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| Most Rev. Ignatius A.
Kaigama, Archbishop of Abuja |
Chrism Mass at Our Lady Queen of Nigeria
Pro-Cathedral, Abuja, 12th April, 2022. Homily by Most Rev. Ignatius A.
Kaigama, Archbishop of Abuja
READINGS: Is. 61: 1-3, 6, 8-9; Ps.
88(89): 21-22, 25, 27; Rev. 1: 5-8; Lk. 4: 16-21
This week marks the peak of our Lenten
observance, a period during which the Church calls us to more intense prayers,
sacrificial giving and personal discipline, and invites us to make more
deliberate efforts to be nearer to our God in purity of mind and heart. This
last week of Lent can be compared to what is for the mechanic, a time for
overhauling the engine of a car for a pending journey, for the student, a time
of intense revision for exams, for the trader, a time of reconciling accounts
before the next purchases, for the footballer, an extra time during a match,
for the priest/religious, the fervent preparations for ordination or
profession, and for every Christian, a time to urgently call on Jesus as Bartimaeus
the blind beggar (cf. Mk. 10:46-52) frantically did when Jesus was passing by.
I urge us to use this golden opportunity of the Holy Week to renew our
respective commitments to Jesus and to listen to what the Holy Spirit says to
us as a family.