A Homily – The Fourth Sunday of Easter (Year A)

 A Homily – The Fourth Sunday of Easter (Year A)

 

First Reading – Acts 2:14,36-41 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 22(23) ©

Second Reading – 1 Peter 2:20-25 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 10:14

The Gospel According to John 10:1 - 10 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 We are not saved on account of the good things we do; we are saved because God loves us. The creator of the universe loves every single one us; in the superabundance of God’s love, everyone is saved.

 Be mindful.

 Baptism does not mark you as one of the elect, it marks you as someone who has elected to follow the teaching of Jesus, it marks you as someone has accepted the responsibility of following the way; keep to it, persevere in faith.

 Be mindful of this and be humble.

 Everyone has received the gift of the Holy Spirit, we are created in the divine image and from the first moment of creation we are blessed by God.

 Consider the words of the psalmist and know that God is caretaker to us all.

 If we walk in the way of God, then we will be caretakers of our sisters and brothers.

 Know this, our time in the world is not the end of all things; it is the beginning of a journey that has many transitions.

 If we are hungry, we are hungry only for a moment; if we thirst, know that it is temporary.

 Trust in God, find peace in faith…and resolve.

 All the power of death and all the fruits of sin are temporary, only the divine endures forever, and we are children of the divine.

 If your table is full then share it with the world, when you open your heart to those in need, you strangers into family and enemies into friends.

 If you are able to follow the example of Jesus: to bear insult and injury, even if you are called to endure torture that leads to death, make sure that you do so for a good reason. Jesus endured what he endured for the sake of his disciples, his friends and family, for those who followed him and listened to his teaching. He submitted to the ordeal of trial and execution, because he loved them.

 Listen!

 Jesus did not go to his death in order to satisfy some cosmic imperative, or to pay some debt, and ransom God owed to the Devil, these are childish notions, fantastical and unreal, set them aside.

 Jesus accepted his fate at the hands of the Romans and Sanhedrin so that those around him would not get caught up in any violence…so that they could live.

 If anyone one of us should find ourselves in the same position, we would be a blessing to our people if follow his example; few can do this, but try if you can.

 Be mindful.

 There is wisdom and truth in the readings for today in the teaching of the apostle. There is also folly, mis-construal, fear and untruth…there are many lies. It is sad and unfortunate that the priests and the bishops of the Church, those hirelings who take it upon themselves to managing the way, it is sad and unfortunate that they forget this. Quite early, almost immediately after Jesus’ death, the self-appointed leaders of the Church began to act as if they were only responsible for a few of God’s children, when in reality that were tasked with sharing the good news with everyone, caring for them in both body and spirit. Throughout history so-called Christian leaders of Church have done great harm to because of their fear and their greed, their miserliness and shortsightedness.

 Many, even from the earliest days of the church, presented themselves as both sheep and shepherd to the community, but they were really rustlers and wolves who came to devour the flock.

 Know this!

 God does not love the shepherd because the shepherd laid down his life.

Rather, it is in recognition of God’s love, and trust in God’s plan that the shepherd laid down his life.

 Love preceded the sacrifice; the sacrifice did not engender love.

 Consider the Gospel for today.

 The writers of John’s gospel lived several generations after Jesus. They lived in a period of time when the Church was under persecution by the Roman State, the were also engaged in an existential conflict with traditional Judaism, communities which stridently sought to differentiate themselves from the Christians in their midst, and they argued their case according to Roman law. Through their protestations they sought to deny the Christians among them access to the historical protections that Rome had always afforded its Jewish citizens, a significant demographic which made up about ten percent of the population of free Romans.

 The early Christians were also beset by the rise of various popular movements that sought to trade on the rapid spread of the Christian doctrine and mythology to communities throughout Palestine and far beyond its borders.

 The writers of John made every effort they could to stand against these types of persecutions, and corrupting influences, like those of the Christian-Gnostics or the Jewish practitioners of the Qabalah…the foundation of Gnosticism.

 In this time the Church was protectionistic and their protectionist ways had their own corrupting influence on their presentation of the ministry of Jesus.

 Therefore be mindful.

 Jesus gave to everyone, the only qualification he asked them to meet was that they trust in his vision of the way. He encouraged their faith, promoting charity among them, and mercy with love and forgiveness.

