Marian Year 2017 / Ordinary Time / Twenty-Seventh Week / Weekdays / Year I
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LET THE WORD OF GOD BEAR GOOD FRUIT IN YOU

by Fr. JohnBosco Ezeonwumelu · October 14, 2017

⏰Saturday of the Twenty-Seventh Week of Ordinary Time 1 (14 October 2017)

????Joel 3:12-21; Ps 97:1-2, 5-6, 11-12 (R.v.12a); Luke 11:27-28

Yesterday, the Catholic Church in Nigeria gathered in the ancient city of Benin-City for the grand finale of Marian Year celebration and the re-consecration of Nigeria to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We prayed that we may seek to do the will of God as she did and taught (cf. John 2:5). The fruit of that prepared the ground for the commendation by the woman in the crowd (cf. Luke 11:27).

To really understand the point which Luke 11:27-28 makes, we must necessarily go back to the previous pericope, Luke 11:24-26. There, Jesus said that when a demon is cast out from a man and it’s former position in the man is kept clean and free, it goes to bring more powerful demons to come and join it to possess the place.

To guard against such renewed and dangerous possession, the Word of God is immediately suggested as an antidote. And the point is not just on hearing the word, but hearing and putting it to work. What we are able to do with the word of God scares the devil from coming close to us.

Mary accepted and allowed the word of God to bear fruit in her and so was able to bear Jesus in her womb (cf. Luke 1:26-38). At the re-consecration, Archbishop Kaigama declared prophetically that Nigeria is well again and we chorused ‘Amen’. Yet, it won’t be automatic. We too must conceive Jesus and the Father by accepting and putting the word of God at work in our lives (cf. John 14:23) for a better society.

Are you therefore making any effort to make the word of God that you hear every day to bear fruit in you?

The prophet Joel goes on to encourage us to bear good fruits at all times because the Lord is coming in judgment with his sickle in his hands, where there would be a separation of the good from the bad (see Joel 4:12-21). Remember that it would be wailing for the wicked in the end.

And so, we pray that the word of God may bear good fruits in us so that we may not end like the wicked when the Lord comes in judgment. Amen.

Have a fruitful and peaceful weekend. Peace be with you.