Monday, 20th October, 2025.
Theme: Avoid Attachment to Material Possessions
(Rom 4:20-25 ,Ps (Lk 1), Lk 12: 13-21)
Jesus in the Parable of the Rich Fool is warning us against attachment to worldly materials. Attachment to material possessions is the breeding grounds of greediness. Our hearts should be centered on God but not on material possessions and things of this world. Some of us have allowed things of this world to control our lives to the neglect of God. This was the case of the rich fool. His entire being was centered on material things. Things he will die one day and leave behind. No wonder Jesus called him a fool. Because it is only a fool who doesn’t care about his salvation but put all his hope and trust in things of this passing world. We should remember that the most important thing in this life is to gain salvation in heaven.
The fact of going to heaven should be our bother everyday. All our daily activities should be motivated by this basic Christian hope.
Jesus asked a basic question and I quote ” *What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul? ……Matt 16:26 In other words, Jesus was saying that material things can’t grant us salvation. It is a useless venture if one gains all the riches in the world but goes to hell at the end. Material things are not bad in themselves, but how we use them.
We shouldn’t behave as if all our life depends on worldly possessions. Our cars, houses, wives, husbands, friends, children, phones and whatsoever should never separate us from God. We should always be bothered about the things of God. How do I serve God better? We are to use these material things to to serve God and our neighbors. We are to use them to attain our salvation. Material things are to help us to serve God better.
Unfortunately, most of us think about worldly things and nothing else.This was the case of the one who asked Jesus to intervene in the sharing of the family properties. His bother was not about Jesus teaching him how to serve God better. Some of us even love these things more than our fellow humans. There are people if you joke with their car, phone or any property they will harm you. I mean they can kill you because of that.The only thing they care about is properties, relationships. Things which will not last forever. The love for material possessions has brought about a lot of divisions in our families and the society at large. Some people have killed their own brothers and sisters, their close and extended relatives because of material things.
Jesus is saying that we should store up our treasures in heaven not on this earth. How many of these things are we sending to our grave when we die? Just take a moment and think about it. Remember this is a passing world, therefore live a good life to prepare a place for your soul in heaven. Things of this world can’t give you salvation.
Remain in God always. Always give priority to the things of God over this world. Remember one day you will die and where will your soul be?
Jesus was also teaching the people about sharing and not to be possessive. We are hoarding things that we don’t use and we don’t need. Just be sincere with yourself, there are things you have not used for years but you are still keeping them. Please give them out to people who are in need of them. If you have a dress or a cloth and you have not used it for over six months or more then possibly you don’t need it, give it out. We are all guilty in this especially our ladies. Our rooms and houses have become more of warehouses, please let us free the places to get fresh air. Today I want you to touch the life of someone through your acts of generosity. Put a smile on the face of someone.
May the Holy Spirit help us to always choose God over the world. Amen.
Have a Blessed Week.
Shalom🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew
Tuesday, 21st October, 2025.
Theme: God’s Grace Abounds Always
(Rom 5:12,15,17-19,20-21,Ps 40, Lk 12: 35-38)
St. Paul in the first reading acknowledges the fact of the effects of sin on humanity. Sin as a virus has contaminated the entire human race. But God through the death of his Son Jesus Christ brought the antivirus, which serves as a remedy to this virus. God didn’t leave us as orphans in our sinful state. God has given us the power through Christ to overcome the power of sin. In other words, faith in Christ is the antidote to our sinful human state.
Through the disobedience of Adam sin entered the whole world, but through the obedience of Jesus Christ, grace abounds for all of us. The First Adam brought death through sin to the world but the Second Adam(Jesus) brought salvation through his death on the cross. John 3:16 summarizes the whole message for us ” For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life”.
Jesus died on the cross for you and me, so that we would be delivered from the bondage of sin. It means that when one is in Christ, sin has no power over that person. As Paul puts it ” Where sin increased, grace abounded the more”. St. Paul wants us to acknowledge the fact that the death of Jesus on the cross has given us the power and authority to overcome sin in our lives. We shouldn’t be living as babies in the faith anymore, swimming in sin and being comfortable in it. We need to mature and grow as Christian pilgrims.
