Capsule for the Day

By Francis M. Afu

Capsule for the Day is a daily devotional that offers healing words in our world—a world created by God that is good but broken and wounded. Each capsule tells a story that gives voice to our own stories. It celebrates our joys and victories. It reveals the beauty lurking in our brokenness and the message in our mess.
The capsule calls us to faith and to respond to God’s gift of himself. It inspires hope. It challenges us to cooperate with God in rough times and even in the midst of evil, to be expectant, and to wait for the birth of that which at a given moment is shrouded in mystery. It summons us to keep a steady relationship with God through prayer. It reminds us that we are loved by the Father and called to love him and our neighbours.
Capsule for the Day seeks to strengthen us as we journey through life. It is a guide that enables us to navigate our way in the world to seek God, to gather around him, and to find our purpose. It asks the question, what do you live for? And day by day, it leads us to Christ in whom we find answers to our ultimate questions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Apr 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781796008364

Francis M. Afu

Francis M. Afu is a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Armidale, NSW, Australia. He is now assisting at Saint Nicholas’ Parish Tamworth, NSW, Australia. His ministry includes Tamworth Rural Referral Hospital and Tamara Private Hospital. He is the founder of Dabar Online, a Catholic Website dedicated to proclaiming the Word of God online. Fr Francis has an online ministry to people around the world. His interests include Evangelisation, Biblical Studies, reading widely, table tennis, and bush walking with parishioners. He is a great fan of Aa - a Nigerian-French singer, songwriter, and recording artist.

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Copyright © 2020 by Francis M. Afu.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 04/07/2020

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CONTENTS

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Introduction

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

To my mother, Mrs. Josephine Afu, who introduced me to the power of prayer, the truth of faith, the surprise of hope, the beauty of love, and the joy of being a Catholic.

FOREWORD

They will listen to your voice.

Exodus 3:18

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"He who has the bride is the bridegroom; The friend of the

bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the

bridegroom’s voice; therefore this joy of mine is now full."

John 3:29

In short, Capsule for the Day is about ‘I believe in God, and God believes in me.’ It is not an exercise of the Word in an academy or the magisterium or theology or in the great undivided tradition as one would do in a systematic theology treatise. It is an exercise of the Word on the ground. It seeks to work with the ‘fresh’ and the ‘real’. God is in the details.

Capsule for the Day is inspired in many ways by paragraphs 33 and 53 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

The human person: with his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite and for happiness, man questions himself about God’s existence. In all this he discerns signs of his spiritual soul. The soul, the ‘seed of eternity we bear in ourselves, irreducible to the merely material’, can have its origin only in God.

The Word of God dwelt in man and became the Son of man in order to accustom man to perceive God and to accustom God to dwell in man, according to the Father’s pleasure.

One regularly meets bishops, priests, religious, and lay faithful who are convinced that theology is of no real importance. What you need is in the documents; don’t trouble yourself with what is, at best, mere speculation. Dive into this attitude, and it can seem to say, ‘Don’t reflect on the mystery of the self-communicating God. Stop imagining. Forgo thought. Avoid discussion. It is in the documents, not in the ecclesial experience of the self-communicating God.’

This attitude is contrary to Capsule for the Day. ‘Fides ex auditu’ (‘Faith comes from hearing’), Saint Paul teaches, or as Indigenous Australians have it, ‘Dadirri’ (‘Deep, deep listening’), and ‘Dei verbum, Audiens Religiose’ (‘Fervent/spiritual/religious listening, the Church has heard’)! And she still hears—over and over again. The one true God is speaking to us—through creation, through reason, through revelation, through faithful ecclesial experience, and of course, through everyday life.

These make for the engine driving Capsule for the Day. It is not a document. It is not a treatise. It is fresh—alive in the life lived in Christ through the Spirit. It reflects and remembers and enjoys and offers some words of the one, true, and all-loving God who fills our days far more than any document.

Over four years ago, Francis Makperr Afu, a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Armidale, New South Wales, Australia, began to invite company into his daily meditations beginning usually very early in the morning as the Divine Office was prayed and the Word that speaks began to enchant the budding day.

