Fifth Sunday of Eastertide Year A 2014

Fifth Sunday of Eastertide (A)

(Acts of the Apostles 6:1-7; 1st. Letter of St. Peter 2:4-9; Gospel of St. John 14:1-12)

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With the Gospel passage we have just heard we are introduced into what might be called the ‘Holy of holies of the New Testament’.  These intimate words after the Last Supper which Jesus had so ‘eagerly desired to eat with His disciples’ contain what is, in effect, the last manifestation of His deeply sympathetic understanding of and Personal concern for those whom the Father had specially given to Him, and whom He had long cherished and come to love so dearly, before Himself being given up to death – a death He not only freely accepted but also most lovingly embraced, ‘entering willingly into His Passion’, as the second Eucharistic Prayer puts it. 

Jesus had already gathered the Apostles round Him for their Paschal meal in the course of which He told them – to His great distress and theirs – that one of them would betray Him; whereupon they were left anxiously wondering who it could be since Jesus did not publicly name Judas Iscariot.  The atmosphere in the room was depressed even tense, but Judas then went out -- apparently on a mission confided to him, but in fact into the night and for the powers of darkness -- whereupon the general sense of threat and despondency among the Apostles was lifted and they were free again to respond to Jesus’ words of exultation:

          Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. (John 13:31)

This stark transition from recent depression and foreboding to present joy and expectation affected Peter most of all, for when Jesus went on to say:  

My children, I will be with you only a little while longer. You will look for me, and as I told the Jews, ‘Where I go you cannot come’,

Peter could not accept the thought of any such limitation to his zeal for and attachment to Jesus:

          Master, why can’t I follow You?  I will lay down my life for You!

Jesus therefore had to warn him that, despite his present feelings, he would soon deny Him three times.

Jesus, however, having just intoned ‘Gloria’ to God did not want to leave His disciples in any atmosphere of depression due to their own emotional instability, and so He hastened to sustain, strengthen, and confirm them in their Gospel faith by encouraging and advising them how to attain to that peace and joy which awaited them in heaven, however much the threatening clouds might gather around them here on earth and against Himself at this decisive moment:   

   

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in Me.  In My Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 

He says the same to His Catholic people today, ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled!’  Difficulties will inevitably arise, for the devil is at work in the world, and in our own weak, sinfully-inclined hearts and minds; which, of course, also means, at work in His Church, and even, most sadly, among those specially consecrated to the glory of His Name.  Nonetheless, ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled!’ Have faith in God (He is Lord and Master of all), have faith also in Me (for I have promised to be with you in My Church until the end of time).

People of God, it is a sign of true love for Jesus (‘true love’ because it may be totally unnoticed by men) when we refuse to allow our hearts to be weighed down, our minds absorbed in or worried by, the cares of this world.  Such trials will inevitably arise in our lives at times, but if we really want to trust God, if we truly aspire to love Jesus, we must not ‘let our hearts be troubled’ in such ways; for yielding ourselves to them, under whatever guise they may present themselves to us, ultimately promotes but one thing: deeper self-solicitude and hidden self-love. 

As Jesus continued speaking to His disciples, opening His Sacred Heart to them more and more, He added:

If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to Myself, so that where I am you also may be. 

How the Apostles longed to be with Jesus!!  How gladly they had given up everything in order to be with Him in His public ministry!  And here Jesus tells all who -- together with the Apostles -- long for that supreme blessedness of ‘being with Him’, that ultimately it cannot be achieved by our own efforts; we can only be truly and fully ‘one with Him’ by His coming to us and our allowing Him to take charge of our lives. 

          I will come back again and take you to Myself.

Not that Jesus will do everything, of course, because He has come down to us that we might rise to life in Him and learn to work with Him and by His Spirit for the Father’s glory and mankind’s salvation; and so He immediately calls on them to prepare themselves:

           Where I am going you know the way.

