and to feed and encounter you in a more profound way at the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession). The Lord is with us and within us. He is present so you can be healed. Speak to him and heal. “By his wounds, we are healed” (Is 53:5). 
 
God love you. God bless you.
 
Fr. Maurice Emelu. 
 
[Friday Ordinary Time Week 12: 2 Kings 25:1-12; Matthew 8:1-4]

 Grace to you!
 
The Gospel of Matthew 7:21-23 documents one of the Lord's scariest warmings to believers. The Lord Jesus said: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven" (Mt 7:21).
 
If anyone has doubts as to the limits of faith-alone (sola fide) claims, this very word of Jesus settles it. Making a profession in Christ is another way of saying faith in Christ. One may profess in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, but this, the Lord Jesus says, isn't enough.
 
For us not to make light what the Lord meant, he doubles down with a sterner emphasis. "On that day many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers" (Mt 7:22-23).
 
This statement has a lot of implications. To be sure, doing God's will begins with faith, believing in the one he sent—Christ (Jn 6:29). It deepens to keeping his commandment (Jn 14:15), the real proof of the faith, and much more, love. It is love which endures (1 Cor 13:7), the greatest, even over faith and hope (1 Cor 13:13). 
 
In other words, it is faith in charity. Faith has to be matched with action. The Letter of James was spot-on when it writes: "So faith by itself if it has no works, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith" (Jas 2:17-18). 
 
 
It can't get any clearer than the above.
 
Secondly, the Lord's warning is a clear message to many who are gifted to do "mighty" works in God's name. Often, we get carried away by our so-called successes in the ministry. We begin to ignore our personal spiritual life and the call to holiness. We ignore sound spiritual and moral life basking in the euphoria: "After all, God is doing his work despite me."
 
The scandals that destroy the innocence of many churches and cause bad public image for the Body of Christ, the Church, are often due to the neglect of the commitment to holiness of life. Firm resolve and commitments to the call to holiness must precede and nurture the use of our gifts. Ignore this, and we become dulled in conscience and neglect the need to practice what we preach.
 
Yes, God blesses his people with healings, miracles, growth of church membership and finances, massive infrastructure, and thousands of followers on social media. But these do not equate the life of holiness. Holiness trumps them all. God blesses his people not because of us but in spite of us. In doing God's work, may we not be mere conduits. May we benefit too from the graces of our ministry. May we be sanctified, also, as we lead others.
 
We have to be vigilant not to get carried away and lose sight of our primary vocation to holiness and love. It is another way of saying, "Doing the will of God." Scripture tells us to be doers of the word and not only hearers, so we don't deceive ourselves (Jas 1:22). By so doing, we are secure in the Divine Word.
 
Who does not want his or her house built on a solid foundation? Become that wise person whom the Lord said, "built his house on the rock" (Mt 7:24). Christ is the rock.
 
I am praying for the grace to practice what we profess. Amen.
 
God love you. God bless you.
 
Fr. Maurice Emelu
 
[Thursday, Week 12:  2 Kings 24:8-17; Matthew 7:21-29] 
 
 

Grace to you!
 
Drawing from the Lord’s message in Matthew 7:12-14, I reflect on the blessings of not taking shortcuts in life. 
 
Standardized tests are tricky. In my opinion, they are the best, as well as the worst of assessments. One could easily have a perfect score or score a zero. A careless mistake, an opportunity for an A is blown. Completely.
 
I recall when I was preparing for the GRE test. One of the caveats in taking the Math part of the examination was being careful not to jump to conclusions and choose a particular answer that seems correct at face value.
 
Those who design the tests are shrewd. They throw in answers that, at face value, look like the correct answers, but they aren't. My instructor advised, "The first answer that jumps out at you, even before you start solving the problem, is likely wrong."
There is wisdom in the old English idiom: “Not all that glitters is gold.”  
 
A friend wanted to buy the latest iPhone. After a series of Internet searches, he found a fabulous discount through an online company. The discounted price was almost two-thirds less than the Apple price for the product. He placed the order right away.
 
Two weeks passed, he didn't receive the phone. By the end of the two weeks, he got an email notification that the seller has canceled his order and that his money refunded.  
 
One may say, "Well, they didn't take my money." It is a polite way of looking at it, though naïve. In the current online marketing environment, your information is worth more than a single sale. They took something of far more value than the money for the iPhone, I suppose.
 
