6th Sunday of Eastertide Year B 2021

 

Sermon 83: 6^th. Sunday of Eastertide (B)

(Acts 10:25-26,34-35,44-48; 1^st. John 4:7-10; John 15:9-17)

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Today we have heard much about fraternal charity in our readings.  We know, of course, that Jesus said it was second only to love of God; indeed, He said that it could not be separated from love of God, for when asked:

"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"   Jesus said to him, " 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'   This is the first and great commandment.   And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself.'  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:36-40)

Why is it then, that that which is undoubtedly second, is popularly given so much emphasis that monks and nuns who dedicate their whole lives to the worship of God in solitude and seclusion are often said to be wasting their lives, which would be better spent in doing good to people?

The easiest answer is that the God we worship is Spirit, as Jesus said, and He must be worshipped in Spirit and Truth.  ‘Doing good’ to our neighbour is something much more easily appreciated, and people generally do like to appreciate themselves and be appreciated by others for the good they do.  And that is why Jesus’ words. “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” are thought by free-thinkers of a Christian persuasion to be inadequate for the level of perceptible virtue they  (!) aspire to.

There can be no doubt, however, that love of the Father was first and foremost in Jesus’ own life on earth and in His heavenly prayer for our well-being.  After all, we call the only prayer He gave us the “Our Father”, and in it we pray, first of all, to the Father, for His glory and for the coming of His Kingdom.  This is because Jesus wanted above all, to lead us into a personal relationship, in Him, with the Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit.  The second part of the prayer He gave us is for God’s family of which we are a part; emphasizing and cementing our oneness with, and appreciation of, our fellow disciples, each and every one of whom is our brother or sister in the Body of Christ and the family of God.

In today’s Gospel Jesus tells us the meaning and purpose of His whole life on earth when He says:

            I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.

Likewise, willing that our lives as His disciples should have the same meaning and purpose as His, He therefore went on to say:

By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples.  (John 15:8)

And the ultimate joy of His life and of ours too -- if we abide in Him -- will be the fact that:

If you keep My commandments you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.  (John 15:10)

Love of the Father is indeed the first and the greatest commandment.

What then is the real significance of the great emphasis given, especially in the letters and the Gospel of John, to love of neighbour?

Let us recall what John told us in his letter today:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  

It would seem that the whole purpose of John’s singular apostleship was to show that true love, Christian love, caritas, originates with, comes from, God the Father; it is, indeed, God’s very essence, and can only come into our lives as a most wonderful gift from God. And this he learnt from Jesus Who loved John so specially and Who most expressly declared what John alone tells us (15:12-14):

This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this that One lay down His life for His friends.  You are My friends if you do what I command you.           

And In our readings today John insists -- in the name of Jesus -- that one, decisive, sign of the authenticity of our love from the Father we cannot see, is His love actively leading us to love the neighbour we do see as He would have us do.

Supreme personal love for neighbour can be shown in a committed sexless relationship of Christian friendship when as Jesus said, one lays down his or her life for a friend; and also when, in a sexual context, Christians marry: willingly dedicating themselves to each other, and sacrificing themselves -- sacramentally in Jesus -- for each other’s greater good and God’s supreme glory.  This they do by directing the course of their mutual human love along the ways of God’s commandments throughout their lives as one together.  That Christian married life is indeed a school of virtue, for such love calls for patience in difficulties and suffering, and perseverance in the giving of self for the good of the beloved; it is a life characterised by humble complementarity, not proud personal assertion; it is a life of faith: human faith, in the enduring worth and beauty of the one definitely chosen as spouse, for better, for worse, till death (God’s will) do us part; and divine faith in God’s sacramental and saving grace in His unfailing love.

But the fact is, that sinful human beings know so very, very little about holiness, so too, they know very little of ourselves.  You can see evidence of this every day in the world around us: our ‘respectable’ and ‘politically correct’ society identifies love with sentimentality or emotionalism and passion, with the result that many parents actually harm their children by the ‘love’ they mistakenly show them.  Again, the majority of worldly pleasure-seekers proclaim, by the pleasures they indulge in, that love -- for them -- means the shared pleasure of any and every sexual passion, which, being separated from, and independent of, any supreme moral law inevitably brings harm, first of all, to themselves. 