The way, that is, already proclaimed by the Good News of the Gospel, the way along which all those who believe in God must walk towards their Father’s heavenly home.  Let the Apostles prepare themselves to start immediately with both confidence and humility, sure in the knowledge that they will ultimately reach their destination if they walk in the company of Jesus.  That is why Jesus will return: to take them with Himself along the Way which is Himself.

To make that journey with Jesus, however, we still need guidance lest we stray away from the right path, and stamina lest we fail to hold fast to the end of the road.  And so it is as the eternal light of Truth and font of Life that Jesus offers His disciples such guidance and stamina, saying:

I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

At that moment Philip came up with a question that no doubt astonished his fellow Apostles -- how could Philip have asked such a question in their name and at such a time! -- and Jesus Himself:

          Master, show us the Father and that will be enough for us!

This both astonished Jesus and it hurt Him!

Have I been with you for so long a time, and you still do not know Me, Philip?  

That question, I say, hurt Jesus because it showed that Philip was not fully content to be with Jesus; it showed that he did not, as yet, really love Jesus enough, and consequently did not truly know Him either.  Philip, wanted certainty for himself, the relative certainty of sight rather than the obscurity of faith.  He wanted to be secure, safe at the destination; not always walking ’blind’ with Jesus, having to trust Jesus totally, and all along the way.  Philip was not yet content to be with Jesus in faith; he wanted what he thought was more, what was better: to see the Father with his own eyes.   How foolish!!  What eyes could better see the Father than Jesus eyes!

It was clear-- embarrassingly clear even to his fellow Apostles and, of course, painfully clear for Jesus – that He, Jesus, was not yet, Philip’s all; there was so much of Philip not yet given to Jesus, so much of Philip still wanting for Philip!

And how many of us, likewise, want to see results and get more for ourselves! We want to see ourselves – and perhaps we want to be seen by others -- doing things for God, things that show to others and prove to ourselves how much we deserve a place in heaven, rather than trusting in the goodness of God to give freely to all who love Him more than they could desire, rather than living a life of total FAITH in Jesus: seeking to know and love Him with all our hearts and in Him the Father, to the total disregard and forgetting of self.

People of God, let us look to Jesus ever more and more, let us learn of Him, love Him, live for Him … all this by trusting Him.

St. Francis is reported (Ivan Gobry) to have said, ‘The Order and the life of Friars Minor are like a little flock that the Son of God requested of His heavenly Father saying, “Father, I would like You to form and give Me a new and humble people, different from all those that have gone before … a people that will be content to possess Me alone.”’

         

4th Sunday of Easter (Year A) 2014

4^th. Sunday of Eastertide (A)

(Acts of the Apostles 2:36-41; 1^st. Letter of St. Peter 2:20b-25; John’s Gospel 10:1-10)

In today’s Gospel passage, People of God, there is mention of shepherds and their approach to, and relationship with, their sheep; and this is of practical interest for us today since parents, teachers, political leaders, and indeed many others, can be regarded to a greater or lesser extent as included in that word ‘shepherds’. 

Jesus tells us that He Himself:

            Came so that they (the sheep of His flock) might have life.

There were many who had put themselves forward as shepherds to the people in the long course of Israel’s history and more especially in quite recent times; but they had all shown themselves, or had been shown, to be not shepherds for life and salvation but bringers of slaughter and destruction as Jesus goes on to tell us:

            All who came before Me are thieves and robbers.’

And He calls them ‘thieves and robbers – very strong language for Jesus – because:

Jesus said, ‘I am the gate of the sheepfold.’

They do not enter the sheepfold through the gate but climb over elsewhere.

Whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 

I am the gate.  Anyone who enters through Me will be safe.  He will go freely in and out and be sure of finding pasture.

The whole background of our Gospel reading is to be found in the thirty-fourth chapter of the book of the prophet Ezekiel.  There the first part is – as in our passage in today’s Gospel reading from St. John – about worthless, ruthless, shepherds who feed themselves not the sheep; who let the flock be scattered over the face of the earth to become prey for wild beasts.

