Selection of the sermons of Father Ezekiel Oko
Look, I`m creating something new!
Dear sisters and brothers, in these difficult times we hope for something new and comforting. We wish and pray, for example, that the war in Ukraine will end, that the Corona situation will finally end and a familiar life will begin again, that the personal worries that occupy us day and night will be taken away (e.g. that maybe a disease is finally cured), that corruption in the world will be overcome, that peace and justice will prevail and be felt everywhere. The list can only get longer! Yes, we wish and pray for something new, better and comforting!
In today's reading we meet God who reveals himself to us as the hero who can fulfill these wishes in us and for us. Look, I'm creating something new, he tells us. I make a way through the sea, a path through mighty waters, I make a way through the desert and rivers through the wasteland.
Sea! mighty waters! Desert! Wasteland! The things that oppress us and our lives cannot be expressed more vividly than this: They are like seas that threaten to drown you; like the mighty waters that snatch one's footing; or like the desert and wasteland in which our life can hardly thrive. No matter how urgent and difficult these situations may be, the Lord promises us hope of deliverance and something new.
Throughout my life, I have found that situations that hit us very hard and threaten to upset us become part of our forgotten past over time. You just don't have to give up hope and trust in the Lord.
I had personal experience a few years ago with God's promise in today's first reading. That was five years ago when I was a student here in Bonn looking for an apartment. I had been looking for several months with no hope of finding one. With only a few weeks left before leaving the language school, I went to the chapel to pray. After praying through tears, I opened my Bible and saw this passage we were reading: “I will make a way through the sea. Behold, I will do something new!” The words were comforting. I left the chapel feeling that the burden had been lifted from my shoulders. I sensed that a solution to this problem was emerging. And a few days later, unplanned, I met the priest who helped me find an apartment. That was the solution.
Dear sisters and brothers, in all suffering and difficult situations of life it is comforting to remember that God is with us. He sees a future that we can't see right now. Even if we think we've lost our chance because of our failure, he sees a wonderful future that we can hardly imagine. That was exactly what Jesus was demonstrating in today's Gospel with the woman brought before him.
A woman already convicted under the law of the country. She faced death because of her sin. The people who brought her to Jesus had concluded that she should die. They had stones in their hands, ready to kill them. But Jesus not only saw the faults of this woman, her past, but also a beautiful future life that she could lead with his help. He declared her free, not because of her past, but because of this future, because of the new things that might happen in her life.
When we come to Jesus with our problems, He shows us that despite our problems, there is always hope. When we come to him with others whom we think deserve death because of their mistakes and omissions, he teaches us that they still have a chance. With him there is the possibility of transformation, the transformation of difficult situations, the transformation of the human heart. Let's come to him and listen to him.
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