Shikrot Mpwi - Sunday Synopsis with Fr. Justine J. Dyikuk  

Seventh Sunday of the Year, A – February 19, 2017

Readings: Lv 19:1-2, 17-18; Responsorial Psalm Ps 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-13; 1st Cor 3:16-23; 
Gospel Mt 5:38-48.

Theme:  Entrenching the Rightful New World Order: The Task of Christians!

Friends in the Christ, in our first reading (Lv 19:1-2, 17-18), the Lord instructs Moses to relate his message of love, anchored on holiness, to the people of Israel. This call to holiness has the appeal of loving kindness which eschews hatred for one’s brother or sister from the heart; the Lord goes ahead to prescribe fraternal correction, taking no revenge, holding no grudge against anyone and loving a neighbour as one’s self, as prerequisite for holiness.  

Jesus reinforces the message of the first reading in the gospel (Gospel Mt 5:38-48) wherein he upturns societal thinking. In an unparalleled way, he entrenches a New World Order (NWO) which goes against the normal Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. That is not all, Jesus insists that we should offer no resistance to the one who is evil, to turn the other check to one who strikes us, offer our cloak to anyone who intends to go to law with us over our tunic, go two miles with a person who invites us for one, give to those who ask and never turn our backs on those who intend to borrow.     

To demonstrate the paradoxical hero that He is, Jesus continues his Divine Catechises by stating that resisting hatred for enemies by loving them and praying for those who persecute us is to holiness. What is more, He calls us to emulate God who lets his sun to shine on both the good and the bad. By inviting us to be perfect as our heavenly father is holy, Jesus wants us to do something different, something extra which the tax collectors and pagans cannot do namely, returning good for evil – this constitutes the NWO He came to establish intends that His would-be followers continue.      

Sadly, in our society today, instead of entrenching the rightful NWO, some Christians have joined ranks with forces of evil in the world to propose a conspiracy theory of a secularist NWO which defers in intent and content with what Jesus offers us in the gospel. The current worldly NWO is the emergence of a totalitarian world government pioneered by a secretive powerful elite which is pushing a globalist agenda of eventually ruling the world.

The worrisome aspect of the NWO is that those behind it are a cabal that orchestrates important political and financial conspiracy policies in the world. Their aim is to cause systemic crises at both national and international levels with a ploy to achieving world domination through a secularist agenda of exaggerated feminism, celebration of man’s passions, unwarranted demand for gay rights and what we now know as illuminati. The lure of developing nations to take foreign loans which eventually become Greek gifts are all part of this agenda.

Today, Jesus calls Christians wherever they are to be gentle as doves and wise as serpents. Amidst these western secularist power brokers who are bent on bringing the world to its knees through the modern NWO which contradicts what our paradoxical hero proposes, we are called to stand up for our faith.

Also, in the face of death, we must not recourse to the simplistic way of turning the other check. Charity begins at home. At such, the love of oneself is a fundamental principle of morality. It becomes legitimate for Christians to insist on respect for one’s own right to life. While the Catechism of the Catholic Church condemns wilful killing (CCC, 2261-2262), it states that the fundamental principle of morality is love and preservation of one’s self (CCC, 2264).

Since it is clear that the secular NWO has the agenda of destroying man’s body and soul, the treatment of Christians as targeted species for elimination must be met with resistance and legitimate self defence. St. Paul assures in the second reading (1st Cor 3:16-23) that God would destroy anyone who destroys his temple. Since our body is that temple, we ought to first of all our best in preserving it while allowing the owner to do the rest. Happy Sunday!