5th Sunsay of Easter Year C 2016

5^th. Sunday of Easter (C)

(Acts 14:21-27; Rev. 21:1-5; John 13:31-35)

I, John, saw a new Jerusalem, God’s dwelling with His people as their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  The One who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.”

            I give you a new commandment, says the Lord: love one another as I have loved you.

God's work of making all things new began with Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, Son of God and Son of Man. The Son shared with His Father and the Holy Spirit in the original creation when God made all things through the Son in the Spirit; that is why -- now that all things are in the process of being made new – the Son Incarnate, Jesus of Nazareth, having been crucified and raised from the dead in the power of the Spirit, appeared to His Apostles locked in the Upper Room for fear of the Jews and breathed His Spirit on them.   His breathing upon them was precisely the sign of a new creation being made. Just as God had breathed on the original creation:

The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being (Genesis 2:7),

so Jesus, appearing in the midst of His disciples and having shown them the wounds in His hands and His side, said to them:

Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you."  And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.” (John 20:19-22)

God is making all things new, and Jesus, the Risen Lord, shares in His Father’s work by breathing the Holy Spirit upon His Apostles, thereby making them into the nucleus of that new creation where sin is to be overthrown by the cleansing and empowering presence of God's Holy Spirit.  A new creation indeed: the Family of God, Mother Church, work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, where God bestows new life in Jesus and where Jesus calls upon all members -- of Himself and of God’s family -- to love one another by the Spirit He bestows on them, as He, Jesus, loved those to whom His Father had sent Him on His earthly mission.

LIFE and LOVE!  That is what Christianity is all about!

What is LIFE all about in our modern world and society however?  Governments of all kinds prescribe life-styles for their countrymen or those under their power.   Even … I was actually going to write, ‘even Christian governments’ … but then I thought, are there any Christian governments?   Certainly not in England, America, Europe etc. …  Those governments of what used to call themselves Christian countries now proclaim and impose nothing better than their own up-to-date version of officially approved, politically correct ‘ethical’ living, smattered here and there with vestiges or memorials of what was formerly Christian practice … speaking, for example, of marriage where husband and wife can now be two elderly men, and of family where un-natural children (un-natural – not of themselves indeed – but for such a union) are bestowed with government blessing upon ‘couples’ chosen for all sorts of abilities and qualities except that if being able to give, bestow, life!

What again do the majority of our contemporaries think LOVE is all about?  It is the most bastardized word or concept of all in our modern society because its origin is sublime and its purpose is eminently dignifying and fulfilling.  However, ‘love’ in the Hollywood sense of the word and in the lurid pictures and images it provides, is used to touch-up and justify a most degrading and destructive mixture of lust and pleasure, violence and vengeance, instead of bringing beauty and purpose, joy and hope, to even the bleakest of human situations.

‘Family’ and ‘love’, two most sublime words when lived in accordance with their original Christian significance and open to their innate spiritual power, become poisonous when used by specious scholars as propaganda or by irreligious (proudly so!) modern men and women as words to cover up or excuse what are merely worldly aspirations of the flesh (which inevitably turns to corruption) and appreciations that look no further than the grave (proving themselves to be ultimately selfish)

LIFE and LOVE in the Eucharist!  That is what Christianity is all about.

Our closest bond is, humanly speaking, flesh and blood, and God’s new creation is not alien to, at variance with, such deep-rooted natural human awareness: that bond, however, is made supernatural and becomes capable of sustaining eternal life and the ultimate love by our partaking of and sharing in the Body and Blood of Christ!  In Jesus our Lord, Who gave Himself for us and offers Himself to us as food for eternal life, we are made uniquely and supremely one as adopted Children of God, family in Jesus of Him Who is pleased to be our Father.  It is not human family, not shared sufferings, most certainly not racial superiority or hatreds (ISIS), that can truly and sublimely unite us, but only and exclusively our being one with and in Jesus -- the supreme, divine, reality in the whole of God's creation -- by the Spirit, for the Father, and for His plan and purpose to make ‘all things new’:

As the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me;  ( John 6:57)

So then, let us do good to all, but especially to those who belong to the family of the faith; (Galatians 6:10); and again (1^st Peter 2:17):

            Honour everyone.  Love the family of believers.  Fear God.  Honour the 

          emperor.