The Google Analytics say the capsule connects! In so many countries around the world and also across the generations, the statistics say the church is not connecting too well with the iGens, Gen Y, Gen X, the ‘Nones’, and the ‘Dones’. Why does the capsule connect? Well, it is not a document to be shelved and quoted. It is an invitation to ‘theologise the day’ to make sense of the grace at work in the life of the believer and to embrace God’s offer of friendship in Jesus Christ and see with new eyes, hear with new ears, and grow hearts that long to know the Living and Loving One. The capsule often calls him the Good.

Mess is the medium for the capsule. Pristine constructs of purity and perfection deemed theological have no track with the capsule. It is about the mess, and as Bishop Robert Barron said, ‘Instead, in his passion to re-establish the beauty of creation, God came down into the mess of sin and death, brought us, the diamonds up, and then polished us off.’¹

Yes, the capsule seeks to open us up to the God of today, who lets us see the beauty of yesterday and the possibility of tomorrow. If Capsule for the Day needed a motto or to be captured in a tweet, it would probably be, ‘The Word became flesh and lives among us …’ The capsule is not for argumentation, analytical discussion, judgemental pronouncement, or theological opine. It is meant to be enjoyed, and sometimes deeply so.

Richard Gordon Gleeson

Parish priest of Saint Patrick Parish

Glen Innes, New South Wales, Australia

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Capsule for the Day is the work of many hands. It is the fruit of my daily encounter with the Lord. I am grateful to God for the inspiration and the grace of perseverance in writing this book. I am also thankful to Pope Francis, who, in the 2016 World Youth Day, challenged me with these words, ‘Today, Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life, is calling you to leave your mark on history. Are you up to this?’ Capsule for the Day is my yes to this challenge.

I thank my bishop, Most Rev. Michael Kennedy, for his pastoral guidance that enabled me to gain the experience that forms the content of this work. I acknowledge and appreciate the support and encouragement given to me by Fr Richard Gleeson.

I thank parishioners of Saints Mary and Joseph Cathedral, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia. My time with them was very revealing. It helped me to appreciate the greatness of God, the beauty of humanity, the reality of brokenness, the message in every mess, and the joy of being God’s children. These experiences form the content of this work. I also thank the parishioners of Saint Nicholas Parish, Tamworth, New South Wales, Australia, for their unwavering support that enabled me to bring this work to fruition.

I acknowledge and thank all the authors whose work I quoted in Capsule for the Day. Their insights confirm my musings and lend credibility to my thoughts. I acknowledge in a special way the contribution of Bishop Robert Barron, whose presence in the print and digital media has always been an inspiration. I have been motivated by his consistency in evangelising the post-God culture and calling us to account for our primary vocation of being God’s image bearers.

I thank Bernadette Virgen for the hours she put in to proofread this work. She made me understand that Capsule for the Day is worth the trouble. I also thank all those who have always called on me to publish Capsule for the Day in a book form.

I thank all who have been following Capsule for the Day in different platforms over the past years. I acknowledge your comments, and I appreciate the words of encouragement you gave me. I also acknowledge and thank many whose names are not mentioned here but who have supported me over the years to publish this work. I thank all the staff of Xlibris who are responsible for the publication of this work.

INTRODUCTION

Capsule for the Day is a daily devotional that offers healing words in our world—a world created by God that is good but broken and wounded. Each capsule tells a story that gives voice to our own stories. It celebrates our joys and victories. It reveals the beauty lurking in our brokenness and the message in our mess.

The capsule calls us to faith and to respond to God’s gift of himself. It inspires hope. It challenges us to cooperate with God in rough times and even in the midst of evil, to be expectant, and to wait for the birth of that which at a given moment is shrouded in mystery. It summons us to keep a steady relationship with God through prayer. It reminds us that we are loved by the Father and called to love him and our neighbours.