Just as the origin and nature of Christian love is divine caritas -- the Father’s love for His Son in the Holy Spirit -- so too its end is divine: we are called to love our neighbour in God.  We are not thereby called to manifestations of particular human love and special liking, but we are called to sincerely care for and promote our neighbour’s well-being according to his or her real need of our personal help; to love him or her as -- not more than -- we love ourselves in accordance with the commandments of God our Father Who is the supreme lover of all.  So, while we may not have to pat those in need on the back and seek to show ourselves as their special 'buddies', we are, most certainly, never allowed to harm them by, for example, seriously tarnishing their personal reputation, stirring up hatred against their race or creed, or refusing what help we alone can afford in their great need. 

As you heard in the first reading:

The gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on us and on the Gentiles also;

He is the Spirit of Holiness, given to lead all to holiness of life and love in God.  Our supreme mission in life is to let Him lead us and form us in Jesus for the Father: in that way alone do we truly keep the commandments.  And in order that He, the Spirit of Jesus, may be able to work in us and form us for Our Father’s heavenly kingdom, let us, therefore, humbly pray, and patiently prepare, for His coming to us as God’s Gift in our reception of Holy Communion at Holy Mass where Jesus leads us in Christianity’s most sublime act of worship of and love for the Father.

 

 

 

 

 

5th Sunday of Eastertide Year B 2021

 

 5^th. Sunday of Eastertide (B)

(Acts of the Apostles 9:26-31; 1^st. Letter of St. John 3:18-24; Gospel of St. John 15: 4a 5b.

 

 

I am the true vine, and My Father is the vine grower.  Remain in Me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me.

 

Our modern post-Christian society and world still remembers Jesus with admiration, but not for His example in so far as it is an example to be followed:

           

I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.    (John 13:15)

 

Our world wants freedom of choice, freedom to be and become what each and every one of them may want to become.   They claim that they alone know the truth about themselves.

 

People today remember many of the words of Christ, but no longer accept the traditional Catholic and Christian understanding of those words Jesus originally committed to His Apostles and which the Holy Spirit of Jesus would recall to their memories for their proclamation of Jesus’ saving truth to the world.

 

Let us just glance at some of the promises Jesus made, first of all the greatest of all:

 

I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of My hand.   (John 10:28)

 

That promise would be wonderful if it were true, but modern ‘scientifically inclined’ former church-goers, or just non-believers, are not disposed by their frequent watching of star-wars and inter-galactic conflicts to believe any such tales of ‘eternal life’!

 

Again, Jesus made a once very popular promise (John 14:27):

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.

 

But once again, in our wealthy west, society itself does not want peace so much as excitement for the young, because such excitement -- seeking pleasure -- generates much money, and that bestows much power on those secret few who most want it.

And in the meanwhile, western governments are with pretended innocence deliberately seeking to change society according to idealistic plans that do not necessarily take into serious account the wishes of their people; and such ignored and disregarded desires can easily generate resistance against imposed cultures.  The hatred of persons, ‘racism’, so easily decried, is by no means always truly involved.  Nazi-ism was the result of many years deliberate, national, cultural development.

 

Ultimately, we come to the most treasured of Jesus’ promised gifts:

 

I gave them Your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. (John 17:14)

 

And most spiritual of all:

 

I have given them the glory You gave Me, so that they may be one, as We are One (John 17:22).

 

That ‘glory’ is the Most Holy Spirit of God, the Bond of Love between Father and Son, the bond of Christian Love and Obedience. 

 

Dear People of God, that is why Jesus and His Christian Faith and Catholic Church are now rejected because they embody, proclaim, and calmly demand loving obedience, humble gratitude, and great, personal and patient, expectations of God’s infinite and eternal Goodness!!

 

 

4th Sunday of Easter Year B 2021

 

 4^th. Sunday of Easter (B)

(Acts of the Apostles 4:8-12; 1^st. John 3:1-2; John 10:11-18)

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I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

In the oldest parts of the Bible the word ‘shepherd’ is bound up with the idea of nomadic life.  Nomads lived above all as shepherds, moving their flocks or herds from one pasturage to another.  The prophets of the OT always tended to look back on Israel’s early years when the people were nomads as the ideal period in her history as God’s Chosen People, because – like nomads – true seekers of God should never be settled, fixed, attached to any particular place or situation, but be always in search of God, ever listening for His voice and prepared to follow wheresoever it might lead them.

