6th. Sunday of Easter (C)
(Acts 15:1-2, 22-29; Rev. 21:10-14, 22-23; John 14:23-29)
Today, dear People of God, let us give careful attention to
Our Lord’s words:
Whoever loves Me will keep My
word;
for they will help us deal with certain difficulties easily
arising from experiences in modern society which can, at times, serve to weaken
the confidence and lessen the commitment of some Catholics and Christians.
Sometimes, for example, well-intentioned but fragile believers
are puzzled by friends and well-known individuals who do not practice any
religion and yet consider themselves to be good-living people, and might,
indeed, seem to be accepted as such by others who say that it is not necessary to
go to Church in order to live a good life.
Such experiences can generate vague feelings of insecurity, sow tiny
seeds of anxiety and doubt, in remote corners of the hearts and minds of some
believers; and should they, subsequently, encounter others who are positively
antagonistic towards religion and scornfully refer to the faithful as
"church-goers", deriding them with words such as “hypocrites"
and other like terms of disdain or even contempt, then, they can find
themselves deprived of a measure of that peace, joy, and confidence which
should normally accompany their practice of the faith.
Of course, upset and doubts of that nature arise partly
because such believers are perhaps too easily impressed by appearances and
popular opinions. Moreover, it is not
infrequently the case that, despite their devotion, these same believers are not
sufficiently alive to the implications of their faith, with the result that
they have too few personal, solid, convictions and are always catching up, so
to speak, with what others are thinking.
In that way they are easily led to accept the world's criteria: taking
on, and being influenced by, political correctness and popular trends of
thought concerning, for example, what is acceptable speech, and, above all,
what are socially approved and correct opinions and behaviour.
Now, all disciples of Jesus, can and should have sure faith
and calm confidence in His teaching in
Mother Church; and that faith and confidence should, in turn, lead them to the clear
awareness and firm conviction that only those approved by God, who love Jesus
and obey His teaching, will be finally found truly good. For
they become such, not by safely following and hiding behind popular
opinion, nor by striking out and winning worldly acclaim for themselves, but by
the gift of God’s grace leading them, first of all, to recognize and love the
Person of Jesus, and subsequently forming them into His likeness through
heart-felt obedience to, and if necessary, suffering for His teaching.
Yet, how can those others, who don't acknowledge God or
profess any faith, still seem be so nice, so pleasant, and sometimes so good?
In order to understand this apparent dilemma we must
remember the words of our Lord and Master, Who tells us:
Whoever does not love me does not
keep My words; yet the word you hear is not Mine but that of the Father who
sent Me.
To our eyes, these unbelievers do not appear to love evil; and
if we have friends among them, we may be inclined to say that they want what
seems to be good, or even, sometimes, find ourselves thinking them far better
than us. However, those who do not accept Jesus' teaching do not love Him, and
cannot love the Father, and consequently may be far different from what appears
to our earthly eyes:
The Lord does not see as man
sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
(1 Samuel 16:7)
You justify yourselves in the
sight of others, but God knows your hearts; for that which is of human esteem
is an abomination in the sight of God.
(Luke 16:15)
Ultimately, when confronted with Jesus and His Truth, the
Truth He received from the Father Who is God and Lord of all creation, they -- as
disbelievers -- prefer themselves and their own thoughts. They love themselves to such an extent that
they are not only content, but even prefer, to follow their own idea of a good
life rather than embrace Jesus' teaching.
Indeed, they can have such a low idea of God that they imagine themselves
to be in no need whatsoever of a Saviour, considering themselves ready to meet
God -- if indeed He does exist -- standing up proudly in His presence, head
held high and face to face! Yes, they
are proud: not, indeed, manifestly before us in their observable behaviour, but
before God in the hidden depths of their heart’s desires, and in the secret
recesses of their minds and the hidden folds of their purposes, where they can
be subject to pride in its most insidious and deadly form. Murderers and rapists, thieves and muggers
can, relatively easily, be brought to see the evil of their ways, because such
actions are patently much more ugly and inexcusable; but how difficult is it
for non-religious people who see themselves as nice and good-living to accept
and appreciate that they are in any need of a Saviour before God!
Nevertheless, on the
human level the fact still remains, and we can still at times wonder, how
irreligious people and indeed, sometimes, openly evil people, can nevertheless,
seem to be both charming and attractive.
For the answer to this, we must continue to ponder Our
Lord's words, for we have much more to learn from Him that may seem strange to
us if our patterns of thought have been over-influenced and formed by commonly
held opinions rather than Christian teaching.