 The authors of John get it wrong when the write about gates, and gatekeepers, thieves and brigands; the gates of heaven are always open...there are no gates, the table is set, Jesus prepared it for everyone.

 

First Reading – Acts 2:14, 36-41 ©

'God Has Made Him Both Lord and Christ'

On the day of Pentecost Peter stood up with the Eleven and addressed the crowd in a loud voice: ‘The whole House of Israel can be certain that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ.’

Hearing this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the apostles, ‘What must we do, brothers?’ ‘You must repent,’ Peter answered ‘and every one of you must be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise that was made is for you and your children, and for all those who are far away, for all those whom the Lord our God will call to himself.’ He spoke to them for a long time using many arguments, and he urged them, ‘Save yourselves from this perverse generation.’ They were convinced by his arguments, and they accepted what he said and were baptised. That very day about three thousand were added to their number.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 22(23) ©

The Lord is my shepherd: there is nothing I shall want.

Alleluia!

The Lord is my shepherd;

  there is nothing I shall want.

Fresh and green are the pastures

  where he gives me repose.

Near restful waters he leads me,

  to revive my drooping spirit.

The Lord is my shepherd: there is nothing I shall want.

He guides me along the right path;

  he is true to his name.

If I should walk in the valley of darkness

  no evil would I fear.

You are there with your crook and your staff;

  with these you give me comfort.

The Lord is my shepherd: there is nothing I shall want.

You have prepared a banquet for me

  in the sight of my foes.

My head you have anointed with oil;

  my cup is overflowing.

The Lord is my shepherd: there is nothing I shall want.

Surely goodness and kindness shall follow me

  all the days of my life.

In the Lord’s own house shall I dwell

  for ever and ever.

The Lord is my shepherd: there is nothing I shall want.

Alleluia!

 

Second Reading – 1 Peter 2:20-25 ©

You Have Come Back to the Shepherd of Your Souls

The merit, in the sight of God, is in bearing punishment patiently when you are punished after doing your duty.

This, in fact, is what you were called to do, because Christ suffered for you and left an example for you to follow the way he took. He had not done anything wrong, and there had been no perjury in his mouth. He was insulted and did not retaliate with insults; when he was tortured he made no threats but he put his trust in the righteous judge. He was bearing our faults in his own body on the cross, so that we might die to our faults and live for holiness; through his wounds you have been healed. You had gone astray like sheep but now you have come back to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 10:14

Alleluia, alleluia!

I am the good shepherd, says the Lord; I know my own sheep and my own know me.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to John 10:1-10 ©

I Am the Gate of the Sheepfold

Jesus said:

‘I tell you most solemnly, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold through the gate, but gets in some other way is a thief and a brigand. The one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the flock; the gatekeeper lets him in, the sheep hear his voice, one by one he calls his own sheep and leads them out. When he has brought out his flock, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow because they know his voice. They never follow a stranger but run away from him: they do not recognise the voice of strangers.’

Jesus told them this parable but they failed to understand what he meant by telling it to them.

So Jesus spoke to them again:

‘I tell you most solemnly, I am the gate of the sheepfold.

All others who have come are thieves and brigands; but the sheep took no notice of them.

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 thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full.’

 

The Fourth Sunday of Easter (Year A)

A Homily – The Third Sunday of Easter (Year A)

First Reading – Acts 2:14, 22-33 ©

Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 15(16):1-2, 5, 7-11 ©

Second Reading – 1 Peter 1:17-21 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Luke 24:32

The Gospel According to Luke 24:13 - 35 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

It is a disservice to the memory of Jesus and a misrepresentation of the way he would have us live by, to make him a figure of mythic power and present him as some kind of demi-god.

Be mindful.

Jesus was a man, as Peter says; he was a Nazarene.

His preaching is to be understood as a sign of God’s goodness, Jesus spoke the truth and lived a humble life, he called us to the path of justice, and demonstrated what justice was through his constant humility, compassion and kindness, by his constant inclination to mercy.

His life itself was a miracle; he performed no feats of magic.

Remember this:

Jesus’ death was a political murder. He was crucified by the Romans on behalf of the Herodians and the Sanhedrin. Upon the death of his body he entered into eternal life, as all of God’s children do. He was a human being, perhaps not like any other, but a human being nonetheless.

We honor his life and death by acknowledging this.

Consider the worlds of the psalmist.