Jesus presents Himself in today’s Gospel as the true shepherd sent by His Father to lead His flock of believers on their journey through life to the rich pastures of eternal beatitude before His Father in heaven.  Let me quote a passage from H. V. Morton about shepherds in Palestine:

Everything (The shepherd’s work) is done by word of mouth – not by our principle of droving.  The sheep dog is used not to drive sheep but to protect them against thieves and wild animals.  One reason why the sheep and the shepherd are on such close terms in the Holy Land is that the sheep are kept chiefly for wool and milk, and therefore live longer and exist together as a flock for a considerable time.  Also, the shepherd spends his life with them.  He is with them from their birth onwards, day and night, for even when they are driven into a cave or sheep-fold for the night he never leaves them.

We can understand from that picture just how absolutely important and quasi-personal is the relationship between the shepherd and his flock: the sheep have to be in the flock and in tune with the shepherd in order to find food and protection, because the shepherd not only leads the flock in search of fresh pastures but he also guards it from animals which would slaughter and men who would steal.

With that, therefore, in mind we can recall the following words from the Song of Solomon (1:7):

Tell me, You Whom my heart loves, where You pasture your flock, where You give them rest at midday, lest I be found wandering after the flocks of Your companions. 

Those who love Jesus, cannot be loners, they have to be members of His flock, members of those fed by His Word and His Flesh and Blood, members of His Church:

            Tell me, O You Whom my soul loves, where do You pasture Your flock?

Jesus is the ultimate, the sublimely unique Good Shepherd, Who, as the letter to the Hebrews tells us (10:12s.):

Offered one sacrifice for sins and took His seat forever at the right hand of God; now He waits until His enemies are made His footstool. 

Knowing that He was indeed soon to leave His disciples and go back to His heavenly Father at Whose right hand He now makes constant intercession for us:

Jesus, when they had finished breakfast, said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Feed My lambs”.  He then said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My sheep.”  He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?”  Peter was distressed that He had said to him a third time, “Do you love Me?” and he said to Him, “Lord, You know everything; You know that I love You.” (Jesus) said to him, “Feed My sheep.” (John 21:15s.) 

That three-fold repetition of the same question and answer was Jesus’ SOLEMN CONFIRMATION of Peter as leader of  the Apostles and head of His Church on earth, so that there will be one flock, one Catholic and universal Church, belonging to the one Good Shepherd; under the leadership of a shepherd who is himself also a sheep, but one expressly appointed and endowed by the Risen Lord to bear the Keys of the Kingdom, one whose supreme privilege and most solemn duty it is to lead the flock in such a way that it might become God the Father’s chosen instrument to: 

            Make all His (the Lord Jesus’) enemies a footstool for His feet.

And when that will have been achieved, Peter himself, the leader chosen for that work, tells us (1 Peter 5:6):

Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.

for Peter knows himself to be shepherd of the flock only to glorify the Chief Shepherd and -- in the power of the Spirit -- to prepare a people for His coming in glory.

Why, however, are so many nominal Christians apparently content to be found where the Woman -- in the Song of Solomon -- says she could not bear to be, alone and self-satisfied; or, in her own words (1:7):

            Wandering (here and there) after the flocks of your companions? 

The answer, People of God, is: the mystery of sin; and that involves ourselves in both personal fault and public failure.  For sinners though we all are, as believers and disciples we are called into Mother Church and chosen there to form the instrument which the Father specially intends to:

            Make all His (Jesus’) enemies a footstool for His feet.

Despite that glorious vocation we are not allowing the truth of Jesus to shine clearly in and through our lives; with the result that some of those apparently content to be separated from the flock of Jesus shepherded by Peter, are not able to recognise the fullness of the truth about the Jesus because of our continuing failure to bear right witness to the truth and beauty of His Name.  For Jesus said quite unequivocally:

            Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice. (John 18:37)

Let us therefore pray most urgently, People of God, that we ourselves may be able so to listen to the voice of Our Lord that it may penetrate into and resonate ever more deeply within us, transforming our personal lives so that, His voice, His truth, may become more persuasively perceptible in our proclamation of, and daily witness to, His most Holy Name.