Capsule for the Day seeks to strengthen us as we journey through life. It is a guide that enables us to navigate our way in the world to seek God, to gather around him, and to find our purpose. It asks the question, what do you live for? And day by day, it leads us to Christ in whom we find answers to our ultimate questions.

In many ways, Capsule for the Day provides us nourishment to live the life God intends. It calls us to worship: to bow before God, to pour out our hearts to him, and to listen to him. It summons us to change our hearts and minds and experience the consequent change of lifestyle. And it empowers us to sustain the new life that emerges from this change. It is one prescription that we cannot overdose.

The best way to take Capsule for the Day is to pray with it. Read a capsule a day. Meditate upon it. Let it serve as a mirror in which we confront ourselves, find inspiration, and form the content of our prayer. And may the Holy Spirit, who leads us to all truth, lead you through Capsule for the Day to the beautiful, the good, and the truth—Jesus the Christ.

Remember to take your dose!

JANUARY

It makes a world of difference when God is part of our planning. He opens our eyes to see deeper reality and to appreciate what ordinarily we would have taken for granted.

Francis M. Afu

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Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.

Proverbs 16:3

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JANUARY,

The first month of the year,

A perfect time to start all over again,

Changing energies and deserting old moods,

New beginnings, new attitudes.

Charmaine J. Forde

1. A New Year’s Message

Pray your way through

the year. And remember,

the more you pray, the

less you worry and the

happier you become.

Happy New Year to you and your family. The clock is ticking. Before you can say Jack Robinson, it will be February. And not too long from now, you will be saying goodbye to this year. So true! But don’t let the clock run your life. You can’t keep pace with it. Be calm. Let the clock tick. That is what it does. Live. Live your life to the full. Don’t be afraid. Pursue your dreams.

As you live, remember you shall die. It is scary, isn’t it? But it is the best lesson in life. Living with the consciousness that you shall die will help you to prioritise your time and values. It will help you to focus on what really matters and let go of the distractions. It will get you out of bed each day and enable you to seize the moment: to live and not to waste away time worrying.

Finally, you can’t live alone. You need God. You need others. You have to trust someone. No doubt, the world is full of broken people, but there is someone who truly loves you, someone who cares about you. Ask God to reveal that person to you. Pray. Pray your way through the year. And remember, the more you pray, the less you worry and the happier you become. Pray!

2. Who Am I?

Who am I? is a soul

searching question. It

is a question we should

ask ourselves at the

beginning of each year.

Who am I? is a soul-searching question. It is a question we should ask ourselves at the beginning of each year. Knowing who you truly are sets you free from the temptation of living a false life or of comparing yourselves with others. It makes you comfortable in your own skin and open to accept others as they are. It gives you confidence. It enables you to trust and hope.

When John the Baptist in John 1:19–28 was asked the question ‘Who are you?’ notice how he began by declaring publicly who he was not. This is the wisdom that flows from self-knowledge and grace. And he then revealed himself as ‘a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way.’ He didn’t pretend to be who he was not. He simply accepted himself.

This made him free. For there was no man on earth who was as free as John the Baptist. This freedom was the fruit of grace-inspired self-knowledge. He was free of envy and pride. He was free of the slavery to wealth and power. He was free from these vices in order to be free for Christ; to live and to actualise himself. This freedom is on offer right now. You can claim it.

3. Give Us This Day

We must ask for what we

need, not just to go through

the year but to live every

moment to the full and

to live with a vision, a

purpose, and a mission.

Beginning the year with God, with the Lord’s Prayer—‘Give us this day our daily bread’—is the best way to start a new year. Bread is the symbol of the necessity of life; we must ask for what we need, not just to go through the year but to live every moment to the full and to live with a vision, a purpose, and a mission. Ask for God’s blessings.

With ‘Give us this day our daily bread,’ two things come to mind. First, the bread—the necessity of life—is for ‘us’. That is, what we are given isn’t for our self-aggrandisement. Notice Jesus didn’t teach ‘Give me’ this day, which would have left us with an individualistic meaning, but he said ‘Give us’, which reveals we are meant to live for God, others, and self.

