About: "Rest in Peace Elder Metropolitan Jona of Kampala - Uganda!"... († 5 September 2021)
HUMAN LIFE IN THE LIGHT FROM GOD
Homily by Metropolitan Jonah on the 3rd Sunday of Matthew
(Biblical Readings 2 Cor 6:1-10, Mt 6:22-33)
“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! 24 No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. 25 Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your living, what will you eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? 28 And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more cloth you- you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying: what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well”.
In these days, most of the people think that, they exist in the world to accumulate material, not spiritual wealth, and can sacrifice others, their neighbors, simply for the material gains. (Mt 19:19, 22,39). However, according to the Master Jesus Christ, all persons carefully who attend to their inner enlightenment (consciousness of soul), by the Spirit of God, ought to behave not as most of the people practice, who do not obey the voice of God in them.
Last week we mentioned about that inner light, within human beings (Ro 2: 15), which is named conscience or consciousness in the English language. Bufumintiriza in Luganda. This inner light is spiritual from God, not physical light (Mt 6:23). People who are illumined by this light live while their spiritual eyes are seeing and assessing all things spiritually.
And through this light, we ought not to place money above all, in the position of God. For, it is God above all, who furnishes to us all things, which assist the process of our life. Even our free will or freedom of will, and the reasonability of us as persons through the conscience, all these gifts are provided to us by God (Php 2:13).
In addition to all these gifts our God, the Father sent us His Son the Word, Jesus Christ, in order to save us from all our disobedience and sinful ways of assessing things in our life. Humans, wherever they are, to assess things in the spiritual way is possible only by the gifts from God (grace), and especially by the light of consciousness and godliness, of which the roots are planted in the image and likeness by creation.
A HEALING OF TWO DEMON-POSSESSED MEN AT GADARA
Homily By Metropolitan Jonah on the 5th Sunday of Matthew
(Biblical Readings: Gal 4:22-27 , Mt 8:28-9:1)
“When Jesus arrived at the other side, in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way. 29 They shouted: What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time? 30 At some distance from them, a large herd of pigs was feeding. 31 The demons begged Jesus: If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs. 32 He said to them: Go! So, they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water. 33 Those tending the pigs ran off, went into the town and reported all this, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 34 Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw Him, they pleaded with Him to leave their region! 9:1 Jesus got into the boat and went across the lake back to His own town”.
It is the 5th Sunday lesson from St. Matthew the Evangelist. We can compare this passage to Mk 5:1-7 and Lk 8:26-37. The Gospel of today emphasizes the fact that, while our Lord God continues the sustenance of us, in many miraculous ways (visibly and invisibly), most of us as human beings, continue living with a despising attitude towards the revelation of God to mankind and to ourselves individually.
With His elected disciples, the Lord Jesus Christ spreads the Good News of salvation, through the establishment of the kingdom of God, the Ekklesia. Now, around the sea of Galilee, they are in another town, Gadara, almost 40 kilometers south from Capernaum. From Gadara town, someone had to cross the River Jordan, to reach at Nazareth, a distance of 40 kilometers again.
Although Evangelist Mark and Luke report one demon-possessed man, in this town, but Evangelist Matthew reports two demon-possessed men, who are healed by the power of the Lord. Human beings we are on inherited struggle with the demons, evils and all sins. With the assistance from the Lord Christ, we can entirely defeat all kinds of demons, evils and sins. The people of Gadara town (Mt 8:34), like many Jews and most of the people in the world, do value much more their own material properties and gains, instead of their deliverance from the demons, evils and sins, through faith to the Lord, and other Christian virtues! Ro 10: 2,4,5,9 “set free” 2 Pe 3:16.
Besides the problems faced by the human beings from the demons, evils and sins, in addition, humans we are faced also with the problem of illness or sickness, said to be caused by various diseases during our living in this physical world. Generally speaking, most of our ailments in this world are due to physical mistakes (accidents), and others are due to spiritual mistakes, which are commonly characterized as sins!
Homily by Metropolitan Jonah Lwanga on the 6th Sunday of Matthew.
(Biblical Readings Ro 12:6-14, Mt 9:1-8)
“Jesus got into the boat, crossed over and came to His own town. 2 Some men brought to Him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man: Courage, son! Your sins are forgiven. 3 At this, some of the teachers of the Law said to themselves: This fellow is blaspheming! 4 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said: Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? 5 Which is easier, to say: Your sins are forgiven, or to say: Get up and walk? 6 But l want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. So, He said to the paralyzed man: Get up, take your mat and go home! 7 Then the man got up and went home. 8 When the crowd saw this, they were afraid, and praised God, who had given such authority to man”.
The unusual healings, which were realized by the godly power of Christ Jesus, to a number of individuals, amazed almost everyone, even the Pharisees or teachers of the Law being included. The healing power, in itself, did not provoke noticeable disturbance in the thoughts of Pharisees. There was no blaspheming in that activity of Christ. For the Pharisees and teachers of the Law, the misunderstanding came from: Jesus to claim the power of forgiving the sins. “Who can forgive sins except God alone”? The Pharisees thought within themselves (Mk 2:7). They entertained evil thoughts in their hearts. And Christ wanted them to believe that, as Word of God incarnate in the Son of Man, he has the authority on earth to forgive sins. As theme of the NT, it is somehow difficult to grasp, unless when it is related with the whole mission of Jesus Christ.
Since then to the present time, as it happened with the Pharisees and teachers of the Law, many people entertain in themselves the disturbing thoughts, when they try to understand the two natures (divine-human) of Jesus Christ, and His mission in the world. The truth is that, the Word of God (divine nature) incarnate in Christ Jesus (human nature) came to save the human race from death, from all evils and diseases! This mission includes the preaching or revealing of eternal life, the Good News (Mt 7:28-29); driving away the demons and evil spirits (Mk 1:34), as well as healing all kinds of sickness and weakness (Mt 4:23); forgiving the sins of humans (MK 2:5-12. Mt 9:1-8); and raising them from death (Jn 10:17-18; 11:23-27).
Surprisingly, Prophet Isaiah (BC 740-680?) had summarized (Is 35:1-10) this mission of Christ Jesus, the Redeemer. Therefore, in the passage of today the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled. The Pharisees and teachers of the Law (even some people today), although had read several times the prophecy of Isaiah, were (and are) not able to perceive the glory of God, revealed and demonstrated before them, in public! This attitude of humans, not to believe in the forgiveness of their sins by the Redeemer, nor to trust in the total recovery of the paralyzed persons by the godly healing power, is a spiritual blindness inherited from the physical or empirical familiarity in living.
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