We need to develop a strong will and control spirit to grow as mature Christians. This will make us to have strong conscience which will guide our thoughts and actions as believers. A weak conscience can’t overcome sin and promote good virtues. It is high time we stop using our humanness as a cover up for our continuous sinful life style. Yes God knows we are humans but he has given us the power to control these human weaknesses in us. It is time for you and I to stand and defeat the devil, who always makes us to use this as excuses always. You can stop certain sinful acts if you really want to, because you have that power in you. Stop the I am a human being mantra , and be serious with your Christian life. If not you won’t gain salvation when you die.
I am not by this saying we have stopped been human beings. Of course, we are still humans and have weak tendencies with us. St. Paul himself acknowledges this in Rom 7:14-15,and I quote ” What I don’t want to do is what I do, but what I want to do I fail to do “. This is what traditionally we call concupiscence . The strong inclination that we all have towards sin. It means that sometimes this strong inclination makes us to commit sin, contrary to what we desire to do. The grace of God abounds because, we are able to overcome these inclinations sometimes in our lives. It doesn’t mean that because his grace abounds so we can never sin again as Christians.
The bible tells us that the righteous man sins seven times a day (Pro 24:16). But the difference is that, he doesn’t stay in the sin but makes efforts through the grace of Christ to rise up. Whiles the arrogant stays in the sin and perishes. We are all making efforts to grow in holiness in this earthly pilgrimage. The levels of growth in holiness is different depending on your relationship with God. But the truth is that no human being can attain the fullness of holiness on earth here unless in heaven. The day when your life expires on this earth and you reunite with your maker, then he grants you this fullness of what we have all been yearning for.
Any Christian who claims not to be a sinner is an arrogant Christian and is sick of spiritual pride. We are all sinners before God seeking for his mercy everyday. A mature Christian acknowledges his sinfulness or his nothingness before God and seeks for his mercy everyday. Until we acknowledge this fact , we will be deceiving ourselves and others. Unfortunately, some so called pastors are deceiving people with such teachings. Please my brother or sister shine your eyes and learn about the things of God properly so that you are not deceived.
May the Holy Spirit help us to always allow the grace of God to overcome the sinful tendencies in our lives . Amen.
Have a Blessed Day.
Shalom🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew
Wednesday, 22nd October, 2025.
Theme: Be ready for the Lord at all Times
(Rom 6:12-18,Ps 124, Lk 12: 39-48)
Jesus calls on us to be preparing for his second coming at all times, because we do not know when He will come again to judge the living and the dead. He compares that day first to the manner in which a thief enters a house to rob a household. It is always unexpected, because if any individual knows when a thief will come, then we would have been prepared at all times for them. Hence, it calls for vigilance at all times.
Secondly, he compares it to a faithful or unfaithful servants. A faithful servant is always on the task given to him by his master, whiles the unfaithful one abandons his duty and engages in other unnecessary things. He only tries to remain focus when he hears of the coming of his master. But mostly they are taken unaware.
He warns us his followers who are fully aware of his message and the right thing to do, but we refuse to do it because of engagements of the world. We busy ourselves with things of the world and intentionally ignore him. There would be no mercy for us, because we have wasted all the opportunities he gave us. That is why the scripture says that judgment will begin from the house of God (1Pet. 4:17). Because much has been given to us, hence much is expected of us. We cannot disappoint God.
If we all know when we will die, then we can sin as long as we want and when our time is getting closer we change from our evil ways and gain salvation. But this is not the case. Death comes to us when we least expect, hence we need to live good lives so that one day we can enjoy eternal glory with our maker.
Unfortunately, some of us are so sleeping to the extent that we have forgotten that one day we will die and leave this world. We are living lives as people who do not believe in life after death. But experience and faith has taught us that heaven and hell are real. You are a Christian because you want to go to heaven one day, but our life styles betray us in this faith. It seems to me that we are joking with our salvation.