Then the prophet (vv. 11-16) continues:

Thus says the Lord God: Behold I, I Myself will search for My sheep and will seek them out.  I will seek the lost, bring back the strayed, bind up the crippled, strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will watch over; I will feed them in justice.  

Therefore, when Jesus said, ‘I am the gate’, He was saying that,

I came in the name of My Father.

Those pseudo-leaders, those false shepherds whom the Jews had followed before Him had not entered through Him; that is, they had not prepared the way for,  spoken of, invoked or witnessed to, Him.  They had done all in their own names and for their own glory; 

You do not accept Me; yet if another comes in his own name, you will accept him.   (John 5:43)

Nevertheless, Jesus, was indeed the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the gate through which God was coming to shepherd His flock.  Through Jesus, the Father Himself would feed the flock, as the prophecy of Ezekiel (vv. 25ss.) foretold:

Thus says the Lord God: My flock shall know that I am the Lord; they shall know that I, the Lord their God, am with them and that they are My people, the sheep of My pasture.  

Therefore, although God’s people will still have shepherds to lead them in Jesus’ Church, nevertheless, they themselves will, in Christ, be able to recognize God and His truth directly in their hearts: 

(Jesus said:) My teaching is not My own but is from the One who sent Me.  Whoever chooses to do His will shall know whether My teaching is from God or whether I speak on My own.  Whoever speaks on his own seeks his own glory, but whoever seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is truthful and there is no wrong in Him.  (John 7: 16-19)

Notice then the great freedom of God’s flock in Christ:  ‘I am the gate.  Anyone who enters through Me’ -- that is, whosoever enters God’s sheepfold through faith in and love for, Christ – ‘will go freely in and out and be sure of finding pasture.’   The flock do indeed see, hear, and confidently follow their true shepherds going before them to some future, as yet unseen, destination; but, though still on the way, they are also at times strengthened and even thrilled to recognize God Himself -- the great theme, final destination, and ultimate reason for all that is beautiful and harmonious in their lives – with them, and even Personally present to them in the secret shrine of their own hearts and minds.

This has most important consequences for us.

First of all, the People of God, as a whole, can never be led astray by false teachers, for they are able to recognize the divine truth of Christian teaching causing peace and hope to rise up within their own God-seeking hearts; for Jesus, Head of the Church which is His Body, and the Spirit, the Father-given and Jesus-sent ‘Helper’, are inseparably with and for the Church in all her trials.

As individuals, however, we have the obligation so to live that our God-given ability to respond to divine truth is never obscured, let alone vitiated, at its source in the spontaneous appreciation of our hearts.  Sinful living, pride, indulgence, worldly cares and preoccupations can turn us aside from our Christian commitment and ideals, and gradually lead us to mistake error for truth and to follow false prophets and hirelings instead of good shepherds and even Christ Himself.

Above all, however, through positive endeavours to ‘put on Christ’ by following the teaching of God proclaimed in Mother Church in all its fullness, depth, and amplitude, we can gradually experience a clear and loving response to God’s truth in our souls; and that response can come to mean more and more to us because God has indeed most truly given us an inner divine life which, when fully developed, pulsates in rhyme and rhythm with, and positively thrills in response to, His teaching.  If, therefore, the truths of faith, the life and promises of Jesus in the Scriptures, the Christian vocation of loving obedience to God and service of our neighbour, seem cold, impersonal, and fruitless to us, then it is, perhaps, a fact that God is testing us for our greater good – as He did even with Jesus Himself – or else maybe it is a fault in our way of living the Christian life: perhaps we have been only existing, not really living in Christ: neither loving His Person sincerely nor committing ourselves sufficiently to His Providence.  Whatever be the cause of any such lassitude, we do know most certainly that He has come, as He said, for that one supreme purpose: that we might have life in all its fullness:

            I have come so that (you) may have life and have it to the full.

