Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life: Priestly Anniversary Edition

NB:

July 12, 2018 marks the 21st Anniversary of my Priestly Ordination. After many generations of hesitations on whether to celebrate the Anniversary or not, I settled for just a remembrance, not a full celebration. Consequently, I am compelled to raise a souvenir to the Glory of God for His Grace and Mercy these twenty-one event-laden years. This is what this Homily stands for, and why it is put in print.

The Homily for today, August 12, 2018 (19th Sunday of Year B) is drawn from a text of a homily I had preached on August 13, 2006 at St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral Church, Aggrey Road, Port Harcourt on the same theme of 19th Sunday of the Year B, with the theme: Jesus Christ: the Bread of Life. The topic remains unchanged.

Noteworthy is the fact that the original holds a page of the story of my abduction, my miraculous escape from the hands of my kidnappers as well as the steps taken by traducers to hide the issues at stake.

Written in a manner that seem to have paid little or no attention to the lexical and grammatical structures of modern English, the original text was meant to serve only one thing:DOCUMENTATION.

After the Sunday Mass on July 2, 2006, and after I had attended the Priests' Sanctification Ceremony at S.S. Anthony $ Jude's Parish, Umungasi, Aba (which incidentally is my place of residence currently), I travelled to Enugu - precisely to Divine Love Retreat and Conference Center, Enugu - for a private retreat. I used the occassion of this retreat to attend to some files that had, all the while demanded my undistracted attention. I left the the retreat house on the morning of Sunday, July 9, 2006. But before I left the room, I got a word of knowledge to leave the final translationsof the documents I had made behind and go with the original and the photocopies. Consequently, I hid the bulk of the papers containing the translations I had made behind a framed picture of the Sacred Heart inside the Sitting Room at the Convent at Enugu, and then took a cab to Agbani Road,Enugu where I boarded a vehicle to take me to Port Harcourt. I was kidnapped at Port Harcourt on my arrival from Enugu.

By a twist of fate, I was taken into Police custody after I had miraculously escaped from my abductors. On my release from the police custody and on my personal request, I was taken, first of all, to Pamo Clinic and, then latter, to another hospital run by the Sisters of Charity somewhere around Rumukwurushi. I was being treated here until the bishop sent a vehicle to Port Harcourt with Frs. Peter Ali and Alexander Okonkwo to pick me up and bring me back to the diocese.

On getting to Aba, I indicated my interest to see the bishop and strongly requested the two prieststo allow me to see the bishop. They refused, and instead, took me to New Era Hospital in Aba against my wish. At the slightest opportunity, I left the hospital because:

1. The Director of the Hospital has direct or proximate links with the City Fathers, and a chieftain of the Knights of St.Mulumb, Aba Diocese.

2. I had to get back to Enugu as quickly as possible to secure the documents having learnt from my abductors that it was for these documents I was kidnapped.

It was also for the purpose of discussing these two issues with and to advice him to "watch the Knights of St. Mulumba closely" that informed my decision to see him (the Bishop).

I escaped from my abductors with a broken hand and a severely wounded leg. Consequently, I spent about eight days at the Annunciation Hospital, Emene, Enugu, from where I returned straight to St. Mary's Church, Aggrey Road, Port Harcourt without entering my residence in the Catholic Institute of West Africa (CIWA), Port Harcourt.

Having left New Era Hospital, and after I had secured the translated copies I had made out of the original documents, I decided to go back to the hospital again, and personally chose to go to Enugu - the Annunciation Hospital, Emene, Enugu.

Annunciation Hospital, Divine Love Retreat and Conference Center and the Sisters of Divine Love Genera late are located in the same place but are separated from each other by fence.

I was taken to Annunciation Hospital by my diocese and in the company of some of my brother priests who left the same day after a sealed letter in a white envelope with the Aba Diocesan logo had been delivered to the Chief Medical Director - a nun.