We need to work for our salvation, it is not received on a silver platter like the head of John the Baptist. Do not wait and meet your maker and ask for a second chance that will be too late for you. Like I know they say is the philosophy of the fools. The only time you have is now. Remember, life is too short, so remember your creator when you have breath.
May the Holy Spirit our Helper grant us the grace to live lives worthy of us as people of faith waiting for our Redeemer. Amen.
Have a blessed day.
Shalom
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew
Thursday, 23rd October, 2025.
Theme: I have not come to give peace, but division.
(Rom 6:19-23,Ps 1, Lk 12: 49-53)
Jesus in the gospel of today seems to contradict himself. This is a person whom we all proclaim as the Prince of Peace. His presence unifies rather than divide. But today he says he rather brought division in the world.
There is no contradiction at all in his message. He is only saying that because of faith in him, people would be despised by their own families. People who accept him as their personal saviour would be fought by their own kinsmen. Father’s would disown their children because the children have decided to become Christians. There is a cost in following him, because we will lose our cherished relationships.
This truly happened during the time of Jesus. There were confusions all over Judea because of him. The Pharisees and the Scribes hated him and were against anybody who believed in him. But this didn’t deter people from following him and accepting his message. This is evident in the manner in which his disciples were persecuted by the Jewish leaders. Some also believed in him but feared to make it public because of the Pharisees. Example is Nicodemus who came to him in the night.
Some people have become a thorn in the flesh of their families because they have chosen to become Christians. Some people have been disowned by their parents because they have chosen Christ. Some families don’t want to set eyes on some family members, simply because they have become Christians. I know someone whose father has decided not to take care of her again because of her faith in Jesus. In countries where Christians are the minority, it is even worst. In such places you risk even losing your lives. These are very pathetic situations. Some families which are predominantly traditional believers, when you become a Christian among them, in fact it becomes a very challenging one. But don’t give up, Jesus is with you.
The situation goes beyond just the family. Some people are hated at the work place, in the houses, and the society at large because of their faith in God. Our good lives as Christians challenge them. Our lives convict them of their wrong doings, hence you become their eternal enemies. Some people even end up attacking such people with Juju.
For some the spirit of Christ that you now possess is stronger than the spirit that they possess. Hence they have to fight you both physical and spiritual. There are people that you have done nothing to them but they just don’t like you. Sometimes it is because the spirits of both of you can’t meet.
This situation also calls for religious tolerance, the fact of religious freedom. We can’t all belong to the same religious group. We should therefore tolerate and respect religious freedom. Religious tolerance is a big sign of maturity.
May the Holy Spirit our Helper grant us the grace not to be afraid of choosing Christ because of frustrations and persecutions that we might face. Amen.
Have a blessed day.
Shalom
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew
Friday, 24th October, 2025.
Theme: Read the signs of the Time
(Rom 7:18-25,Ps 119, Lk 12: 54-59)
The people at the time of Jesus were able to interpret nature to know the happenings around them. The Pharisees and the Scribes were masters in these natural phenomena, but these same people fail to acknowledge and see him as the Messiah promised to come. They failed to see his works and associate him with the Promised Messiah. In Matthew’s version of this text, it was the Pharisees who came to Jesus to ask for a sign before they will believe in him (Mat 16:1-4). He chastised them for failing to see this.
Beloved, Jesus is encouraging us as believers to be concerned about the things happening around us and their bearing on our faith. A lot of things are happening these days which have negative repercussions on our Christian lives indirectly. Some of us have no idea how they are affecting our faith negatively. Some of us are aware but have ignored them. We need to read the signs of the times so that we can be very vigilant in life as people of faith.
The devil is using subtle or little ways to pull us away from God. These days we have a lot of programs on television which always catches our attention. These programs have ended up preventing us from going for church activities, which we used to be very committed to sometime ago. It started on a gradual note and finally we don’t have interest in the church activity anymore.