Trust in God, faith and confidence are their own reward.

God is good, and all that is good flows from God, as everything flows from God.

Look for the good of God in all creation, in everything that unfolds for you.

There are no alien gods, there are no foreign gods, as the psalmist refers to them, there are only misconceptions of the one God, each and every one of us fosters a misconception and each of us is responsible for our own.

All of our cherished but errant images of God are merely idols, whether they are made of metal, or of stone, of wood or of words, whether they are painted on canvass, or merely colored in the mind, they are idols.

Know this.

God calls all of Gods children to God’s self, no one is left out of God’s plan, the divine calls to us from the center of our hearts, wearing the mask we have held up to personify the divine.

Listen!

The apostle is right when he tells us to be scrupulous, to be careful; we are to take care, not only we are away from home, we are to exercise care and seek wisdom in all things.

The apostle is wrong when he says: by the blood of Jesus a ransom was paid for us. There was no ransom, God forgave us all of our sins, God forgave us freely, God did so from the vantage of Eternity, when everything that we are and all that we have done was only a possibility.

God forgave us in freedom; in grace we have received it.

Be mindful!

If the example that Jesus set was ever alive in you, you must know that it is just as corruptible as anything else in this world. It is easier to turn your baptism toward an evil purpose than it is to turn an evil act toward the good.

Have faith, God has promised to do so.

Just because you have been baptized does not mean that you are incorruptible, God will not prevent you from sinning, from sinning more and to greater degrees than you ever have before…but God will forgive you in the end, having endured your sins with you, together with those who have suffered on account of them.

Know this.

Ransom was not paid to free anyone from sin, or from any way of life.

Jesus was not a sacrificial lamb, the cross on Calvary is not an analog of the sacred altar in the Holy of Holies. God does not desire blood sacrifice or burnt offerings, or the smell of animal fat rising to the heavens, these are human machinations. Such hokus pokus is wholly ineffectual, even as symbols they are worthless, the product of magical thinking, of immature minds, and backwards culture.

Jesus of Nazareth, though he was the Christ; he was a human, perhaps not like any other, but a human being nonetheless.

Consider the Gospel for today.

From the earliest days of the Church the apostles and the Gospel writers became confused with questions about who Jesus was, about his rank among the prophets, about his historical connection to Moses, and with finding proofs for the authority of his ministry in the sacred text.

In their confusion they began to make up stories to validate their claims; it was unnecessary, and the lies they told brought the nascent Church down terrible paths to disastrous ends, completely contrary to the way Jesus taught.  

Be mindful.

Jesus did not perform miracles to prove to anyone that he was a child of God, such things never happened. What Jesus did was stress the fact that we are all the children of God, even the leper and the thief, the unmarried woman and the outcast; it is this teaching that is miraculous.

The true miracle was convincing his followers that the way was true, bringing dignity to the lives of the unfortunate, the outcast and the shunned.

Jesus did not come to work magic, he did not come to flash signs and show wonders, that is not how God works in the world.

The core of today’s Gospel is not the long story about encountering Jesus, or listening to him expound the scriptures, offering proofs and arguments to prove to the disciples who he was.

The signal truth is this, “They recognized him in the breaking of the bread.”

Listen!

The disciples had the opportunity to see Jesus in the man they encountered on the road, but they did not see him in the stranger.

They had the opportunity to see him in the faith of the woman at the tomb, but they could not understand it and they refused to recognize her.

Jesus was dead and yet the way which he personified remained, those would have have the faith to follow it would continue as living witness of God’s intentions for creation.

In today’s Gospel the disciples were finally able to see the way only when they broke bread with the stranger they encountered on the road. They found the way in community, they found it once they humbled themselves.

The way is love.

 

First Reading – Acts 2:14, 22-33 ©

God Raised this Man Jesus to Life, and All of Us Are Witnesses to This

On the day of Pentecost Peter stood up with the Eleven and addressed the crowd in a loud voice: ‘Men of Israel, listen to what I am going to say: Jesus the Nazarene was a man commended to you by God by the miracles and portents and signs that God worked through him when he was among you, as you all know. This man, who was put into your power by the deliberate intention and foreknowledge of God, you took and had crucified by men outside the Law. You killed him, but God raised him to life, freeing him from the pangs of Hades; for it was impossible for him to be held in its power since, as David says of him:

I saw the Lord before me always, for with him at my right hand nothing can shake me.