I was officially discharged eight days latter on a Friday morning. But, because I had the premonition that the diocese will send a vehicle to pick me up the next Sunday, I decided to remain in the hospital only for me to be informed by a nun that I had to vacate the hospital ward immediately.

At that instance, I went to book for a hotel accommodation at the Divine Love Retreat and Conference Center (DRACC) - a retreat and conference center equally built and run by the same congregation and housed together with the Divine Love headquarters but separated from the hospital by a fence.

The sister-receptionist had me properly booked in for three days and gave instructions for the room to be made ready while I waited. After I had waited for about fifteen minutes, the reception made a dramatic U-turn by telling me that there was no accommodation as all the rooms were fully booked.

I got annoyed but managed to hold my anger even as I pressed on for a change of the decision. It was at this point that one of the elderly nuns intervened and hit me hard.

She told me that I had been discharged from the hospital, and that the wisest thing for me to do was to go home so as to avoid an occasion where they (the sisters) would be unwillingly transformed into an instrument of murder; and that whosoever wants to kill his own priest under whatever pretense should know the best way to go about it. But, surely, the sisters of Divine Love cannot be used or bought over as their mission is to save life and propagate Divine love in partnership with the Blessed Virgin Mary, and not to kill.

The words and attitude of the Divine Love sister did not only confirm my fears, it also helped me to establish the links.

I knew, right from the moment I escaped from my abductors, the real identity of my enemies. But is it possible that the Knighthood could be made to front for a deadly satanic cult like Ogboni Fraternity? The huge doubts that assailed me and the costly presumptions I had allowed to fester even in the presence of mountains of evidence - giving perhaps my status as a priest and stubborn convictions as a traditionalist Catholic faithful - have proved too costly for my life and the lives of the members of my family.

So I have been closely monitored all these while.

In consideration of all these, I returned from the Annunciation Hospital to St. Mary's Church, Aggrey Road, Port Harcourt without going back to my diocese or entering CIWA.

At about 5.45am on the morning of Sunday, August 13, the Parish Priest of St. Mary's, Aggrey Road, Port Harcourt, Fr. Emmanuel Maru, who incidentally is my host and a long time friend, informed me that he would not available to preside over the 9am mass during which the inauguration of the Parish Christian Men Organization (CMO) and an Award Ceremony will take place. He had been mandated by the bishop (Fr. Maru is of the Diocese of Port Harcourt while I am of Aba) to join him for a very important diocesan function at one of the parishes in the diocese. Fr. Maru doubled as Parish Priest of St. Mary's, the diocesan chaplain of CWO and the diocesan chancellor. He told me to look for a priest that would preside over the 9am Mass since I could not owing to the condition of my broken hand.

I was lucky to reach an agreement with the priest who was to celebrate the 7am mass for him to also preside at the 9am Mass while I give the Homily. This Homily was written with a P.O.P-bandaged hand within the interval.

From another angle after I had preached this homily and returned to CIWA, I had great cause to watch the Chief Sacristan at CIWA and four other individuals with regards to attempts made to unlock my room with a spare key at the dead of the night - attempts that had made me to abruptly jump out of my bed. The premonition I had about attempts to strangle me to death in the silence of my room at CIWA informed my decision to invite one of my closest partners to share my room. And this she did for about three weeks.

I finally left CIWA in 2007.

Band so, what you have in your hand is a Souvenir of the 21st Anniversary of my Priestly Ordination.

The text is not for sale but for the nourishment of your faith.

Putting this Homily in print has caused a big drain on my pocket. One thousand copies of this Homily have been produced, some in its original.

I, therefore, pray you all to cease on this opportunity to support MARYSROSE financially.

My APPEAL also goes to those of you overseas.

This is my assurance to all of my benefactors, benefactresses, friends and well-wishers who have supported MARYSROSE all these while: your appreciations - whether this comes in millions of dollars or its equivalent; or whether it comes in one coin only - can never go unrewarded in the sight of God, who is Your Father and My Father, Your God and My God.

