Monday, 22nd September, 2025.
Theme: Nothing can be hidden forever
(Ezra 1:1-6, Ps 126, Lk 8: 16-18)
Jesus is pointing out in the gospel of today that, we can’t hide anything forever. The Pharisees and the Scribes were living double lives. They pretended to be holy people, meanwhile they were doing evils secretly. People saw them to be righteous leaders, but in reality they were wolves in sheep skin. No wonder Jesus called them hypocrites, who were like white-washed tombs.
Friends in Christ, a number of us are the Pharisees and the Scribes of our time. In fact, our lives are full of hypocrisy. We pretend to be holy people in the sight of society, but in secret we are doing evils. If people should get to know the kind of things that you and I get involve in secret, some may collapse. Because they can’t imagine that we are capable of doing such evils. May be you engaged in certain bad behavior and you think that it will remain secret forever. One day your cup will be full, and it will be a huge embarrassment for you and your love ones.
Please don’t disappoint your love ones and those who trust you. Some people hold you in high esteem and believe in you so much. They can never and will never associate you with such bad deeds. For your own good image and for the sake of your fans, please repent from such behavior. Don’t think you are a smart person and can keep such secrets forever. Some people are more smart than you, but today their bad secrets are out and this has brought huge shame to them and their families and love ones. We are all culprits in this and there is no need to be pointing fingers at any body. We all have our dark secrets which we need to change from.
Again, Jesus is inviting us to live good lives. People will know us by our deeds. By our fruits, they will know where we belong. We can never pretend to be good people, whiles in reality it is not the case. If you are a good person, your good works will speak for you. Your way of life will tell the world where you belong.
May the Holy Spirit help us always not to live double lives. Amen .
Have a Blessed Week. Shalom.
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew
Memorial of St Pius of Pietrelcina( Padre Pio)
Tuesday, 23rd September, 2025.
Theme: Jesus came for Everybody
(Ezra 6:7-8,12,14-20, Ps 122, Lk 8: 19-21)
The Lord Jesus didn’t come for a particular group of people. He came for the entire humanity. Precisely why he indicated in today’s gospel that his family or his brothers and sisters are those who obey his word. The only qualification to be part of this family is the fact of accepting him as your personal savior. God’s salvation is for all.
It was this condition which qualified the Persian Kings, Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes to become instruments of God. These were not Jews, but they fought for the interest of the Jews. They supported the rebuilding of the temple with their power as kings. They acknowledged the God of the Israelites as the only true God of the universe. As a result, they used all their powers to promote him in the world. They availed themselves, and God also used them.
It doesn’t matter where you are coming from or the kind of life you have lived before, God can still use you. Just avail yourself. You can become a great instruments of God. Don’t belittle yourself or look down upon yourself. Thinking that you are nobody to become an instrument of God. You are more than qualified provided you accept his message of salvation. You don’t need to come from a recognized Christian home or a prominent family. If God was able to use pagan kings to accomplish his mission, then he can use you. We have had great people of God who were fetish priests and what have you. Some of these people are coming from typical fetish homes. But today they have become great instruments of God. They have even succeeded in converting almost their entire family.
Sometimes some of us behave like the Jews who thought that God was for them alone. Others were not qualified to be called children of God. We also think that some people don’t deserve to even be in the church. We are the only true children of God. Why because maybe we think we are holier than the others. We are living a perfect live, whiles others are very sinful people. We have even taken the place of God in our churches and societies.
May the Holy Spirit help us always not to look down upon people in his house . Amen .
Have a Blessed Day. Shalom.
Rev. Fr.Akakpo Matthew
Wednesday, 24th September, 2025.
Theme: Jesus has given us Power and Authority
(Ezra 9:5-9, Ps(Tobit 13), Lk 9:1-6)
Jesus gave power and authority to the disciples over all demons and to cure diseases. In Luke 10:19, Jesus indicates that he has given us power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by anything hurt us. Jesus didn’t say he has given us power over some of the demons, but all the demons. The disciples truly utilized this power and authority given to them in their various ministries. There were times when the unclean demons in certain people couldn’t withstand the presence of Jesus. They confessed and had to submit to the authority of Jesus.
Beloved, there is power in the name of Jesus. By the mention of that name, all knees shall bow and all tongues shall confess that Jesus is Lord. There is no name in the heavens or the earth that can withstand the power in the name of Jesus. We must come to this realization as believers and stop entertaining unnecessary fears in our lives. If you have Jesus at your side, why should you be afraid of situations or forces of darkness? Not at all.
Because of the power in us through the name of Jesus, evil spirits are afraid of us. Unfortunately, we are also afraid of them. We have undermined the power in us. That’s why they have the power to manipulate and always frighten us. Some of us are even afraid of certain people because of the powers we claim they have, even more than the God we worship. They and God or Jesus who is more powerful?
