Beyond External Rituals

22nd Sunday in ordinary Time, Year B, 1st September 2024, St. Michael Chaplaincy, Maitama. Homily by Archbishop I. A. Kaigama

Readings: Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8; James 1:17-18,21-22,27; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15,21-23

Beyond External Rituals

I thank God the Almighty on this 22nd Sunday of the year for granting me the grace to worship together with you members of St. Michael’s Police Chaplaincy, Maitama, Abuja, and for giving you the strength and the resources to build a befitting place of worship that we are dedicating today. I thank you the parishioners together with your chaplain, Fr. John Gbatsorun who were actively involved in the project. May God bless and reward you all, as well as the other members of the other police chaplaincies – Guardian Angels, Lugbe, Archangel Raphael, Garki; St Martin Dei-Dei; St. Valentine, Kuje; St. Stephen, City Gate and Archangels, Nyanya.

When a church is dedicated, it is consecrated to God, becoming a holy place where heaven touches earth. It therefore means you have to be mindful of the kind of activities done here. Before now, what you had was a hall, but with this dedication, it becomes a sacred space and should be treated as such, to accord it the due reverence that is required.

When we heard that criminals entered the chapel of perpetual adoration in the Police Chaplaincy, Nyanya, Abuja, on 20th August, 2024, and made away with the monstrance containing the Blessed Sacrament, we felt very bad. Prayers and Masses of atonement have been offered, and by the grace of God, the monstrance has been recovered even though badly damaged. The criminals have also been apprehended. All our parishes, chaplaincies, and pastoral areas have been urged in a circular to be extra vigilant as regards the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, to ensure that maximum security is guaranteed. Guidelines regarding Eucharistic adoration have been issued again and must be strictly adhered to.

In the communiqué issued at the end of the Second Plenary Meeting of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) in Auchi Diocese, Edo State, 22 – 30 August, the Bishops spoke about promoting and respecting the liturgy when they said:

“The Sacred Liturgy is ‘an exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ,’ ‘the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed’ and ‘the font from which all her power flows’ (Sacrosanctum Concilium, nn. 7, 10). We must always bear in mind that the liturgy is received and not invented. It must therefore be safeguarded with the utmost reverence and fidelity.

However, despite our constant directives and admonitions, we observe with deep concern, an alarming increase in aberrations during worship across the country such as unduly lengthy Eucharistic celebrations, excessive monetary collections, and the near absence of silence and decorum during Eucharistic celebrations (CBCN Communique 2016).

There is also the unfortunate incident of altering the words and elements of the Sacraments at will at the risk of invalidating the Sacraments (Can 846; Gestis Verbisque, n 22). We also observe with sadness the wrong use of the exposed Blessed Sacrament as if it were an instrument for magical and theatrical display during adorations. We equally note as abhorrent, the inappropriate manner of dressing on the part of some priests and the lay faithful during liturgical celebrations. These deviations from the norm constitute a direct affront to the sanctity of the liturgy and a scandal to many. As bishops, who have the primary responsibility of safeguarding the decorum of the sacred liturgy, we shall intensify our vigilance, in order to ensure that the liturgy is celebrated according to the approved norms of the Church. At the same time, we call on priests, our closest collaborators, to take the responsibility of celebrating the liturgy with utmost seriousness, shun arbitrariness, and not allow for a personal interpretation of the laid down norms.”

Other issues in the communique include:

The importance of the year 2024 dedicated to prayer, in preparation for the Jubilee Year of Hope 2025; the citizens suffering hunger and dehumanizing poverty while those in power live an affluent lifestyle and the nation stuck in a tight web of corruption; economic policies that seem to be in favour of those in the corridors of power and their cronies in the business sector; our nation’s huge debt burden; high electricity tariffs, high cost of petroleum products, transportation and medicare, and general lack of basic infrastructure. The Bishops also observed that our church schools and hospitals are seen by the government as private ventures instead of not-for-profit facilities that render public services to all, without exception, yet, some financial subsidies provided to public schools are denied to the children who attend our schools, contrary to the Child’s Rights Act, s.15. Also, the Bishops decried multiple taxation, unemployment and hunger. The communique concluded by stressing the need for repentance and renewal, the need for national re-orientation away from lies and dishonesty to truth and integrity.

We have 352 candidates for confirmation 6 couples for matrimony. The gospel has Jesus exhorting them and all of us to focus more on inner purity over external rituals, inner transformation – a change of heart rather than the mechanical observance of the law. The Scribes and Pharisees in the Jewish tradition were more concerned with externalities, observance of the law – washing of hands and feet, while their hearts were filled with wickedness and malice and envy and jealousy and all kinds of evil. What this legalism means is that, one might hate a brother with all his/her heart. For them, that did not matter, so long as he/she carried out the correct hand washings and observed the correct laws about cleanness. As Christians, we must not let peripheral matters take centre stage. It is better to have dirty hands and clean heart than to have dirty heart and clean hands.

St Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians 13:1-3: “I may have the gift of inspired preaching…. I may have all the faith needed to move mountains, but have no love, this does me no good.” If there is righteousness in the heart, there will be beauty in the character. If there is beauty in the character, there will be harmony in the home. If there is harmony in the home, there will be order in the nation. If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world.

The Apostle James too alerts us in his letter, to the danger of false piety. He writes to the Christians: “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (Jas 1:22).

Dear friends, we often hear that “Police is your friend” Yes, they will be your friend when you keep the law of the society. When you keep the commandments of God you can say Jesus is your friend, God is your Father and the Holy Spirit is who keeps you active and faithful. Do not therefore, add or subtract from the laws of God, but keep them to the best of your ability.

Congratulations on your wonderful achievements today: 352 confirmed, 6 couples wedded, and a new church dedicated.