(My Homily for the 19^th Sunday of the Year B August 12, 2018)

By Fr. Kenneth Evurulobi, PhD.

Three things are of primary importance in life:

• Food
• Clothing
• Shelter

Elijah the man of God had been evicted and exiled from his shelter by Jezebel. He ran away into the desert barefooted and bare bodied, under the painful rays of the hostile sun, with no food. He lacked the 3 primary necessities of life. At a point, he gave up, desired the end, for as far as he was concerned, there was no need to continue to live; no hope.

Man lives in hope - that tomorrow will be better than today. Without a hope like this, there this no need to live. What is the need to continue to live when you can’t put food on the table of your family,cover your nudity or that of your children or put a shed over their heads? Is there any worth living that kind of life! The funny aspect of it all is that he dare not go back to where he was coming from; and to go forward held no promise for his life except to utter loneliness and suffering. Back home, a death sentence was written against his name and a handsome reward awaited any person who could volunteer to give information on the whereabouts of the man of God. This project was the primary occupation and task for which the wife of a governor - an occult Jezebel - deployed her resources including state weapons. It was the realization of how powerful, notorious and blood-thirsty that woman is when compared to the situation of his own helpless condition and the stark reality of the gap between him and Jezebel that made Elijah gave up.

But God wants you to understand this: NdunwaChinekekaririebeokunyuruachisaowa”.The life of a true believer is not terminated where the candle flame dies off.

When the enemy thinks he has put a full-stop to your life, don’t give up. God is going to begin a new sentence in your life.

Somebody may have made real his/her threat of killing your husband or wife and putting you out of business or job so that you and your family can starve. Stop looking at your ugly situation or the huge resources of your enemies and look up to your God.

Today, Elijah had food and shelter, and was clothed in the powerful radiance of God’s provision and glory- sweet provisions which God alone can give as no human resources can afford this. No wonder the Psalmist says, in the Responsorial Psalm of today:“Taste and see that the Lord is good”.And in the gospel, Jesus gives something better- THE BREAD OF ENTERNAL LIFE.

Only God is God. And only His gifts, given through the Holy Spirit for service and love, can change the world, assure us of a brighter future for our state and nation, and bring us to eternal fulfillment. God alone, through Jesus Christ and through Him alone, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, and only in unity with the Holy Spirit, is the goal of human history. Only when we remain in Him and feed on Him through the Holy Eucharist, the real bread come down from heaven, can we be what we are, and through this, and only through this alone, come to be what we shall be.

The First Reading today, 19^th Sunday Year B (1 Kings 19:4-8) says, according to the theme “strengthened by the food Elijah the prophet of God walked until he reached the mountain- Mount Horeb, the Mountain of God. At this mountain, Elijah encountered God and spoke with Him. The Holy Communionstrengthens you and leads you to the mountain - the place where you can stand to encounter God. To be fed with the Eucharistic food is what it means to encounter God.

Like Elijah, we must learn to take the rough and difficult path, and that is if it is what the situation demands. We must learn to starve our wayward passions; we must resolve to fast from sin and from foods and drink in order to be fed with and nourished by the Bread of Life.

A man or a woman who is not fed and nourished with Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life is a hungry person. And a hungry person is an angry person, and therefore, lacks the focus and sense of coordination which are essential for a successful life.

The Eucharistic Celebration is a mountain we climb to in our sincere effort to encounter God.

In the gospels Jesus says (Jn. 6:41-45),“I am the Living Bread which come down from heaven. Not that anybody has seen the father. It is the father who draws those who come to Jesus, through the Eucharist, to himself.

In late ‘90’s, Rev.Fr.(now Msgr.) Theo Nwalo featured an article in the Leader Newspaper (Owerri Archdiocesan Newspaper) titled“You become what you eat”. If you eat rice or garri or calories, you becomestarchy and grow as fat as aballoon; if you eat sex every day, or beer, or video, you can tell the result.

What do you feed on? Or what do you allow yourself to be fed with?