I am not speaking here about any dramatic endeavours, certainly no histrionics; I am not even thinking of deliberate efforts to witness -- of set purpose -- before others, certainly not of publicly arguing with anyone.   For the essence of Christian holiness is that we have to receive before we can give, we can only give what we have humbly received.  I am just, therefore, thinking of our receiving, thinking of our daily-increasing heart-felt love of Jesus, of our humble and eager obedience to His will, and our most sincere gratitude to God the Father for His great goodness to us in Mother Church… because THAT is the ‘ammunition’, so to speak, that the Spirit wants us to provide for Jesus our Lord, with which to ‘footstool His enemies’, and bring those sent to Him by His Father into  the glorious oneness of the Spirit of Holiness, guiding the Body of Christ, for glory of God and the salvation of His People.

To that end, we – His witnessing disciples -- must have ever-greater desire and ever- deeper longing to personally re-discover, hear afresh, and respond more faithfully to, the Person of Jesus abiding in the teaching and the Sacraments of Mother Church; that Jesus Who constantly seeks to communicate and share with us:

First of all, through our conscience: ‘when he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking’ (Catechism 1777).   People of God, seek to consult, learn to listen to, and try to follow, your conscience in simplicity and humility, and gradually you will come to hear and more clearly recognize, appreciate, and more lovingly obey, God thus speaking most intimately with you and to you.

Secondly, through our intimacy with the Scriptures of Mother Church, as, with Mary, we ponder them, lovingly and frequently, in our heart:

All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work; 

Jesus said, “It is written: ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God;’”      

So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but shall do My will, achieving the end for which I sent it. 

(2 Timothy 3:16-17; Matthew 4:4; Isaiah 55:11)

And, finally and most fully, the voice of Jesus the Christ our Saviour to be heard in the sacramental worship of Mother Church as she communes directly with her God and Lord, above all in the Most Holy Eucharist; and, in no small measure, through Christian fellowship in Mother Church:

Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.  (Matthew 28:20)

Whoever listens to you listens to Me. Whoever rejects you rejects Me. And whoever rejects Me rejects the One Who sent Me.” (Luke 10:16)

That great mystery of human sinfulness -- which does not only occasion, more or less unwittingly, the obstruction and/or distortion of the beauty of Jesus’ ‘Good News’, but can even  provoke and lead to the deliberate rejection of God’s great goodness and mercy contained therein -- is the reason why our blessed Lord Himself had to die: His supreme sacrifice alone could save us.   

And that brings me to a complementary aspect of our Gospel reading today:

This is why the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life in order to take it up again. 

Just recall words from our second reading:

See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are.  Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him.

It is, therefore, absolutely important for us to fix our hope on Jesus: not just for our own selves, but for the whole world.  For, as you heard, Jesus, risen from the dead said:

I have other sheep, not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd. 

Therefore, if we are indeed sheep who rightly belong to His fold, then “hearing His voice” we must recognize that His words, “I must bring them also”, mean therefore for us, “we must bring them also”.  How?   By living out to the full our ultimate and most sublime vocation by fixing our hopes on Him and allowing His most Holy Spirit to form us in His likeness, for: 

We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

That work will only approach completion to the extent that we Christians and Catholics become humble enough to allow the Spirit of Jesus to rule in and shine through our lives, that we may thus give authentic witness to Him before the many who are now in the flocks of those ‘companions’ of Jesus mentioned in the Song of Songs; the many who, indeed, have not yet come to any spiritual awareness of and responsiveness to Jesus as Lord and Saviour, and are to be found consorting -- unwittingly perhaps -- with those who do not know Him or even oppose Him.

All that demands a deeply serious, loving and committed, spirituality: a continuous walking with Jesus in all the steps we take, the decisions we make, the thoughts we entertain, and the hopes we treasure.  We, His disciples, have to learn from Jesus’ Spirit how to sacrifice ourselves with Him in Mother Church: not, generally speaking, in His sacrifice of body and blood, but, most certainly and not less importantly, in His sacrifice of loving obedience and trust in His Father’s loving Providence, His daily praise and thanksgiving, His patience and strength under trials and temptations, together with our very own humble contrition.  Note however, that all such efforts at personal sincerity and spiritual commitment to Jesus in all the nooks and crannies of our life will gain for us who make them the most wonderful blessing of the Father’s special love even here on earth:

Jesus answered and said, “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.  (John 14:23)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, to quote Peter (Acts 4:12):

There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name (than that of ‘Jesus’) under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.

Isn’t it wonderful, therefore that we, simply by whole-heatedly rejoicing at the presence of Jesus and the Father within us, can contribute so much to salvation of those who are called to become true children of God?