Second, it is ‘this day … our daily’—rich, symbolic language of living one day at a time. We can’t figure out the whole year. We can’t dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s for the year at once. We have to do it day by day, for enough for the day is the trouble therein. Living each day is the wisdom. And the Lord has asked us to live that way.

4. New Year’s Resolution

Whatever the motive,

our resolutions should be

made on our knees. They

should be made in prayer.

It is very common to begin the year with resolutions. ‘I resolve to …’ But the problem for many of us is that we make too many resolutions, and we end up not keeping any of them. Perhaps this year, we may resolve not to make new resolutions. Or we can resolve to make just one resolution. We can simply resolve to let God be the Lord of our lives.

The wisdom isn’t how many resolutions we can make but how honest and resolved we are about our resolutions. We shouldn’t make resolutions for resolutions’ sake. We should make resolutions because we want to grow and to be better and because God is asking something of us—change. He is summoning us for greatness.

Whatever the motive, our resolutions should be made on our knees. They should be made in prayer. They should come from the heart, and they should be clear, honest, and doable. And we have to keep bringing our resolutions to the Lord. We can’t overemphasise the place of prayer in making and keeping New Year’s resolutions.

5. Don’t Just Plan

Now the truth is this: we

get a lot done when we

pray about our plans.

The new year race has begun. There is no doubt our to-do list is getting crowded. The pressure is building up. It is taking a lot to plan and to strategise. But it is not enough to plan. We have to pray; we have to act on the plan. Corrie ten Boom said, ‘The devil smiles when we make plans. He laughs when we get too busy. But he trembles when we pray.’

There is a lot of wisdom in ten Boom’s statement. So much happens as we get into the year. And the temptation to give up prayer to focus on getting the job done becomes stronger. At some point, we may even begin to feel it is a waste of time to pray. However, we shouldn’t forget that the devil laughs when we get too busy to pray, to seek God’s help.

Pope John XXIII, when he became pope, decided to pray more than when he was a priest. When he was asked why, he said, ‘As a pope, I have noticed I am too busy to pray, so I have to pray more.’ Now the truth is this: we get a lot done when we pray about our plans. Proverbs 16:3 said, ‘Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.’

6. We Are Part of the Plan

It means we are part of

God’s plan. We are insiders.

We belong to God’s family.

Epiphany! The manifestation of God in Christ Jesus! The revelation of Christ to pagans, fierce enemies of the Jews! But God still loved the pagans even to the point of revealing his Son to them. Epiphany, the breaking of barriers, the bringing together and reconciliation of the ‘legitimate’ and the ‘illegitimate’ children of God. Thus, salvation isn’t just for some. It is for all.

Saint Paul, in Ephesians 3:5–6, is very strong on this universal and inclusive dimension of salvation: ‘It means that pagans now share the same inheritance, that they are parts of the same body, and that the same promise has been made to them, in Jesus Christ, through the gospel.’ It means we are part of God’s plan. We are insiders. We belong to God’s family.

Through the gospel is a powerful phrase. It is a phrase that speaks of the good narrative—a narrative that contradicts the bad news we hear daily and a narrative that takes away our fear, sets us on a journey to Christ, and opens our hearts to offer our very selves in worship. It is a narrative of light—light that dispels our darkness of sin and ignorance and reveals our place in God’s plan.

7. Starting Small

Thus, greatness is the fruit of

our fidelity and consistency

with the little things of life.

The new year comes with its own rush. There are targets to be met and goals to be achieved. There is the drive to make it. But the approach is often to start big or to begin from the top. We shy away from the humbling approach of having small beginnings, doing the hard work, digging deep and wide, and so on. We want the fame but not the humble path to it.

To achieve our goals, we can’t ignore the wisdom of small beginnings, for the strength of a building is not the roof but the foundation. To start small and to dig deep is to lay a solid foundation. Many great men and women who have made history started small, with little or nothing. They started by digging down before building up.