To further understand this essential aspect of Jesus let us look yet more closely at the Gospel.

Jesus was proud, humanly speaking, to be a Jew and member of God’s Chosen People serving the salvation of all mankind:

The woman said to him, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.   Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”  Jesus said to her, “Believe Me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.   You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews.  (John 44:19-22)

Again, recall Jesus emphasising His solidarity, oneness, with another particular group:

While Jesus was still speaking to the crowds, His mother and His brothers appeared outside, (asking) to speak with Him.  But He said in reply to the one who told Him, “Who is My mother? Who are My brothers?”  And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers.  For whoever does the will of My heavenly Father is My brother, and sister, and mother.”  (Matthew 12:46–50)

‘Whoever does the will of My heavenly Father is My real family’, Jesus makes abundantly clear.

Our modern rationalists -- political propagandists, and others deeply opposed to religion -- love to show and abuse their remembrance of certain Christian teachings and ultimate aspirations by ever reasserting modern versions or adaptations of the famous revolutionary trinity, Liberty, Fraternity and Equality; most beautiful Christian concepts indeed, which they, however, idealize beyond truthfulness and practicality by excluding the very, very, human reality of sin which requires the Christian awareness and practice of repentance and -- most objectionably for such revolutionaries -- the awareness and practice of Christian humility before God and man.

Dear People of God, our liturgical Sacrifice of the Eucharist and our personal sacramental reception of and commitment to the fruit of that sacrifice is the supreme seal of mankind’s saving oneness with Jesus, of our filial appreciation and embracing of the Father’s good-will for  His adopted children, and the bonding of our human togetherness in mutual reverence and rejoicing.    Treasure your Mass; pray with confidence for Mother Church.

4th Sunday of Eastertide Year C 2016

4^th. SUNDAY OF EASTER (C)

(Acts 13:14, 43-52; Revelation 7: 9, 14-17; John 10:27-30)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, today our Easter joy continues by centering us on Jesus as our Saviour from sin and the Lord Who offers us and all believers Life eternal.

In the episode partially recorded in our first reading, Paul proclaimed Jesus to fellow Jews in the following words:

The one whom God raised up did not see corruption.  You must know, my brothers, that through Him forgiveness of sins is being proclaimed to you, (and) in regard to everything from which you could not be justified under the law of Moses, in Him every believer is justified.  (Acts 13:37-39)

Those Pisidian Jews rejected Paul’s Good News about Jesus’ ability to save believers in Him from sin and to offer them new and eternal life:

Both Paul and Barnabus spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first, but since you reject it and condemn yourselves as unworthy of eternal life, we turn to the Gentiles.

Our second reading also spoke of the gift of life through forgiveness of sins:

These are the ones who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Jesus Himself began His Gospel proclamation along the path prepared for Him by John the Baptist, after whose arrest we are told (Mark 1: 14-15):

Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God, “This is the time of fulfilment. The Kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent and believe in the Gospel.”

Jesus met great opposition to His teaching on eternal life, due, in part, to the fact that He claimed the ability to raise – by His offer of Life – not only some already in the tomb but also others still apparently living (as proud leaders of a stubborn people) who did not know they were already spiritually dead.

(If you are the Messiah tell us plainly.)  I have told you and you do not believe Me.  The works I do in My Father’s name – (and) I have shown you many (such) good works -- testify to Me but you do not believe.  My sheep hear My voice; I know them and they follow Me.  I give them eternal life.  My Father, Who has given them to Me is greater than all.  The Father and I are One.  (John 10:24-30)

Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.  For just as the Father has life in Himself, so also He gave to His Son the possession of life in Himself.    (John 5:25-26)

                I give them eternal life and they shall never perish.

Jesus expected of His hearers and questioners both a fundamental sincerity of purpose, aspiring to attain what God was actually promising (as distinct from their own imaginings or deeply hidden personal aspirations or desires), and also an understanding of good-will which would seek to correctly hear and faithfully interpret those promises:

The works that the Father gave Me to accomplish, these works that I perform, testify on My behalf that the Father has sent Me.   (John 5:25s., 36.)

