​Beloved in Christ,
 
As he concludes the sermon on the plain, Jesus addresses his disciples with a parable: " Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit?" (Luke 6: 39). As Jesus expands on the parable, we note that he is teaching on discipleship. Jesus often explains the demands of discipleship by expounding on the characteristics of an effective discipleship. At the end of his major sermon on the plain, Jesus offers at least three qualities he expects of his disciples, and he does this in the context of the poor examples of teachers of Judaism, the Pharisees, who have failed in their task of teaching and guiding people to God.
 
The verses of Luke 6 presented to us this Sunday indicate at least three qualities of discipleship—first, a disciple of Christ must be well-disposed interiorly, enlightened, and a reliable guide to Him. A disciple without proper formation and knowledge of the faith would only lead others to damnation. You cannot give what you do not have. You cannot pass on to others values or virtues that you, as a disciple of Jesus, are not already practicing. A well-prepared disciple must be fully committed and living the Christian values to be in a good place to lead others to faith in Christ.
 
Secondly, a disciple must cultivate a humble awareness of the state of his heart. If your interior life, the state of your heart, is not right before God, you have no moral stand to find failures in others and pass judgment on them. You cannot demand of others a moral level that you are not on. Doing this will be pretentious. Jesus calls such disciples hypocrites! In the original Greek sense of the word, a hypocrite is an actor pretending to be what he is not. In spiritual and moral life, such a person sees and calls out the splinter in others' eyes without paying attention to the beam in his own eyes. In other words, a disciple worthy of the call must learn to examine his own life first and align with God's law before criticizing others who are morally flawed. A good disciple must have a deep spiritual awareness and self-knowledge and be slow to declare faults in others. A disciple cannot be hypocritical.
 
Thirdly, a disciple must cultivate a healthy heart because our behaviors and speeches are products of what we have in our hearts- he must produce good fruits. The heart is the center of our life, where we encounter God and discover our true selves. If the heart is not properly and healthily cultivated, it will overflow into immoral behavior and uncouth speeches. As Jesus says, "From the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks (Lk 6:46). We know the quality of a tree by its fruits. A bad tree cannot produce good fruit. In like manner, exemplary actions and wholesome words come only from a disciple with an examined and holy heart.
 
Lent is three days away. It is a productive liturgical season for us to begin formation in good discipleship. It is time to examine our lives to ensure our hearts are healthy enough to yield the good fruits of saintly actions and words. On Ash Wednesday, we have several opportunities to attend mass and receive ashes to remind us of our mortal nature and call us to immortality.
 
In Christ,
 
Fr. Bernard Alayode, OP
 

​Beloved in Christ,
 
"I love you, Jesus. Please, help me to love my enemies as you love me." I found myself repeating this ejaculatory prayer in its different iterations as I knelt in meditative prayers before the Blessed Sacrament before a daily morning mass. My morning prayer that day was most likely the product of my reading and studying of Luke 6: 27-37 with Elizabeth College Catholic students the night before at our weekly Bible study. Our study of this biblical passage left a burden of ownership and personal application on my heart. How does it look like in real life to love one's enemy? Like the young man asked Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?" I asked the students and myself, "Who is my enemy"? If I can identify my enemies, known and unknown, how can I possibly love them? The practicality of Jesus' command made severe and unending incursions on my mind. This demand is at the heart of what it means to be a faithful follower of Christ, yet I know I am probably not living it to the extent Jesus expects of me. When did you last pray sincerely and perseveringly for your enemies or those who hate you? To start with, do you even pray for them?
 
When Jesus says, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you" (Lk 6:27), He calls us away from a "natural" way to a supernatural life. Just like Jesus did in the Gospel of last Sunday, turning the order of things as we know it upside down by declaring those who are at a disadvantage in society the blessed, so also in this Sunday's Gospel, Jesus is turning us away from what is generally the norm in daily human existence to a life of grace. In demanding that his followers love their enemies, that is, those who do not will their good or actively indulge in their failure, and pray for those who mistreat them, Jesus deletes the expectation of the Old Covenant and replaces it with the expectation of the New Covenant. 
 