We belittle the power in us too much. Let’s prove to them that what lives in us is greater and powerful than them. We should have the edge to always rebuke these forces. In fact, let them know their level. We should let them know that they are nothing at all before Jesus. Don’t joke with the power in you. That power can move mountains.
As the disciples exercised this power to overcome the evil spirits, today I want you to also have that authority to rebuke any evil forces who have orchestrated any evil plans in your life. Don’t allow them to destroy the good things in your life, in the family, at the work place, in the church. Pray till they feel uncomfortable and have to pack their things and leave.
You and I know the mighty deeds that the disciples did through the power given to them. They delivered people from all forms of bondage of the devil. We have that power to also deliver people and ourselves from all forms of spiritual and physical bondage of the devil. You have that power, hence don’t be afraid. Don’t give up to those happenings in your life. Exercise that power now.
May the Holy Spirit give us the power and authority to overcome all forces in our lives. Amen.
Have a blessed day.
Shalom 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew
Thursday, 25th September, 2025.
Theme: The evil that men do lives after them
(Haggai 1:1-8, Ps 149, Lk 9:7-9)
In the gospel reading, we are told Herod the tetrarch became very perplexed after hearing Jesus and his mighty deeds. In fact, he thought that it was John the Baptist, who he had resurrected after beheading him. He feared that the man will use his powers to avenge his cruel death. His own evil deeds were hunting him. Even if it was John the Baptist, probably he was not thinking of avenging his death, but Herod’s guilty conscience gave him sleepless night.
Some of us are not different from Herod. Our evil deeds are hunting us always and giving us sleepless nights. We have hurt people so much who have done nothing to us. We have lied to destroy some of our family members, co-workers, church members, and so forth. All in the name of jealousy, envy, favor from authority and friends, to mention a few. You are destroying somebody because you want certain positions in the church,the work place and the society.Some people have died because of our lies and evil plans. Some people have lost their jobs because of us. We had to connive with others to create lies because we want the downfall of that person. Someone is suffering today in life because of our lies. Someone is in prison because of our lies and evil orchestrations. Some of these evil deeds can hunt us for the rest of our lives.
So far us the soul of such people is not at peace, we will not also experience peace in our lives. First of all,we need to feel sorry for such actions and forgive ourselves.Please go and apologize to such people and make sure they have forgiven you. Try and make peace with them. Our actions and inactions have caused a lot of pains to people. Ask God to touch the heart of such people to forgive you.
If you are the one been affected by such evil deeds and plans of people, I will encourage you to find a place in your heart to forgive. You are only hurting yourself more if you refuse to let go. Let them suffer their own guilty conscience whiles you walk about as a free man. You don’t know what the future holds for you, and the opportunities that the so called misfortune can bring to your life. Be positive about these circumstances in your life and God will see you through successfully.
May the Holy Spirit give us the power to always avoid the tendency of planning evils against people in our lives. Amen.
Have a blessed day.
Shalom 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr.Akakpo Matthew
Friday, 26th September,2025.
Theme: WHO IS JESUS TO YOU?
( Haggai 2:1-9, Ps 43, Lk 9:18-22)
The gospel of today provokes us to reflect on the identity of Jesus in our lives. This is something that each individual is supposed to do personally, because the identity of Jesus in our lives as Christians is different for each person. Even though there can be similarities. Whom He is to us influence our personal relationship with Him.
The gospel reading presents the interrogations Jesus had with His disciples or better still the apostles. In the first place, He wanted to know what the disciples hear the people say about Him. What impression the public have about Him as an important figure.“Who do people say the Son of Man is?” (Lk 9:18b). And the response was that some consider Him to be John the Baptist who has come back to life, others also see Him as Elijah because there was a prophecy in the Jewish scripture that Elijah will come back again (Mal 4:5). His works and public life gave this impression to some people. Others also related Him to Jeremiah one of the Major Prophets in the history of the Jews. There are theological reasons why they linked our Lord to these prophets but that is not my focus in this reflection. Those who could not link Him to any prophet just guessed that He may be one of those prophets who have come before.
One thing runs through all their submissions that He is a prophet. The question is who is a prophet to a Jew? A prophet in a simple understanding according to a Jew is a spokesperson of God, who speaks the mind of God to the people all the time. He was the mouthpiece of God and for that matter a mediator between the people and God. He was a man of integrity who always stands by the truth no matter the oppositions that he will face. All the prophets they mentioned faced serious oppositions during their time of ministry. The ordinary people even saw in Christ the spirit of a prophet who did not compromise the truth with falsehood. That was their identity of Christ in their ordinary life. This identity might be a perception for some of them but for others it might mean a lot in their lives as children of God.