Therefore, as we proceed in our celebration of this Mass, the great sacrament of Jesus’ life and death for us, let us beg Him for a deeper -- oh so much deeper! -- share in His life and love so that we may truly, fully, realize and know that dwelling of God in our hearts and be enabled thereby to respond with all the love and devotion of which we are capable to His divine truth in all the myriad forms in which we can encounter it here below.  Such is the whole purpose and aim of our new life in Christ Jesus: learning to respond to and vibrate in harmony with the meaning, the purpose, and the music of God’s self-revelation in Mother Church and in creation.

3rd Sunday of Easter Year A 2014

3^rd. Sunday of Easter (A)

(Acts of the Apostles 2:14, 22-33; 1^st. Peter 1:17-21; Luke 24:13-35)

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, after His Resurrection, Jesus appeared personally in human form to certain women who had served Him in the course of His public ministry, and to the Apostles.  In today’s Gospel reading, however, we heard of His appearing to two disciples -- one named Cleopas and the other unknown to us – as they were walking to Emmaus, which archaeologists have recently discovered and literally un-earthed, and which seems to have been a wealthy village in close, Sabbath-walk, proximity to Jerusalem.  And although Jesus appeared to Cleopas and his companion in human form, He only became personally known to them in the same way that He wills to reveal Himself to us and all His disciples throughout the ages, that is, in and through the Scriptures and our celebration of the Holy Eucharist.  

Jesus appeared and said to them, "What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?" 

Their hearts and minds were filled with memories of Jesus’ public ministry -- His teaching and controversies and, perhaps above all else, His recent miraculous raising of Lazarus of Bethany from his tomb -- and they had been talking together, lovingly yet painfully, about what had so recently befallen Jesus Himself, and what sort of future His crucifixion boded for their own hopes and for the destiny of Israel.  Without Him, the bottom of their world seemed to have been knocked out, as they explained:

We were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. 

By His choice of these two men on the way to Emmaus Jesus shows us that He wills to reveal Himself only to those who seek to know and love Him and who aspire to follow Him; and it is both delightful and inspiring for us to hear how their hearts thrilled and their attention was held spellbound as Jesus -- walking beside them along the dusty road and sharing so simply in their conversation -- gradually revealed and explained to them the significance of the many references to Himself to be found in Israel’s sacred Scriptures:

They said to one another, "Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?"

Such was the solace, uplift, new-found confidence, and hope that His words inspired in them that they were most loath to lose his companionship as their own destination was now at hand:

Drawing near to the village where they were going, He indicated that He would have gone farther; but they constrained Him, saying, "Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent." 

And, because of the warmth of their charity and the obvious sincerity and depth of their gratitude, we learn that:

            He went in to stay with them.

Walking along the road together with these two down-cast supporters of His public ministry, and discussing its profound impact on Israel’s religious expectations, Jesus had already rewarded their incipient faith and hope by interpreting the Scriptures for them; and now, at their shared meal, He rewarded their fraternal charity with His Eucharistic self-revelation and gift:

He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.  Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.

They were men of faith wanting to hope in the Lord: and Jesus’ revelation of His presence in the Scriptures had already given them renewed confidence and deepened conviction.  However, they still needed the spiritual strength of a personal calling to face up to the difficulties looming ahead on their horizon, and Jesus’ Eucharistic Presence and blessing would give them that required strength of mind and peace of heart to trust and serve Him wholeheartedly no matter what those trials might turn out to be.

With that their eyes were opened and they recognized Him, but He vanished from their sight.

Before that encounter with the Risen Lord they had been leaving Jerusalem each for their own personal reasons; now, however, immediately forgetting themselves, their own interests, and perhaps also -- since it was late, dark, and lonely, on their way back to the city -- their own safety, we are told that: 

They rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together.

There, they learnt that Jesus’ meeting with them was but one of several such appearances, all of which were, it would seem, not merely for individuals but for the comforting and strengthening in faith of the whole Church; and especially was that the case with His appearing to Peter.  