So my heart was glad and my tongue cried out with joy; my body, too, will rest in the hope that you will not abandon my soul to Hades nor allow your holy one to experience corruption.

You have made known the way of life to me, you will fill me with gladness through your presence.

‘Brothers, no one can deny that the patriarch David himself is dead and buried: his tomb is still with us. But since he was a prophet, and knew that God had sworn him an oath to make one of his descendants succeed him on the throne, what he foresaw and spoke about was the resurrection of the Christ: he is the one who was not abandoned to Hades, and whose body did not experience corruption. God raised this man Jesus to life, and all of us are witnesses to that. Now raised to the heights by God’s right hand, he has received from the Father the Holy Spirit, who was promised, and what you see and hear is the outpouring of that Spirit.’

 

Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 15(16):1-2, 5, 7-11 ©

Show us, Lord, the path of life.

Alleluia!

Preserve me, God, I take refuge in you.

  I say to the Lord: ‘You are my God.

O Lord, it is you who are my portion and cup;

  it is you yourself who are my prize.’

Show us, Lord, the path of life.

I will bless the Lord who gives me counsel,

  who even at night directs my heart.

I keep the Lord ever in my sight:

  since he is at my right hand, I shall stand firm.

Show us, Lord, the path of life.

And so my heart rejoices, my soul is glad;

  even my body shall rest in safety.

For you will not leave my soul among the dead,

  nor let your beloved know decay.

Show us, Lord, the path of life.

You will show me the path of life,

  the fullness of joy in your presence,

  at your right hand happiness for ever.

Show us, Lord, the path of life.

Alleluia!

 

Second Reading – 1 Peter 1:17-21 ©

Your Ransom was Paid in the Precious Blood of Christ

If you are acknowledging as your Father one who has no favourites and judges everyone according to what he has done, you must be scrupulously careful as long as you are living away from your home. Remember, the ransom that was paid to free you from the useless way of life your ancestors handed down was not paid in anything corruptible, neither in silver nor gold, but in the precious blood of a lamb without spot or stain, namely Christ; who, though known since before the world was made, has been revealed only in our time, the end of the ages, for your sake. Through him you now have faith in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory for that very reason – so that you would have faith and hope in God.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Luke 24:32

Alleluia, alleluia!

Lord Jesus, explain the Scriptures to us.

Make our hearts burn within us as you talk to us.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Luke 24:13 - 35 ©

They Recognized Him at the Breaking of Bread

Two of the disciples of Jesus were on their way to a village called Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking together about all that had happened. Now as they talked this over, Jesus himself came up and walked by their side; but something prevented them from recognising him. He said to them, ‘What matters are you discussing as you walk along?’ They stopped short, their faces downcast.

Then one of them, called Cleopas, answered him, ‘You must be the only person staying in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have been happening there these last few days.’ ‘What things?’ he asked. ‘All about Jesus of Nazareth’ they answered ‘who proved he was a great prophet by the things he said and did in the sight of God and of the whole people; and how our chief priests and our leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and had him crucified. Our own hope had been that he would be the one to set Israel free. And this is not all: two whole days have gone by since it all happened; and some women from our group have astounded us: they went to the tomb in the early morning, and when they did not find the body, they came back to tell us they had seen a vision of angels who declared he was alive. Some of our friends went to the tomb and found everything exactly as the women had reported, but of him they saw nothing.’

Then he said to them, ‘You foolish men! So slow to believe the full message of the prophets! Was it not ordained that the Christ should suffer and so enter into his glory?’ Then, starting with Moses and going through all the prophets, he explained to them the passages throughout the scriptures that were about himself.

When they drew near to the village to which they were going, he made as if to go on; but they pressed him to stay with them. ‘It is nearly evening’ they said ‘and the day is almost over.’ So he went in to stay with them. Now while he was with them at table, he took the bread and said the blessing; then he broke it and handed it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognised him; but he had vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?’

They set out that instant and returned to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven assembled together with their companions, who said to them, ‘Yes, it is true. The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.’ Then they told their story of what had happened on the road and how they had recognised him at the breaking of bread.