You used to be a very prayerful person, but today you can’t be proud of that again. What has happened all of a sudden? We failed to understand the tricks of the devil, which he used to weaken our prayer life. Now you can spend hours on phone and social media, but feel uncomfortable to pray for 10 minutes. Some of us have become addicted to phone to the extent that even in church we are still facebooking and WhatsApping. We have become more of social beings than religious ones. We have failed to notice the schemes of the devil against us, hence we have fallen prey to them.
Some of us have become more of funeral contractors than Christians. There is no funeral that we wouldn’t be present, but the same can’t be said of us concerning church activities. We will find all the thousand excuses not to attend the church activity.
The devil has succeeded in making our generation to continue to have weak consciences. Sin has become something normal. It is normal to have a wife and to have a side chick, the same way it is normal to be a married woman and still have a boyfriend. You would see respected people on social media even endorsing such acts. It is normal for sex before marriage. You would hear priests and pastors endorsing this act for various reasons. Is that what the bible teaches us to do? Does the bible endorse fornication and adultery? Would Jesus have taught the same thing if he was a modern man? I don’t think so, moral values are moral values. They never change no matter the age and circumstances. No wonder we have a perverse society now. The few who keep to these values become the odd ones among us. Our society now promote evil and discourage values.
As Christians we need to discern and know these happenings around us, so that we can continue to remain the conscience of our people. We can’t afford to follow the masses and perish.
May the Holy Spirit our Helper grant us the grace to discern the schemes of the devil so that we can stand by the gospel values even in the midst of this evil days. Amen.
Have a blessed day.
Shalom
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew
Saturday, 25th October, 2025.
Theme: Don’t Condemn Others
( Rom 8:1-11, Ps 24, Lk 13:1-9)
Beloved in Christ, as Christians we don’t need to parade ourselves as being righteous than others. The sickness of self-righteousness is destroying us. Most of us easily points fingers at others, declaring them as the most sinful people on this earth. This was the character of the Pharisees and the Scribes.
They classified some people as the most sinful people, whiles in actual fact they are in that category. The evil things that we do which is in secret is worst than those whom we are judging and condemning. Sometimes we are only projecting what we are on others. Stop parading your self-righteousness before others and accept that you are a sinner who needs God’s mercy.
The people who told Jesus of how Pilate killed some Galileans and mingled their blood with their sacrifices, possibly were justifying themselves and kind of trying to say that those people deserved what happened to them. One of the interpretations in biblical studies in relation to this story is that, these Galileans were of the faction of Judas Gaulonita, also called Judas of Galilee. Who disowned Caesar’s authority or challenged the Roman authority and refused to pay tribute to him. Hence, they were barbarously murdered in order to neutralize any Jewish threat to the Roman empire. Those who were telling Jesus the story were pointing out the fact that the evil that befell the Galileans was as a result of their sinful lives.
Even though the nature of those who told Jesus the story was not mentioned, but surely this was the attitude of the Pharisees and the Scribes. The holier than thou attitude. That’s why Jesus was telling them they are not better than the Galileans. Possibly the Galileans were better than them.The Pharisees didn’t accept themselves as sinners who need God’s mercy. No one is righteous before God. Our righteousness is like a filthy rag before God.
When we are talking about the sins of others we should ask ourselves, what about me? We are not better than those we broadcast as public sinners . May be your bad life has not come to light. That is why I always say we are not better than those in prison . Is just that we have not been caught.
You are also a sinner,so sit down and reflect on your life to detect the areas which you need to work on. It is only by doing this that we can mature as Christians. Jesus is not by this saying that we can’t correct people when they go wrong. Not at all. We have a duty to remain the conscience of our societies. But we have to always behave like the Tax Collector in the gospel who acknowledged his nothingness before God, but not the Pharisee. Jesus came for the sinners but not the righteous. A healthy person needs no doctor only the sick. You also need a doctor (Jesus)as a sinner to be healed.
May God help us to acknowledge our sinful nature and work on them.
Amen.
Have a Blessed Weekend.
Shalom.🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr Akakpo Matthew
God bless you immensely Fr. 🙏
Amen 🙏🏾