COLLECT: “O GOD, WHO GLADDEN US EACH YEAR WITH THE FEAST DAY OF YOUR HANDMAID SAINT CECILIA, GRANT, WE PRAY, THAT WHAT HAS BEEN DEVOUTLY HANDED DOWN CONCERNING HER MAY OFFER US EXAMPLES TO IMITATE AND PROCLAIM THE WONDERS WORKED IN HIS SERVANTS BY CHRIST YOUR SON. WHO LIVES AND REIGNS WITH YOU IN THE UNITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, GOD, FOR EVER AND EVER. AMEN”.
1Mac 6:1-13; Ps 9:2-4,6,16,19 and Lk 20:27-40.
The Saint we celebrate today has lots of virtues we could learn from. She was a Patrician girl, born in Rome, but brought up as a Christian, with a remarkable talent in music. At her early age, she determined to remain a maiden for the love of God. She used to fast and perform all kinds of penance and charitable works. Her parents however wanted her to marry to a young patrician, Valerian by name. By divine intervention, on the eve of her wedding, Cecilia miraculously, as well as dramatically converted Valerian, the man given to her in marriage and the brother of Valerian, Tiburtius to Christianity. Valerian and Tiburtius were shortly martyred (beheaded) by Almachim, the Prefect. Cecilia had their bodies buried. She in turn, was called to repudiate her faith by the Prefect. She refused with the answer: “Do you not know that I am the bride of my Lord Jesus Christ?”. The death appointed for her was by suffocation and she remained a day and a night immersed in boiling water. She emerged unscathed and then she was struck with an axe in the head and breast. She bled for three days, praying and exhorting all who visited her; and at last inspired, singing praise to God. “Do you not know that nothing will make me so happy as to die for Christ?” (St. Cecilia).
Today’s scriptures are about resurrection. In the portion of the Book of Revelation we reflect on, with no apparent belief in an afterlife. Antiochus grieves when facing death. Yes, this is a man who believes in only the here and now, he does not believe in the hereafter and the resurrection. He has put his trust in the world and on his followers. He does not build his trust in God. Putting his trust in the world and in men, he does what pleases him and he destroys and kills at will. Today is his turn. He is now facing the consequences. The Dagaaba adage that, “The shine leg should taste and see if the knee is painful” (“Nangbanga de nye, dune biereng”). Antiochus has been killing and persecuting people. Now he is facing persecution and death, he is worried. His situation has come to fulfil Ps 146, that, “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. The Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them – the LORD, who remains faithful forever” (Ps 146:3-5).
In the Gospel, the Sadducees who deny the resurrection, life-after-death, challenge Jesus and they are silenced by Jesus’ response. Jesus in his response to the Sadducees, explains the next life, that is, life after death, to them and receives a grudging response from them: “Teacher, you have answered well”. The Sadducees did not have any apparent belief in an afterlife, in the resurrection. Thus, their question to Jesus. There are also other people who believe in the afterlife but, they have it all wrong about the nature of it. Such people believe that the afterlife or the resurrected life is a continuation of one’s earthly life, in which one may continue to be the way he/she is living here on earth. For instance, such people have the mentality that a married person will continue to live a married life in heaven, a king/chief will continue to live that way in heaven, men and women will continue to be men and women and that is why in certain parts of Africa, at burial, they want to turn men corpses to face East where the sun rises so that they can wake up early to start work, and women corpses facing West to see the sun setting so that they can hurry to the house to start the evening’s house chores, etc. We are wrong in this regard.
Similarly, in some cultures, especially in Africa, some dead bodies are dressed and treated according to the sort of life the person lived during his/her lifetime. It also explains why some people will do all they can, even if it is through the evil ways and means, to amass wealth, riches and worldly possessions, power and authority. This was what the Sadducees believed in.
The resurrected life should not be seen as an extension of this earthly life as we know it to be but, a transformed state of existence in which the Spirit has priority over the body. However, those who wish and want to experience this transformed state of new existence must work for it here on earth, through good deeds, works of mercy and charity, and a life of strong and firm faith in, and witness to the Lord, knowing that God is not a God of the dead, but of the living. This is one of the strong foundations of the Christian faith, especially Catholics. Jesus affirms that relationships in this earthly life, which are limited by time, sin and death, will be different from what we are used to here and now. It is certain, because he experienced it. Therefore, while we are still alive, let us work hard and be faithful, so as to acquire it after this life. May the Blessed Virgin Mary intercede for us. May we always make the Church’s prayer our own that; “We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come” Amen. May Saint Cecilia intercede for us. Stay blessed and happy feast to all who bear the name Cecilia.
WE MEDITATE TODAY, SATURDAY, ON THE JOYFUL MYSTERIES: ‘THE ANNUNCIATION, THE VISITATION, THE BIRTH OF JESUS, THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE AND THE FINDING OF THE CHILD JESUS IN THE TEMPLE’. (LET US PRAY FOR HUMILITY, LOVE OF NEIGHBOUR, POVERTY IN SPIRIT, OBEDIENCE AND JOY IN FINDING JESUS) “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, sinners, now and the hour of our death, Amen”.
PRAYER: “O GOD, WHO BESTOWED ON THE BLESSED CECILIA, A CROWN AMONG THE SAINTS FOR HER TWOFOLD TRIUMPH OF VIRGINITY AND MARTYRDOM, GRANT, WE PRAY, THROUGH THE POWER OF THIS SACRAMENT, THAT, BRAVELY OVERCOMING EVERY EVIL, WE MAY ATTAIN THE GLORY OF HEAVENT. THROUGH CHRIST OUR LORD. AMEN”.
Rev. Fr. Aloysius Kpiebaya, Catholic Diocese of Wa, UW/R, Ghana. (00233) 0207867239/0545462863. Email: aloybaya20@yahoo.com.
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