 

The Third Sunday of Easter (Year A)

A Homily – The Second Sunday of Easter (Year A) Divine Mercy Sunday, A Holy Day of Obligation

A Homily – The Second Sunday of Easter (Year A) Divine Mercy Sunday,

A Holy Day of Obligation

 

First Reading – Acts 2:42-47 ©

Responsorial Psalm 117(118):2-4, 13-15, 22-24 ©

Second Reading – 1 Peter 1:3-9 ©

Sequence – Victimae Paschali Laudes

Gospel Acclamation – John 20:29

The Gospel According to John 20:19-31

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 In the early church, the first Christian communities flourished because they believed in one another, they trusted one another, they relied on one another; they held their possessions in common and lived according to the beliefs they professed, shared their food and their water, in their best approximation of the way.

 Their communities grew according to the example they set, in the earliest period of the church, between the crucifixion and the destruction of Jerusalem, this was uncomplicated.

 It was not their faith in the risen Christ that caused Christian communities to grow, though belief in the teaching was present among them, it was their faith in each other, living and working alongside one another, following the way Jesus taught them that allowed the early Christians communities to flourish, and persevere in the face of persecution.

 This is not to say that the risen Christ was not with them. According to the earliest teachings of the church, where two or more people are gathered in the name of Christ, Christ is present to them…with them. Christians in the early church believed in the good news of the resurrection. This was an ideological requirement for membership in the community, a Christian had to stipulate to this, whether they believed in it, in a literal sense, or not; this was a binding doctrine even in the early Church.

 However, ideological constructs, doctrine and dogma are often more like window dressing, most people relate to them as allegories and metaphors, and only resort to literalism when they are trying to win an argument, attempting to justify something and feel the need to resort to legalism in order to preserve tradition. What bound the early Christians even more closely than its nascent mythology was the living witness that each Christian and every Christian community brought to the ministry Jesus established the way his life and death pointed too, a witness they shared with the world, as far and wide as they were able to travel.

 That first generation of Christians bore witness to the fact that God, the creator of the universe, is kind, loving and merciful, and that Jesus taught this above all else. He taught that God is a loving parent, abba, and that God always approaches God’s children in the spirit of love, even when God is exercising judgment and administering justice, there is always love, always compassion, understanding and mercy.

 For a few short years this remained the principle teaching of the Church he founded.

 Be mindful.

 The Church, like God, has no enemies. God does not dwell, in a special way in any place: behind the walls of a city, inside a temple, a cathedral or a basilica. There are no gates barring access to God, there are no barriers in the world or in the mind, or in the true dogma of the Church, in the way that Jesus followed.

 Know this.

 God is in all places, at all times and in the hearts of all people. God is with us! God does not favor one child over another. God is a bringing of life, not death. God loves peace, not war.

 Remember!

 God is the parent of everyone, the creator of the universe and everything in it, and the resurrection of Jesus (if you believe it) if you hold it in your heart, it is hope, the light of grace shining in the darkness, reason to trust in what had theretofore been unseen, and to hold it out, like a beacon on hill, as a promise made to everyone.

 Whether we believe in the resurrection or not, does not matter. Possessing a particular ideological structure and holding it in your mind while consenting to its particulars is not the key to the afterlife. What you maybe certain of is this, your life in this world is a preparation for eternity, and whatever comes next…we are all in it together.

 God promised that not one of God’s children will be left in the dark, our numbers will be greater than the stars.

 Have no fear…all will be saved, this is the essence of Christian hope.

 Understand this!

 Faith in the resurrection makes it easier to live a good life. When your belief in God’s love for you is firm, it is easier to pray for those who persecute you, to love your enemy, to lead a just life, a life of humility and mercy.

 Faith will not protect you from evil, either from within or without faith will help you endure it.

 Be mindful of what Saint Peter taught, and know that Peter was mistaken about a great many things.

 Peter praises the faithful for their love and devotion to Jesus, for their belief in Jesus as the Christ, as an object of devotion, as an idea fixe, transforming our image of Jesus into an idol; calling Christians to give their love and devotion to an image, instead of to the way of life that he preached and taught.

 Do not tell people to be happy in their suffering, justifying it on the grounds that they are suffering for a great caus; Peter was wrong to do so.

 Do not tell them this!

 If a person is suffering and they have no choice, so be it, but do not tell them it is God’s will; rather boost them up, support them, give them hope. Do not speak to them about the honor and glory of their suffering, and do not promise rewards for their suffering in the next life, do not promise these things in the name of idols.