We are no longer under the dispensation of tit for tat or an eye for an eye, a quick resort to our human base instinct of returning evil for evil. As members of the body of Christ, we are under the grace of the Holy Spirit and should be reflecting the image and likeness of our Lord and friend, Jesus. Jesus asks us to be the face of mercy and love in the world. As Christians, we have received Christ-like nature and likeness and now share in his divine life because Jesus has sealed us with the Holy Spirit. We can do all things, including the love of enemies, through Christ who strengthens us (see Phil 4:13). All things are indeed possible for those who trust in God (see Mat 19:26). 
 
We heard the message of trust in God last week; part of its implication is to rely on the grace of God to live a life of unhindered love and mercy towards all, as Jesus himself demonstrated in his own life. We must review and reorder our attitudes toward those who disagree with us or even act with evil intent toward us. As Jesus demands, we must love them as Jesus himself loved us unconditionally while we were still sinners by dying for us. Suppose we find it practically difficult or even impossible to reconcile with our enemies and win their friendship; in that case, we can offer them at least one duty of love- honest and sincere prayers for their conversion and embrace of Christ's way.
 
As we draw close to Lent, let us open ourselves to the grace of the Holy Spirit, who alone can make us capable of love for our enemies. Let us expel or expunge from our hearts sentiments and spirit of hate for those who despise us or hold opinions different from ours. The call to authentic, sacrificial, and radical love is not about what seems right to us but what Jesus calls us to do. If we are candid about the race for heaven, we must actively practice love for all, especially our enemies.
 
In Christ,
 
Fr. Bernard Alayode, OP
 

​Beloved in Christ,
 
Luke's discourse on the Beatitudes and Woes invites us to live our earthly lives with a focus on eternity. We must constantly remind ourselves that the tribulations or sufferings we experience in this life as Christians will turn into glorious existence in the next life. We will most likely experience one form of misfortune or another in our earthly lives. Luke mentioned some unpleasant human realities: poverty, hunger, sorrow, and rejection. We must bear the burden of earthly hardship with hope in the eternal reward promised by Jesus. We are not in a relationship with Christ for the primary purpose of comfort and consolation in this world; we are in Christ for a greater purpose, the reward of heaven. St. Paul's letter to Corinthians reminds us not to place our reason on only earthly good: "If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied" (1 Cor 15: 19). The sufferings and sacrifices we make in this life will yield to an eternity of joy, peace, and love. That is the promise made by Christ.
 
With the hope of heaven in mind, we cheerfully bear our daily crosses. "Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven" (Lk. 6:23). We must constantly keep this promise in mind as we endure the hardship the Lord permits to come our way. We must embrace the hope of the reward of perseverance in our sufferings on account of faithfulness to God's commandments and ways. We learn the virtues of temperance, prudence, justice, and fortitude in accepting our difficulties with a Christlike spirit. In other words, we must see the materials for sainthood in our trials and tribulations in this world on account of our Christian identity.  
 
In our poverty, we learn detachment from material comfort as we become averse to this world's vanity and excessive pleasure; this is the virtue of temperance. In our hunger, we learn to identify with the plight of those who have nothing or little and are more attuned to generous giving; this is an act of justice. In our sorrows, we acquire prudence as we see the vanity in the temporal goods and look forward to everlasting things. In bearing hatred and opposition from the world unwelcoming to our profession of faith in Jesus and his will, we practice the virtue of fortitude.
 
We must focus on the reward of the beatific vision as we endure the hardship that accompanies our faithfulness to God's will. We must not seek the easy and comfortable ways as our ends. If we do, we would only be rewarded with earthly joy, but, in the long run, would invite everlasting curses or woe. God rains down blessings and woes on us depending on our choices in this world and time. Ultimately, it is up to us to choose the eternal consequence we want. Jesus exhorts us to turn away from worldly attachment and embrace heavenly joy. If we become engrossed and attached to worldly happiness alone and forget our heavenly end, we are dangerously inviting eternal woes. We must, therefore, seek what is above, what is in the next life, the everlasting reward of God's Kingdom.
 