Whoever loves Me will keep My
word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our dwelling
with him.
Notice that pronoun "My". Today, people are very familiar with the
supreme Christian prayer, taught by Jesus Himself, which goes: "Our
Father, who art in heaven..." Many
call that prayer the "Our Father", but that is not accurate enough,
it should be called "The Lord's Prayer" because it was a prayer given
by Jesus to His disciples, not to
anyone and everyone. God does indeed
love all His creation because He created it; and mankind, the culmination of
His creation is especially loved by God: they alone are made in His likeness. Now, it is just there that we come across the
reason why we can, at times, find some non-religious people so puzzlingly
attractive: it is because we are still able to see in them aspects of the rich
endowment and subtle beauty of God’s crowning creation; and, indeed, the closer
we ourselves are drawn to God, the more such people can move us, at times, to gratefully
and lovingly appreciate what is; but also, alas, to sorrowfully regret what
might well, indeed should, have been.
Of those disciples who learn to love and obey His teaching,
we are told that Jesus said,
My Father will love them.
Now, the Father loves such disciples because of their love
for His only begotten, well-beloved Son, He loves them for Jesus’ sake, as His
children in Jesus. And because of Jesus, the Father endows such
disciples with a new and supernatural creation-beauty: a beauty given them as
members of the Body of the Risen Christ sharing, even here on earth, in
something of His Resurrection beauty and glory.
Now, there is a world of difference between God's love for creation,
between God’s love for mankind as the crown and culmination of natural
creation, and the Father's love for His supernatural children,
born of the Spirit, in Jesus,
His only begotten and uniquely beloved Son.
People of God: we can only hope to experience God in this new
way, as our heavenly Father, if we prove our love for Jesus by
obeying Him. Such an experience is not
something we can grasp or achieve for ourselves, nor is it automatically given,
so to speak, to all signed-up members of Jesus’ group; it is a personal gift
from God the Father of Jesus, and it is given -- as He wills -- to those whose
love and obedience binds them, by the Spirit, to an ever deeper longing and
searching for Jesus. Listen again to Our
Lord's words:
Whoever loves Me will keep My
word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our
dwelling with him.
The one who lovingly obeys Jesus, Jesus' Father will love;
and not only will Jesus' Father love him, but both He and Jesus will:
Come to him and make Our dwelling
with him.
My dear people, our God is not cheap. His love is the supreme treasure of
our lives, our greatest blessing and God’s most gracious Gift; for when the Father
and Son come to us, they bring also with them the Holy Spirit to be our very
own Advocate, Counsellor, and Guide:
The Advocate, the Holy Spirit,
whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you everything and will remind
you of all that I told you.
When He, the Spirit of Jesus, is present as divine Gift in
our lives, guiding, comforting, strengthening, delighting, and inspiring us for
Jesus' sake, then, indeed, we can begin to truly experience the presence
of God as the heavenly Father's love, as Jesus' companionship, and as the
Spirit's own comfort and strength, peace and joy.
Finally, Jesus goes on to say with clear authority, what I
have been trying to explain earlier, namely, that His ways are not like the
ways of this world:
Not as the world gives do I give
peace to you.
St. Paul, too, made this abundantly clear to his converts in
Corinth:
The wisdom of this world is
foolishness in God's sight. (1 Cor. 3:19)
As you heard in the first reading, the Christians at
Antioch were troubled when they allowed the teaching of unauthorized preachers
to influence them in their practice of the faith:
We (the Apostles and elders in
Jerusalem) have heard that some of our number who went out without any mandate
from us have upset you with their teachings, and disturbed your peace of mind.
That was, and still is, quite wrong, because it is the last
thing Jesus wants for His disciples:
Peace I leave with you; my peace
I give to you. Not as the world gives do
I give it to you. Do not let your
hearts be troubled or afraid.
In order to experience the Easter fulfilment which Jesus
has won for us, we have to allow the love of the Father, the teaching of Jesus,
and the guidance and comfort of the Holy Spirit, to enlighten and to rule our
whole life, as we heard in the second reading today:
The (holy) city had no need of
sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gave it light, and its lamp
was the Lamb.
People of God, you are called, destined, to be citizens of
God’s heavenly kingdom, do not therefore, like Lot’s wife, look over-much at
the world around you, the world you are leaving behind, but, as one hymn puts
it, "Walk, walk, in the light of the Lord" and, indeed, do your very
best to walk ever forward with a firm step, a steadfast heart, and in the
spirit of pure Easter joy.
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