 When Christian faith moves away from the living tradition and ceases to be way of life, when it stops being about people, becoming instead a partisan thing, a thing of ideology and doctrine, then the way is lost.

 Consider the bankrupt theology present in the sequence from the mass today, it demonstrates much of what is wrong with Christian dogma and doctrine.

 Jesus did not die on the cross as a sacrificial victim. Blood does not serve to expiate sin, it never has and it never could, that is not how that the world works. Listen to the prophets who inform us that God desires mercy, not sacrifices; Jesus stood in their tradition, against the crooked priests in the temple and their bloody ways.

 Be mindful.

Only love transforms sin, doing so through the powers of mercy and forgiveness, both offered and accepted; compassion is the coin God desires that we pay in when we place our gifts in the altar basket, that is what transforms sin.

 Remember.

 God is not a general and Jesus is not a warrior, there is no war taking place between Heaven and the forces of sin and evil, there never has been and there never will be.

 All the powers of sin and evil, no matter how great they seem to you in your present suffering,  are infinitely less than the infinite power of God, there is no contest between them. From God’s perspective the trauma of sin is a mournful thing, each trauma is an occasion for sorrow, but they are not a manifestation of a cosmic struggle between the the forces of light and darkness, not demonic forces to fight against, or draw battle lines in some zero-sum game.

 Sin is not something you cleave with the sword of wrath but heal with the salve of grace.

 God is not a king and Jesus did not seek a royal station, these are human aspirations and we do a disservice to the way by clinging to them, and shadowing the divine with the trappings of royalty. Rather, God comes to us as a loving parent, and Jesus walked with us as a friend, be mindful of this when you are at prayer.

 Be mindful.

 Jesus led an extraordinary life and died at the hands of his political opponents in a rather ordinary way. Let us reflect on this and reject the lofty language that seeks to make more of it than it was…a political murder.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today.

 On the second Sunday of Easter the narrative moves us away from the ministry of Jesus and into the life of the early Church, which becomes the era of internecine conflict and partisanship.

 John’s Gospel was written roughly one hundred-twenty years after Jesus died. The reading for today contains some fascinating glimpses into the life of John’s community, and their partisan concerns.

 John says that on the night Jesus was crucified the apostles hid in the upper room for fear of the Jews, indicating the deep division that had already taken place between the nascent church and the Jewish people who were its founders.

 Jesus and the apostles were themselves Jewish, Jesus was in the rabbinical tradition, referred to as a Rabbi by the people; he read in synagogues, he was a Jew of the diaspora. And though his teachings may have originated among the Essenes of Qumran, their semi-monastic community was a part of the pharisaic tradition most commonly practiced by the Jewish people living outside of Judea itself.  

 Ninety years before John’s gospel was written, Saint Paul was active in his ministry to the gentiles, arguing with St. Peter about the notion that gentiles must first become observant Jews before they could join the Church.

 St. Paul won that argument and the church opened to the world, and ninety years later it would come to see the Jewish tradition, from which it had emerged, as anathema to itself.

 There was great concern for the Church and its authority in this time. The Church’s understanding of Jesus, the image the presented of him was changing in dramatic ways, becoming reimagined as a priest doing priestly things, instead of the prophet, which he was. Jesus is commissioning the disciples, instantiating them in office, empowering them to pass judgement on people, to forgive or not forgive sins as the disciples saw fit, and to pass on the powers of their office when they are done, establishing church government.

 This flies in the face of the historical Jesus, and his ministry.

 Jesus forgave sins, and encourages the disciples to forgive sins, not because they had the special power to do so, but because Jesus understood that God had already forgiven them. He taught us that when the prophet, or the minister of the Church proclaim absolution, they are not exercising a special power, they are proclaiming the will of God, they are announcing something that has already happened.

 The Gospel for today encourages the people to respond to mystical deeds and supernatural happenings; ghostly apparitions and visions, as if the claim that these supernatural events took place lent a greater authority to the work they were engaged in.

 Many are taken in by this sort of thing, it is an appeal to magical thinking, such appeals are always fabrications and lies…it is the theology of salesmen.

 In the final passage the gospel writers put forth the notion that the miracles were real, they were performed so that people would believe that Jesus is (in a special way) the son of God, and that through this belief they would become eligible to enter the Church named after him, making them candidates for eternal life.