Scripture tells in Romans 13:8-10 us: “Owe nothing to anyone--except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God's law.” According to 1Peter 4:17 “Remember, it is better to suffer for doing good, if that is what God wants, than to suffer for doing wrong! .“ In 1Thess 5:8, Paul encourages us:” let us who live in the light be clearheaded, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation”. In his defense before the hostile Jews in John’s gospel 5:17, Jesus says: “My Father goes on working, so do I…” And in Chapter 9:4 of the same Gospel of John, he said: “As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work”.

Some of us are mosquitoes, that is, blood-suckers. No wonder everything about us is smelling blood - our hands, feet, clothes, office, money, etc. Some feed on left-overs by singing the praise of some corrupt politicians or making sycophantic overtures to them so that some crumbs might fall from the master’s table for the dogs to eat. Are you a dog?This is the story of Jezebel and the prophets of Baal.

An answer is given to Jezebel and all Jezebellans in 2 Cor 6:3-10, thus: “We put no stumbling block in anyone's path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.”

In John 8:39 - 44, Jesus told the accusing and hostile Jews: “If you were Abraham's children, then you would do what Abraham did. As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the works of your own father…. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies”.

Anybody can take offense when the truth is told, and can decide to begin to rake and bark like an occult Jezebel or hide under any umbrella he or she chooses. But, one thing is certainly clear: the People of God must be fed with the Bread of Life and the Gospel must be preached to a perishing and hostile world.

In Romans 1:16, Paul says the “…I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth…”

Christians are not dogs. They are instead a special breed. In 1Peter 2:6-9, Scripture says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame. Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone", and, "A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message--which is also what they were destined for. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

At the Eucharistic table, there is royal food at the royal table of a chosen nation ready for a ransomed people of a holy race.

If those who ate the nourishing diet that fell from heaven are dead, naturally, no matter what we eat, we shall die one day. The only thing that makes us alive is the Bread of Life; the tree of life to which Adam was denied access because of disobedience, but which has been given to us as God’s free gift -a cause for which Christ died on the cross, and a demonstration of theabundant and selfless love of God put at our reach in the Holy Communion which holds a promise of life here and hereafterfor all believers.

The bread that gives life - life that lasts forever - is not from Mr. Biggs or any fast food center, not the blood we suck as occult men or women, not the alcohol we have wounded ourselves with, not every day sexual obsession, not addiction to our career or to democratic dividends, but the living bread come down from heaven; the bread of the saints; the food of Angels; the pilgrim’s special delight; the super substantial bread.

While the 1^stReading impresses it upon our consciousness that no one should ever give up in life despite the hostility of our environment, the deprivations we suffer and the nakedness of the realities which confront us in life because there is the hands of providence which cast abundant rays of hope on our life, the gospel brings it to full concretization and identifies this hand of providence with the person of Jesus Christ; man’s or humanity’s greatest provision.

Food is the primary need of every human person in his/her struggles for survival. Jesus Christ established the Holy Communion and made it assume the form of food so as to help us appreciate the fact that God can always meet or encounter us at every point of our needs. The significance of the Holy Communion as bread is to impress it upon us that Jesus Christ is the most primary person, place or thing we need to survive in this life.

Father, mother, husband, wife, children, money, education, civilization, jobs, fashion, house, property, priesthood, titles – all these are very very important, but a life without Jesus is a disaster.

The Second Reading taking from St Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians 4:30-5:2 raises three important topics that are topical today.

1. Tolerance (2) Salvation (3) Love

Our dear nation is hungry for tolerance which can only obtain when we enthrone true democracy. Our nation, states, markets, and Churches can be heaven if my heart and your heart can open to our neighbor in sincerity and reach out to him/ her or to our nation in love. Our nation is hungry for salvation from poverty, diseases and violence which have invaded our country.This is possible if only the leaders of our governments and those in positions of authority can be sincere, for at least only 6 months, and render true and selfless services.