The call to the heavenly gaze, in the proper sense, does not include disregard for the life we live here and now. Jesus calls us to make this world, as far as possible, a foretaste of heaven. We must continue to cultivate virtues that create a more Christ-oriented world. This is why we must care for what we have and those around us. 
 
We must contribute our share to uplift our church and our parish. We remain a stewardship and tithing parish. God expects us to contribute our fair share to its development. In this vein, I once again offer genuine thanks to all of you for giving generously in material and spiritual ways to our parish. May we continue to receive the heavenly blessings from our stewardship of wealth, time, and talents to create a foretaste of heaven in this temporal world.
 
Have a blessed President's Day.
 
In Christ,
 
Fr. Bernard-Alayode, OP
 

​Beloved in Christ,
 
"Whom shall I send?" (1s. 6:8). In my presentation last Sunday on the state of the parish's financial health, I declared that we are generally healthy. Once again, I sincerely appreciate all of you; without your sacrificial and generous giving in a harsh economy, we would have significantly floundered. I brought your attention to a major area of concern: a massive drop in Sunday collection. I presented a couple of reasons to account for the reduction in contribution. One of the reasons is low attendance at mass. We noticed the trend in low attendance at mass from around the covid shutdown. I offered some suggestions to get us back on track. One of my recommendations is that we begin a mission of internal evangelization. Let us invite our friends and family members who have stopped coming to mass to return and take ownership of their parish by once again becoming active actors in the life of the parish. We must aim to invite old and new members to mass. The Lord's words to Prophet Isaiah are addressed to you here, "Whom shall I send?" Are we open to being sent on a mission to invite our absent brothers and sisters back to the pew?
 
And do not say, "I am not called to this mission." Please do not say I am unworthy or unqualified. Despite their flaws, God sent Isaiah, Paul, and Simon on a mission in our Sunday mass readings. Isaiah thought his lips were unworthy to speak God's words (Is. 6:5), Paul was a persecutor of Christians (1 Cor 15:9), and Simon acknowledged his sins, "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man" (Lk 5:9). I say to you who feel inadequate to answer God's summon to go and evangelize and bring back to mass our brothers and sisters who haven't be around in a long while, "Do not be afraid." These were the words of Jesus to Simon to encourage him to go out and become fishers of men. The Lord who summons and sends will grant the grace of fruitfulness. Let us be bold in announcing the Gospel of Christ to others (see Rom 1:16), and let us leave the effectiveness of our efforts to God. May God grant success to our efforts.
 
God's call to mission is a commission to ministry. Reaching out to invite and encourage is a ministry with diverse forms. We have a ministry just for you in the parish. Check things out. I repeat once again: God calls all to mission and evangelization. Let us "put out into deep water" in faith and be hopeful as we do so. In the Jubilee Year of Hope, we must learn to be optimistic that God will bless our initiatives. We only need to listen to God to know where he asks us to serve in the mission to build our parish. Just like he spoke to St. Francis to rebuild his church, he is beckoning us to renew and reconstruct St. Peter Catholic Church.
 
We celebrate World Marriage Day today. At the end of our Sunday masses, we consistently recognize and pray for couples on their wedding anniversary. We will continue to do so and encourage Christian marriages to endure. For all our married members, we wish you a happy union, and for those preparing for a wedding, we pray for God's grace to assist you as you take steps toward a major decision.
 
St. John Paul II designated February 11 as World Day of the Sick. This day falls on the feast of our Lady of Lourdes. We are called to pray for the sick among us and also learn to offer up our sufferings for the spiritual health of others, especially for the souls in purgatory. If anyone is very ill or going for major surgery, they should attend the mass on Tuesday to either receive the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick or prayer for healing by laying of hands in the name of Christ and His Church (Mk 6:6). Jesus wants to heal us more often than we imagine. We must continue to ask him in faith and hope for healing, and he will grant it if it is his will for the greater good of our souls.
 
God calls all of us to ministry. Let us respond to his call.
 
In His Service,
 
Fr. Bernard Alayode, OP