Together, the whole Church, including Mary the Mother of Jesus, prayed over what had happened, and Peter came to understand something of the meaning of these, and subsequent, appearances which led him, at Pentecost, to proclaim publically and in the name of the Church:

Men of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth, Whom you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death, God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.  

As members of the Church of Christ founded on Peter the Rock, the two Emmaus disciples would thrill anew to a fresh awareness and deeper appreciation of Jesus’ presence with them -- this time on the way of life -- and to a most acute and astounding experience of the Church as the very Body of Christ, living because Jesus Himself was living and, as her Head, would be with her to the end of time.   Again, they would find in the Church that which they had heard the Lord say and seen Him do – unlock the Scriptures and share the Eucharistic Meal -- for the Lord had expressly commissioned the Apostles to do these things in memory of Himself.  Thus, feeding on the divine pastures of a land flowing with milk and honey, they would gradually learn to give constant praise to God the Father for Jesus’ enduring presence in His Church for the salvation of mankind!  For The Church is, indeed, called to continue and bring to fulfilment the mission of Christ; and it is only the full celebration of Mass -- as liturgy of the Word, and liturgy of the Eucharist, both Sacrifice and Sacrament – that can give supreme glory to God and build up the Church up to maturity as the Body of Christ living to the full by the Spirit of Christ.

At times some Catholics have flirted with the idea that the liturgical celebration of Holy Mass is really only suitable for Sundays and days of obligation and only necessary for occasionally stocking up Hosts for the coming week, flippantly asserting that all that really matters is love for Jesus expressed so simply (and easily!) by the communion of mutual self-giving with Him in our reception of the Eucharist.  That is totally irreverent and quite wrong.  At Holy Mass, the whole Jesus – glorified Lord with His Mystical Body – is called and must ever seek to give supreme glory to the Father in sublime fulfilment of the original purpose of Creation, and in that context only is mankind offered salvation, in Jesus, by the power of the Spirit; and we receive Holy Communion fruitfully only insofar as we are one in mind and heart with Jesus in His sacrificial offering to the Father. 

  

As Catholics and Christians, we must be constantly aware that Jesus’ abiding presence in, with and for, Mother Church is an expression of His love for the Father, and in fulfilment of the purpose for which He was originally sent as Man. The pouring out His Holy Spirit on mankind through the sacraments of Mother Church is done that He might form us all as living members in the One Mystical Body and as individual likenesses to and servants of Christ the Head of that Body, so that the Risen and Glorious Lord might ultimately be able to lead us all into the presence of the Father, as adopted sons and daughters in the supremely beloved and only-begotten Son, for the eternal praise and glory of the Father.  Our response to that awareness and calling constitutes, indeed, our spiritual pilgrimage on earth, and can become our deepest and most abiding foretaste of heavenly charity and joy.

Peter who, in the name of the Church, proclaimed the significance of Jesus' Resurrection and Ascension and His Gift of the Holy Spirit, also teaches us, in the second reading, the sort of response we should give to God who does such great deeds and offers such glorious promises for all who are true disciples of His Son:

If you say ‘Father’ to Him Who judges everyone impartially on the basis of what they have done, you must live in awe of Him during your time on earth.  You know well that it was nothing of passing value -- like silver or gold -- that bought your freedom from the futility of your traditional ways;  you were set free by Christ’s precious blood, blood like that of a lamb without mark or blemish.

So, People of God, rejoice in the Lord always, but always with awe; honour Mother Church and strive to receive her sacraments with both deep reverence and heartfelt love; for reverence and love, far from being irreconcilable, are absolutely necessary for true worship of God.  Without sovereign reverence there is no appreciation of, or possible love for, the all-holy God.  Pray the Holy Spirit -- the Promise of the Father and Pentecostal Gift of Jesus -- to come and rule in your mind and heart so that, under all conditions and in all situations, you may share with Jesus and Mother Church in giving constant worship, praise, glory, and honour, to God the Father, Who sent Jesus as our Saviour and now calls us -- in Him and by His Spirit -- to Himself as His own adopted and most truly loved-in-the-Beloved children.