THURSDAY 2nd APRIL 2020
Homily by Rev. Deacon. Samuel Muhanji Nyonje
Theme: MY IDENTITY
Readings:
Genesis 17:3-9
John 8:51-59
Dear friends in our Lord Jesus Christ, good morning.
Naming in African culture is something special and characterised by unique lineage. To most African communities a child is named according to a particular clan or renowned personality. This is the experience we encounter in the first reading. Abram is renamed by God to Abraham, Sarah is renamed Sarah.
This new names given to the son and daughter of God is linked to a particular mission, first is identified with the ratification of the covenant between God and Abraham.
Though Abraham didn't see all the prescribed promises, he believed in the Word of God and desires to witness to them.
Beloved friends, Christians are also marked, named in our flesh, as God's own. Baptism is a physical sign, invisible apart from the moment that it takes place, of our true identities. How does God name us, all of us, each of us, who stand in the line of Abraham? According to some biblical passages in which God is said to know our names, God names us as creatures in whom God delights (62:4), as precious (Isaiah 43:4), as utterly known and loved (Isaiah 49:1; John 10:14-15).
Similarly, by virtue of our baptism ( canon 96 of 1983 code) we are made adopted sons and daughters of God, we share in his Kingdom. This kingdom is made manifest by the Word made flesh ( Jesus Christ). This is what we heard in the collect ( opening prayer) this morning.
In the Gospel passage, Jesus identifies himself with Abraham, great man of faith. He goes ahead telling his audience that before Abraham was I AM. This we all know is the identity of Yahweh. His revelation to likened himself with God is the subject of conviction to the Jews who doubted the divinity of Christ. To them, this was blasphemy.
Dear friends, to some extend, some of us tend to question the power of Christ because at this havoc of covid-19 many tend to rationalise Christ, some have become skeptical, some have lost their trust in the power of Christ manifested in the Cross.
According to John Mbiti, a renowned African theologian, he has worked on the identity of man to the closeness of the God of our ancestors. Likening Christ to his ancestors. We too are named after our ancestor Abraham. Similarly, St. Thomas Aquinas in his theology on Most Holy Eucharist assert that the Sacrifice we celebrate is one, the same sacrifice Christ offered on the Cross is what is made present in Mass though bloodless. See here, Thomas equate the present to the past.
We should remember that God knows who we really are, and frees and calls us to live into the name that he's given us. To know our true name is, as it was for Abraham and Sarah, to turn, to reorient ourselves according to that name, and to live it. Just as God's naming of Abraham and Sarah was also a calling, in naming us God is calling us to discipleship, casting off the old names by which we've been known, and living into the name that God bestows.
Let's embrace a new identity just like Moses after his encounter with God he didn't remain the same, Jacob after encountering the Angel of God he too changed, Saul after encountering Christ he changed to Paul and a great Apostle. Me and you we have encountered God through the various Sacraments in the Church, and most especially now that most of our Christian's can't make to Churches, you ought to encounter the God in the WORD/ HOLY SCRIPTURE.
Yours in the Lord.
Rev. Deacon Samuel Muhanji Nyonje
samnyonje.blogspot.com
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