 The construction of this ideology is this:

 Come to the church where the Gospel is given, learn the name of Jesus Christ, believe that he is the Son of God, receive that belief as an object or an article of faith, present that belief at the gates of heaven, and be rewarded with eternal life.

 The scheme presented here, familiar to most Christians, this scheme is mode of Gnosticism which the early church in its wisdom, formally rejected in the same era that John’s Gospel was written…and yet the ideas persisted.

 We should also reject now because they are not representative of the way.

 This is the meaning of faith: Trust; have faith, trust in God.

 The meaning of faith is not belief, it is not to believe in a proposition or an article of dogma.

 Christian faith is not: Believe in Christ so that you can be saved.

 It is: Trust God, you are saved already, you are saved because the divine is merciful and for no than reason than superabundance of God’s eternal love.

  

First Reading – Acts 2:42-47 ©

The Faithful All Lived Together and Owned Everything in Common

The whole community remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.

The many miracles and signs worked through the apostles made a deep impression on everyone.

The faithful all lived together and owned everything in common; they sold their goods and possessions and shared out the proceeds among themselves according to what each one needed.

They went as a body to the Temple every day but met in their houses for the breaking of bread; they shared their food gladly and generously; they praised God and were looked up to by everyone. Day by day the Lord added to their community those destined to be saved.

 

Psalm 117(118):2-4,13-15,22-24 ©

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.

Let the sons of Israel say:

  ‘His love has no end.’

Let the sons of Aaron say:

  ‘His love has no end.’

Let those who fear the Lord say:

  ‘His love has no end.’

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.

I was thrust down, thrust down and falling,

  but the Lord was my helper.

The Lord is my strength and my song;

  he was my saviour.

There are shouts of joy and victory

  in the tents of the just.

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.

The stone which the builders rejected

  has become the corner stone.

This is the work of the Lord,

  a marvel in our eyes.

This day was made by the Lord;

  we rejoice and are glad.

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.

 

Second Reading 1 Peter 1:3-9 ©

You Did Not See Christ, Yet You Love Him

Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy has given us a new birth as his sons, by raising Jesus Christ from the dead, so that we have a sure hope and the promise of an inheritance that can never be spoilt or soiled and never fade away, because it is being kept for you in the heavens. Through your faith, God’s power will guard you until the salvation which has been prepared is revealed at the end of time. This is a cause of great joy for you, even though you may for a short time have to bear being plagued by all sorts of trials; so that, when Jesus Christ is revealed, your faith will have been tested and proved like gold – only it is more precious than gold, which is corruptible even though it bears testing by fire – and then you will have praise and glory and honour. You did not see him, yet you love him; and still without seeing him, you are already filled with a joy so glorious that it cannot be described, because you believe; and you are sure of the end to which your faith looks forward, that is, the salvation of your souls.

 

Sequence

Victimae Paschali Laudes

Christians, to the Paschal Victim

  offer sacrifice and praise.

The sheep are ransomed by the Lamb;

and Christ, the undefiled,

hath sinners to his Father reconciled.

Death with life contended:

  combat strangely ended!

Life’s own Champion, slain,

  yet lives to reign.

Tell us, Mary:

  say what thou didst see

  upon the way.

The tomb the Living did enclose;

I saw Christ’s glory as he rose!

The angels there attesting;

shroud with grave-clothes resting.

Christ, my hope, has risen:

he goes before you into Galilee.

That Christ is truly risen

  from the dead we know.

Victorious king, thy mercy show!

 

Gospel Acclamation Jn 20:29

Alleluia, alleluia!

Jesus said: ‘You believe because you can see me.

Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.’

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to John 20:19-31

Eight Days Later, Jesus Came Again and Stood Among Them

In the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, ‘Peace be with you’, and showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.

‘As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.’

After saying this he breathed on them and said:

‘Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.’

Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. When the disciples said, ‘We have seen the Lord’, he answered, ‘Unless I see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.’ Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came in and stood among them. ‘Peace be with you’ he said. Then he spoke to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Doubt no longer but believe.’ Thomas replied, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him:

‘You believe because you can see me.

Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.’

There were many other signs that Jesus worked and the disciples saw, but they are not recorded in this book. These are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing this you may have life through his name.

 

The Second Sunday of Easter (Year A) Divine Mercy Sunday, A Holy Day of Obligation