Indeed, Love is the greatest. The order should be Love, Forgiveness and Tolerance.

My dear People of God, what is important in our effort to be real to our vocation in life as Christians is Availability and Sincerity. Perfection may be desired but it is not an exclusive requirement. It is rather a goal. That I joined the priestly brotherhood is primarily a way of seeking perfection by saving and winning souls for Christ. I would not want to save 10 million souls and then loose mine. This is suicidal.

What am I saying? All these men and women in this Church, and all those who have joined the CMO, CWO and CYON are not saints and perfect men and women. They are rather men who have their many faults, weaknesses and failures. You know them more than I do. I would not be surprised that some of us here may start to invoke “Holy Ghost Thunder“upon one or two people they see in this Church especially as they proceed to the Altar to receive the Holy Communion. But then they forget that such men need salvation.

Salvation brought by Christ is for all. The Apostles wanted to call down fire and thunder, but Jesus said: “No”.Instead, he used the man in Judas to complete the all-important number 12 for the work of evangelization. But that did not prevent Judas from his personal ambition to remain the devil’s advocate despite the power of Christ’s love, Christ’spreaching and the communion Judas received from the hands of the Master himself.Anybody can celebrate the Holy Mass anywhere even if this takes place inside your bedroom. And any person can receive the Holy Communion from the hands of a Pope. But salvation is a gift God gives to a believer through faith in Christ Jesus.

The Satan in Peter did not cancel the Pope in him. But unlike Judas, he won God’s approval. The same thing could be said about James and John – the ambitious sons of Zebedee and the rest of the apostles. True faith in Christ Jesus is not, first of all, about perfection. This is its goal.

True faith is about availability and sincerity to the call of Christ anywhere you find yourself.

It will be out of place and, in fact, a misplacement of priorities for a priest to come to Church and start looking for demons to cast out. Search the whole of the bible and see that Jesus did not go about looking for devils to cast out because none stood on his way in life and none could. Nevertheless,he never allowed anyone of them to stand on his way to the accomplishment of his mission.

Many people have so many reasons why they would not join CMO. CWO, CYON, the Knighthood of St. Mulumba or St. John, or other organizations and pious societies in the Church. They see many occult men and women as belonging to these societies and infested with many demons. But they go to market and enter buses and walk along streets infested with millions of demons. The issue lies in the fact that many have not come to terms with the fact that life offers you a lot of options.

What do you want?What have you set out to achieve?What strategies have you put in place?Who feeds you?Is the answer is JESUS?

Our hearts are made for God; and nothing satisfies it and nothing can satisfy it except Jesus who is the Bread of Life: deiureet de facto.

In the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 118: 9; “It is better to trust in the Lord than to depend on man”. Again in Psalm16v 5, he says: “You Lord are all I have and you give me all I need; my future is in your hands.”

I wish to observe that today, God has different categories of children.

1. Those who claim to know God but do not know Jesus Christ.
2. Those who claim to know God and his son Jesus Christ, but do not know or have the Eucharistic Food.
3. Those who claim to have God and also have his son in the Eucharist but do not know the Power of the Holy Spirit.
4. Those who claim to have all of the above, and added to these, is the truth and beauty of Our Lady. Those in the last group are highly favored and greatly privileged; all generations shall call them BLESSED.

Like the popular MTN advertisement, I, on this edition of my Homily, bow down to you in loyalty as a Pastor in the Catholic Tradition and say to you all in this Church: ACHIEVE WHAT YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE!

But how do you go about this. Would you do it the Jezebellian way, or the way of the man of God, Elijah? Anyhow you choose to do this or go about it is your business, and of course, your decision. After all, it is a free world.

Who do you have as a father? Or, who is your father; or if you like, your godfather? Who are you working for? And who is paying you?

Whichever way, we have to understand the fact that, whether we choose to live the Jezebellan style or live like firebrand Christian Elijah, life is not just about rights and freedom only, it is also about obligations and responsibility.