But Jesus went away from hear-say and now made it personal to His disciples; what do you say that I am? It is no more what people are saying about me that you have heard but you as my disciples who have journeyed with me till this moment, what impression have you developed about me? Because He has had that personal touch with them which others have not had, Jesus was now looking for a concrete answer from them. One which is borne out of personal experience and not what people are saying. He expected them to know Him better than what the outsiders were saying. If the outsiders see him as a prophet then the disciples should see more in Him and not just a prophet. And Peter really demonstrated what He expected them to know: “You are the Christ” (Lk 9:20b). Peter proclaimed Him as the anointed one who was sent to redeemed humanity from slavery. Some translations use Messiah instead of Christ. Even though Jesus indicated that this response by Peter was a revelation to him and not by his own accord, we can also say that this is a personal conviction of Peter about Jesus. That He is not just a prophet but the Messiah who was promised by the prophets in the Old Testament to come and rescue humanity from the slavery of sin. Of course, the disciples had a deeper understanding of Him after His resurrection from the dead.
My dear friends, we need to know Jesus personally so that we can know Him better. Some of us do not have that personal touch with the Lord. We only relate with Jesus at the level of the Mass (church) and that ends it. After attending Mass (church service) there is no other personal spiritual activity that we carry out as Christians. The public spiritual activities are not enough to help us have that intimate relationship with Jesus. Unfortunately, most of us don’t devote sometime during each day to be with Jesus. We can spend hours on social media and other social things but on religious activity that will help us to grow we see it as a mountain. Our entire private time is spent on social media. Just check the hours in a day that we spend on social media, and the minutes we spend with Jesus. Most of the time Jesus doesn’t even get a second out of the twenty-four hours. How can we know him very well if we don’t spend time with him? Experience has shown that the more you spend time together as friends, the more the love between you deepens. Sometimes you feel uncomfortable when you don’t hear from the other person. This is how the relationship between us and Jesus supposed to be. The church encourages public worship but at the same time personal prayer life for spiritual growth.
To have a personal and a deeper relationship with Jesus, then we need to take our daily prayer life very seriously. Spend time to converse with your friend, the Lord of your life. Don’t joke with your daily quiet time. Read your bible everyday not forgetting the daily readings provided by the church. The more we know him, the more we discover ourselves. Because he is the source of our being, the author of our life. For us to realise his will in our lives, then we have to be in constant touch with him.
How personal is Jesus to you? For me Jesus is the reason for my existence, my friend, my helper in time of need. What about you? Do you understand when you say Jesus is my saviour, my friend, my helper and others? Who is Jesus to you?
May the Lord help us to grow more in communion with Him. Amen .
Have a Blessed Day.
Shalom.
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew
Memorial of St. Vincent de Paul
Saturday, 27th September, 2025.
Theme: God is the Protector of his People
(Zechariah 2:1-5,10-11, Ps ( Jere 31), Lk 9:43-45)
The prophet Zechariah prophesized in a post-exilic world, during the reign of Darius,the Persian King. Most of the people had returned to Jerusalem. The focus of the people was the rebuilding of the city and the temple. This was began by Cyrus and continued by his son,Darius. They gave their full support to this project, even though they weren’t Jews.The message of the prophet in the reading of today forms part of series of visions that he had. He saw a man who wanted to measure the width and length of Jerusalem. Probably with the intention of building the walls of Jerusalem. An angel of God asked the prophet to stop the man, because God himself will be a wall of fire around the city and his people. In other words, God promised to be the protector of his people, hence they didn’t need any human protection.
The people of Israel were trying to rely on their own strength to fulfill the prophecies by the prophets. The fact that God will bring them back to their own land and the city and the temple be restored. Jerusalem was in total ruins, and possibly the people didn’t see the possibility of a total restoration. Again, they thought they could do things by their own strength. It is also possible that they wanted to build a fortified wall than the former to prevent future attacks. This was done without any consideration for God as their mighty protector. These were people who had suffered a lot in the hands of their enemies, hence they were wondering whether the protective power of God could still save them.
Beloved, sometimes we behave like the Israelites or even worst than them. We want to rely on our own strength and leave God aside. A number of us have failed in life because of this attitude. Sometimes we even doubt the power of God in our lives. Our own strength will surely fail us. What power do we have to turn things around?
The protection of God is powerful than any other sources of protection. Some of us leave God and go to other sources for protection. Those sources and God, who is more powerful? The Mallam, the fetish priest, the medicine man, the fake pastors can’t give us full protection except God. If God doesn’t build the house, in vain does the builder labours, if the Lord doesn’t watch the city , in vain does the watchman watches . We can have all the security gadgets in our houses, but if God doesn’t intervene we are still not safe. You can still be killed or attacked by thieves if God doesn’t protect you. People have been attacked and killed in well protected houses.
We should know that the Lord will always keep us, as a shepherd keeps his flock. He will not let anything to harm us . Let’s continue to believe and trust him. God will not and can’t abandon us. He is faithful to his promises. We only need to obey him and follow his laws. Difficulties will come but he will always protect us from evil attacks. Don’t be afraid.
May the Holy Spirit give us the grace to always trust in the protection of God . Amen.
Have a blessed Weekend.
Shalom 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew
Never knew this, regards for letting me know.
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