Even the scriptures warn us not to despise the days of little beginnings because they carry in them the wealth of the great future. Besides, ‘a little thing is a little thing, but faithfulness in little things is a big thing.’ Thus, greatness is the fruit of our fidelity and consistency with the little things of life. So appreciate your humble beginning.

8. The God of Surprises

But he doesn’t just surprise

us; he leaves us in wonder.

He sets us on a journey.

He accompanies us, and

he sees to our future.

Thomas Merton captured the attention of his readers when he described God as the God of surprises. With God, there is always a surprise. For example, when we feel it’s all over, he surprises us with a fresh start. But he doesn’t just surprise us; he leaves us in wonder. He sets us on a journey. He accompanies us, and he sees to our future.

It’s a journey that is symbolised by the magi in Matthew 2. The star was unusual and unexpected. It was a surprise. But they didn’t fall into the temptation of closing their minds and hearts to the surprise. They allowed themselves to be fascinated and led on the journey, a journey that brought them to Christ, a journey that opened their eyes to God’s greatness.

Observe the details: the magi saw the star; they followed the star, and when they got stuck on the way, they enquired. They found the child, they gave him gifts, they worshipped him, and they went back on another route. These details are meant to guide us in our response to God’s surprises. Like the magi, we never remain the same after our encounter with God’s surprises.

9. He Doesn’t Just Surprise

Thus, worship isn’t

just about giving God

his due, but it is also

allowing ourselves to be

transformed by God.

The journey of the magi tells the story of our individual journey to Christ. There is the initial encounter with God and his surprises. Each surprise always captures our imagination and leaves us restless. Like the magi, it sets us on a journey to find the Christ who has already found us and who is with us: in our beauty and in our mess.

And it’s amazing what happens from the moment of our initial encounter to the time we find Christ. Too often, the journey itself is at once challenging and rewarding. However, nothing can be compared to the joy of finding Christ. We find him not where we expect to see him but where he chooses to be found, and often, it is in the mess of life—a mystery!

In the story from Matthew 2:1–12, you might have noticed the magi knelt in worship when they found Christ. This was the moment of conversion, when they surrendered their ways to God’s way. And that changed the way they lived. Thus, worship isn’t just about giving God his due, but it is also allowing ourselves to be transformed by God.

10. Three Witnesses

And from earth, we reach

out to God, who had

already reached out to us.

And we are raised and set

free to live as his children.

‘There are three witnesses: The Spirit, the Water and the Blood, and all three of them agree’ (John 5:8). They witness to Christ becoming our brother. Thus, the Spirit empowers us to call God Abba, Father. Knowing we are sons and daughters of the Father and living as his children weans us away from our ego and the sin of idolatry.

The water washes away our pride and our independence of God, our Father; makes us members of God’s family; and gives us a new life in Christ. In other words, the water brings us to earth, humus, where we truly belong. And from earth, we reach out to God, who had already reached out to us. And we are raised and set free to live as his children.

The blood, life, weans us away from our false self and self-centredness; draws us out of ourselves; and makes it possible for us to live for others. The cross, from where life is given up, becomes the way to gain the new life in Christ. Thus, the blood is a witness to how the Son of God lived and calls on each of us to live a life of self-giving.

11. Trust Again

You can’t expect to find

trust when you are still

holding back from trusting.

Trust is big stuff. It is big especially in our time, when there is so much brokenness and betrayal. People are bleeding from wounds of abuse of trust. It is so sad hearing stories of betrayals. To find someone you can trust and depend on makes a world of difference. It makes life easier and makes you feel secure and at home. The crux is, trust is healthy.

But the difficulty is to learn how to trust again and to let go of your past hurts. As the saying goes, ‘Once bitten, twice shy.’ Thus, it is only natural to protect yourselves from abuse, from betrayal, and from being exposed to those who took advantage of you. Besides, self-preservation is our basic instinct.

However, it is also a mark of maturity on your part to let go of past hurts and give others a second chance. The truth of the matter is, not everybody will abuse your trust. There are still many good and honest people out there. But you have to trust in order to find them. You can’t expect to find trust when you are still holding back from