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.  (John 7:17)

Jesus came to share His life and destroy our sin by the sacrifice of Himself and the GIFT of His most Holy Spirit.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we knew with absolute certitude that eternal life and blessedness would be given to us, individually!  How truly wonderful!!  And yet no one, no matter how holy, has such certitude.  That is the Church’s teaching: no one is sure, absolutely sure, of avoiding sin let alone gaining heaven, outside a special, personal, revelation and promise from God.  We think that we would do better, be better, with the peace, strength, and joy of such certitude.  But God doesn’t think on those lines.  He offers us a salvation won at the cost of His own beloved Son’s earthly suffering and death; therefore He wills that we both earn and learn how rightly to accept such a blessing from His most Holy Spirit, Who forms us in accordance with the teaching and example of His most beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.  He does this because He wants us to live by His mercy, indeed, but as His truly adopted children able to hold up our heads as authentic members in Jesus of His heavenly family.  He wants us to risk our human all for Him, by a humble willingness to repent of past sins and to hopefully commit ourselves in a leap of faith that responds to the Father’s leap of mercy and compassion when sending His Son for our salvation and to the Son’s obedient leap of faith in the One Who sent Him and of love for those to whom He was thus sent.

What are our modern attitudes to that Gospel duo of saving grace and eternal life, repent and rejoice in the Lord?

We hear so much today about the evangelization of sinners.  There are some who speak in such a way as to imply or at least suggest that really there are no sinners, only people who are medically sick in one way or another (faulty genes, mental or emotional disorders, pressures of life, lack of necessary education or living resources etc.), together with a present-day insensitivity of medical science which, they confidently insinuate, is as yet regrettably unable to correctly identify other quite natural afflictions still mistakenly thought of as a basis for sinful actions.

Today I read in a Catholic paper: ‘The Church needs to understand families and individuals in all their complexity’.  And then I think of Jesus speaking with the woman taken in adultery after being called upon for His opinion: ‘Woman, has anyone condemned you?  Neither do I.  Go, and sin no more.’ Jesus simply stated the reality of sin, condemned it, warned the woman against any further such sin, and then bade her go away and listen to God’s grace whispering to her in her heart.  Did Jesus ever have a heart-to-heart talk with Judas Iscariot (in all his complexity), or did He again trust His Father’s love and acknowledge His Father’s wisdom and power to knock on the door of Judas’ heart for any possible opening?

Today there are far too many words of men crowding out the words of God!  Jesus word ‘repent’’ is not normally one of them.  Is that due to it being religiously incorrect today?  Explanations are given which make ever broader, push ever further away, the boundaries traditionally known to have been set by God.  Public punishments were, at times in the past, sadly and wrongfully meted out (children referred to as ‘bastards’, gays publicly ridiculed and criminally punished etc.), especially when the political power was regarded, and relied upon, as the civil arm of the Church.  Today, however, getting rid of such past evils (we can speak of ‘sin and evils’ when apparently accusing or implicating the Church but not when speaking of types of modern behaviour or of modern social laws and structures!) puts us in most serious danger of ‘losing the baby with the bathwater’.

Jesus repeatedly and most explicitly spoke of the supreme need to recognize and repent of personal sin, none being good but God alone.  Such personal sins result, of course,  from personal and willed acts, often external actions which the Church has the right and the duty to label (for the guidance and protection of her people) as sinful actions, but which God alone can definitively and eternally judge as sinful acts by any individuals concerned.

When we turn to the Scriptures, we do not find any of the slate-washing of sin so popular with the modern opinions-givers:

The rest of the human race who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands, to give up the worship of demons and idols made from gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk.  Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic potions, their fornication, or their thefts.  (Revelation 9:20-21)

Where in popular human estimation and for the sake of pride or pleasure sin cannot be accepted as a reality, and when such a disturbing idea as ‘sinful’ is only to be mentioned with words of ridicule or countered by excuses, when emotions are allowed to justify human actions to such an extent that they by-pass or even deny the existence of any ruling human will and therefore of any real responsibility before an imagined God, then everything goes: there is no longer, for such people, any truth; only opinions, and ultimately only popular opinions are worth holding.

Dear People of God, hold fast to a saving awareness of the reality of sin, thanks to which we can aspire to a life which is promised and indeed already being made recognizable and irresistibly attractive and desirable for all called to believe in the goodness, beauty, and truth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.   Repent, learn to live, and find true delight in loving aright the one God and Father of us all.