2nd. Sunday of Easter (A)
(Acts
2:42-47; 1st. Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31)
My dear brothers and sister in Christ, we are brought
together on this day to celebrate the glory of Christ and the goodness of God, and
also to rejoice in Mother Church for the hope which her proclamation of Jesus’
Gospel, and her sacramental gifting of His Most Holy Spirit, offers and opens
up for us.
At the Last Supper Jesus expressed the desire that the imminent
crucifixion and death He would embrace for love of His Father -- His
sanctification – would also serve for the sanctification of those He was
sending to proclaim His Gospel truth, and all those who would believe that
Apostolic proclamation:
Father, as You sent Me into
the world, I also have sent them into the world; and for their sakes I sanctify
Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. I do not pray for these alone, but also for
those who will believe in Me through their word. (John 17:18-20)
Notice the contrast and the complementarity between Jesus’ sanctification
and ours: Jesus would sanctify Himself, by lovingly embracing His crucifixion
and death, and thereby sanctify all who would lovingly believe His truth as
proclaimed by His Church.
Jesus, by sanctifying Himself for His disciples, redeems
them from their sins by winning for them the Gift of God’s Most Holy Spirit,
Whose abiding presence would both establish the Apostolic Church on the unshakeable
basis of Jesus’ Gospel Truth, and also inspire her to proclaim that
truth for all subsequent living members to embrace as the Apostolic understanding
and appreciation of Gospel truth throughout time, that mankind’s salvation might
be accomplished and human-kind itself be transfigured by their Christian inheritance
of Jesus’ Gospel truth -- alive and life-bestowing -- in Mother Church. In every nation among all peoples, the universal
Catholic Church teaches the authentic Christian truth, while the local,
national, Church serves and sanctifies their Christian believers.
In our Gospel reading today, we see the beginning of the fulfilment
of that divine purpose:
The same day at evening,
being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples
were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and
said to them, "Peace be with you."
Now when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then
the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
So Jesus said to them again, "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 to them, "Receive the Holy
Spirit”.
Here Jesus breathed upon the assembled disciples, the Apostles,
as a whole, not individually.
Later on, in the presence of many disciples and of the Jews, the Holy
Spirit would appear as a tongue of fire over the head of each one of them,
consecrating them for their individual tasks; but here, Jesus breathes the Holy
Spirit upon them, to abide with them, as the Church; that she, through
them, might take His Gospel to the furthest ends of the earth for the salvation
of all mankind, as Jesus said In His prayer at the Last Supper:
(Father) now I come to You,
and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in
themselves. I have given them Your word;
and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am
not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but
that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as
I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. (John 17:13-17)
People of God, recognize the beauty and the glory of Mother
Church; consider, rejoice, and put all your trust in God Who, through the Spirit-guided
truth of her proclamation and our, believers, appreciation of, love
for, and commitment to, that truth, will bring about our ultimate salvation
and glorification in Jesus, to which end Mother Church is uniquely endowed with
the fullness of Jesus’ Most Holy Spirit of Truth and Holiness:
When He, the Spirit of truth,
has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own
authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to
come. He will glorify Me, for He will
take of what is Mine and declare it to you.
All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will
take of Mine and declare it to you. (John
16:13-15)
Mother Church is protected by God so that “the gates of
hell shall not prevail against her”:
I do not pray that You should
take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.
(John 17:15)
However, although thanks to Jesus’ prayer and His gift of
the Holy Spirit, the devil can never deceive Mother Church into falsifying the
Gospel of Jesus, nevertheless, the same devil is always, and ever more
ferociously and cunningly, warring against her and her children, as was
foretold from the beginning:
So the LORD God said to the
serpent: "Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle,
and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you
shall eat dust all the days of your life.
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed
and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel." (Genesis
3:14-15)
The serpent will always be trying to “strike at the heel of
the Lord”, to lead individuals into sin, and -- be they people, priests,
bishops, local churches, or even popes -- about that we should never be
scandalized, because it has been foretold and we have been forewarned. Individuals
can and will fail, and we should always pray for those who are thus used by the
devil in his attempts against our Lord and His Church, but Mother Church as a
whole can never fail in her truthful proclamation of the Apostolic Gospel, for
in this, her God-given task, she is – as we have learned -- divinely guided and
protected. That is why today, as we
celebrate the Easter glory of Jesus, we also delight in her, in whom and
through whom He continues His saving work in our world today.
Finally, we note those other words of Jesus in our Gospel
passage:
He breathed on them, and said
to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.
If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain
the sins of any, they are retained."
And here we recognise that Mother Church is not only
protected but has also been empowered to fight against the devil, as was
foretold from the beginning:
I will put enmity between you
and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He (the woman’s Seed) shall
bruise your head.
Jesus bruised the serpent’s head by destroying the tyrannical
hold sin and death had exercised over mankind; and, in the power of His
victory, Mother Church too continues His work – through her priests and
prelates authoritatively forgiving sin in the world:
If you forgive anyone his
sins, they are forgiven.
Thus, all faithful disciples of Jesus and true children of
Mother Church are not only freed from the devil’s power and protected from his
snares, not only blessed with the fullness of truth in Mother Church, but are
also called and empowered to fight – by their faith and the witness of their
lives -- against the sin which remains in the world around and still tries
to entice or threaten us. Thus, at every level of her being -- priests,
prelates, and people; men, women and children; young and old – Mother Church
strives to extend her Lord and Saviour’s Kingdom of love and truth throughout
time, over all the world.
How best can we do this?
According to the Scriptures the best way to respond to God’s great
goodness to us in Jesus is to praise
Him, to thank Him, to obey Him. Nothing more than that is required, nothing
better than that can be offered.
When it is really so easy to respond faithfully to the
Father’s call that first led us to Jesus, why do so many imagine that Christian
living is a wearisome, unrewarding (at least here on earth) struggle?
The answer is simple: such people look too little at God’s goodness and
mercy, beauty and truth (with examples of which the Scriptures are replete), and too much at
themselves and their worldly anxieties and desires. Let us hear again St. Peter writing to
encourage those magnificent early Christians who first faced the power of pagan
Rome confident in the name of Jesus:
Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy, has begotten
us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead.
Though now you do not see
Him; yet, believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving
the end of your faith — the salvation of your souls.
May we too walk in their footsteps, with joy and gratitude to God in our
hearts and praise and thanksgiving on our lips.