They took his convenience. He waited for two weeks and didn't have the phone. It was frustrating to be in the dark for those two weeks.
 
More seriously, they took all his information—credit card details, address, phone number, email, etc. Who knows where his information is now? They may have been sold to third party marketers.
 
Not all that glitters is gold. You see that glittering opportunity. It’s irresistible. Very inviting. Tantalizing. It seems you have it before you even worked for it. Be cautious.  
 
Did it come too easy? Ironically, it's often unsustainable. Things that come through hard work endure.
 
When they say, inventors stumble into a discovery; it doesn't mean they while away the time as the invention shows up right at their door. It is in the process of hours of research, thinking, hard work; series of trials and errors, that the surprising discovery emerges.
 
You wouldn't presume the so-called 10,000-hour rule for a world-class level of performance popularized by Malcolm Gladwell is easy. Despite objections to this rule, it's pretty common sense that in life, nothing comes on the sofa of comfort except momentary satisfaction. Substantial accomplishment comes through sacrifices and hard work.
 
This principle isn't simply social, cultural, and educational. It is, more importantly, spiritual. In reality, the Creator ingrained in the DNA of nature this natural law of things. Namely, what one sows shapes what one reaps. 
 
Speaking of the ultimate blessing, which is salvation (beatific vision), the Lord Jesus declares the following. "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. The gate is narrow, and the way is hard, leading to life, and those who find it are few" (Mt 7:13-14).
 
 
The closer one is to the cross, the closer to blessedness. Farther away one is from the cross, the closer to ruined opportunities. So, get up and get to work. Or rather, keep working. Keep sacrificing. Invest in time, and time will invest in you.
 
I am praying for the grace of smart and hard work plus commitment to follow through. Amen.
 
God love you. God bless you.
 
Fr. Maurice Emelu
 
 
[Tuesday, Week 12, Ordinary Time:  2 Kings 19:9b-11, 14, 21, 31-35a, 36; Matthew 7:6, 12-14] 
 
 

Grace to you!
​
Chris' coworker and "friend" was suspended from work. Rumors went around the block regarding what he may have done, resulting in the suspension. Chris decided to visit him. He felt some loyalty to offer him some pieces of advice moving forward.

The visit turned out to be one of the most humiliating Chris ever had. He had come with a prejudgment about what his friend had done wrong and how he must change his attitude. He rehearsed all the gossip from rumor mongers who seem to know everything about everyone else.

Chris' friend was eerily quiet while he went on with his prejudgment of the situation. In the end, he asked Chris, "Have you heard my side of the story?"

It turned out that he was simply a scapegoat for malicious power players in the organization. He was innocent. He was the victim, not the villain. Chris realized he had messed up. So moved, he decided never to judge people on hearsay or to pass judgment when he didn't have all the facts.

Reading the gospel of Matthew 7:1-5, we hear these strong words from our Lord: "Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."

How do we take these? The biblical scholar of the 4th century, Saint Jerome, suggests it doesn't mean we desist from all forms of judgment. Instead, it means we avoid getting into the judgment of things that do not concern us. Similarly, according to him, it means in cases we have to judge, we must always be guided by the desire first to exonerate than to condemn.

It means that for the believer, our first desire is to find reasons to excuse people. We come from the background of charity and love. As Saint Paul says, love is kind, patient, bears all things (1 Cor 13:4-7), and seeks to excuse people.

How often we jump into things and get tangled with affairs that have no relevance to us and our growth. We seek stories or like to watch the news or news stories that are so judgmental and polarizing. We get stressed. We chew more than we can swallow. Like collectors, we amass a litany of problems in our head, and they weigh us down. When, in the first place, we do not need any of those concerns. Many times, they are garbage. Toss them.

Here is the thing: When one is virtuous, the person tends to see the good in all things. When the heart is crooked, nothing is straight. For a negative-minded person, all is full of skirmishes, brokenness, and evil. The world is completely evil.

When people are obsessed with something, they often see that all around them. It becomes a cloud to their judgment. Things are judged from that perspective. Our judgments are perspectival. Only God has the entire picture. Hence, we leave the ultimate judgment to God.

Lord, give me the grace to avoid hasty judgments and conclusions. Amen.

God love you. God bless you.

Fr. Maurice Emelu
​
[Monday Weekday 12 B: 2 Kgs 17:5-8, 13-15A, 18; Mt 7:1-5]