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

First Reading – Acts 6:1-7 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 32(33):1-2, 4-5, 18-19 ©

Second Reading – 1 Peter 2:4-9 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 14:6

The Gospel According to John 14:1 - 12 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 The readings for today are lessons on the function of the Church, the purpose it is meant to serve, and the challenges to the members and leaders that may be expected to crop up along the way.

 Keep what Jesus taught; keep it always in the forefront of your mind, the last shall be first and the first shall be last.

 Let the distribution of food be done by the leaders of the community who are members of the community, let it be done by those charged with the care of their neighbors, by those who look out for their interests and are appointed by the community itself due to the trust and faith the community has in them as known persons.

 Let the leaders of the Church, those women and men on the world stage, those who may be visiting local communities, let them concern themselves with prayer when they are the guests of smaller churches, concern themselves with listening while praying for understanding.

 Good government requires local control, even when it is directed from without.

 A general commands the overall strategy of a campaign, but the commanders in the field execute the tactics that lead to victorious engagements…that is the how things work.

 Be mindful.

 Today’s readings provide a record of problem solving in the early church, but prior to the resolution of conflict it tells us the story of a divided community. Christians have never fully gotten over these divisions, and because we are human beings we will always have them.

 Consider the words of the psalmist:

 The psalmist is correct in saying that it is fitting to praise God.

 It is wise to trust in the counsel of God, to have faith in God’s mercy; though do not expect God to rescue you from the dangers of this world, do not believe that God loves any one of God’s children more than any other, or that God prefers you over your sister and brother.

 God knows all things and understands all things; you have heard this said. It is wise to believe it.

 God’s knowledge is not an abstract knowledge of the particular details of individual events, God understands our person, our choices, our lives; God understands us even as we understand ourselves, only with a clarity and objectivity that we could never possess for ourselves.

 Trust in God’s plan for you, and God’s plan for creation. Do not wait for salvation; salvation is already yours, go out and share the good news.

 Know this.

 Jesus was not a Lord and Christians are not priests. The only sacrifice that God has ever wanted, both before and after Jesus’ time on earth, are demonstrations of love and mercy, of compassion and justice; these are spiritual offerings in as much as they are conditioned by real actions in the real world. Jesus did not “make them acceptable,” God did, and God desires that we make these offerrings without end.

 Perform rituals of love and caring, make these your sacrifices; make them on behalf of ordinary people in the ordinary world, away from the temple and the altar, make them outside of the church.

 Make your sacrifices such that they have a genuine and beneficial impact in the lives actual human beings, make them happen in the world you live in, not in some pageant where men and women play dress up and pretend to have magic powers, doing what is easy and convenient.

 If Jesus was the keystone, as the letter from Peter says, if he was the cornerstone of the Church, I tell you this, he did not lay his life down to set an example so that another person would stumble and fall. God does not bring people into being simply to cast them down.

 God loves everyone, and the same fate awaits us all in fulfilment of that love.

 Consider the Gospel for today.

 The Gospels are replete with stories that depict the ignorance of Jesus’ twelve male disciples. We should not be surprised by this, they were human beings and like all of us they were flawed, confused and ignorant. Jesus goes so far as to refer to Saint Peter as “Satan,” the enemy, and on the night of Jesus’ arrest Peter denied having known him.

 In the generations that followed Jesus’ murder, the early Christians did not gain any more clarity into the matter, as John’s Gospel show us.

 Be mindful.

 Jesus is not “THE WAY” writ large, he demonstrates the way through the quality of his life. He showed us the way of God, which is to foster love, to furnish hope and to engender trust., to walk humbly, to love mercy and to act justly all the days of your life.

 The good news is not that God has prepared a place for you, for the Jewish people that were the brothers and sisters of Jesus, or for the Christians who came later, the good news is that God has prepared a place for everyone.

 No one is outside of God’s plan, God has made us one, and nothing can divide what God has made whole.

 Following the way of Jesus does not require you to believe or know anything about him, the way merely requires that you to do all in your power to live a life of kindness and loving service to your fellow human beings. The way demands no more of you than you are able to do, knowing that you will fail, time and time again.

 The gospel truth is this: even in your failure you will be accepted and forgiven.

 

First Reading – Acts 6:1-7 ©

They Elected Seven Men Full of the Holy Spirit

 About this time, when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenists made a complaint against the Hebrews: in the daily distribution their own widows were being overlooked. So the Twelve called a full meeting of the disciples and addressed them, ‘It would not be right for us to neglect the word of God so as to give out food; you, brothers, must select from among yourselves seven men of good reputation, filled with the Spirit and with wisdom; we will hand over this duty to them, and continue to devote ourselves to prayer and to the service of the word.’ The whole assembly approved of this proposal and elected Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus of Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

The word of the Lord continued to spread: the number of disciples in Jerusalem was greatly increased, and a large group of priests made their submission to the faith.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 32(33):1-2, 4-5, 18-19 ©

May your love be upon us, O Lord, as we place all our hope in you.

Alleluia!

Ring out your joy to the Lord, O you just;

  for praise is fitting for loyal hearts.

Give thanks to the Lord upon the harp,

  with a ten-stringed lute sing him songs.

May your love be upon us, O Lord, as we place all our hope in you.

For the word of the Lord is faithful

  and all his works to be trusted.

The Lord loves justice and right

  and fills the earth with his love.

May your love be upon us, O Lord, as we place all our hope in you.

The Lord looks on those who revere him,

  on those who hope in his love,

to rescue their souls from death,

  to keep them alive in famine.

May your love be upon us, O Lord, as we place all our hope in you.

Alleluia!

 

Second Reading – 1 Peter 2:4-9 ©

Christ is the Living Stone, Chosen by God and Precious to Him

The Lord is the living stone, rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him; set yourselves close to him so that you too, the holy priesthood that offers the spiritual sacrifices which Jesus Christ has made acceptable to God, may be living stones making a spiritual house. As scripture says: See how I lay in Zion a precious cornerstone that I have chosen and the man who rests his trust on it will not be disappointed. That means that for you who are believers, it is precious; but for unbelievers, the stone rejected by the builders has proved to be the keystone, a stone to stumble over, a rock to bring men down. They stumble over it because they do not believe in the word; it was the fate in store for them.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a people set apart to sing the praises of God who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 14:6

Alleluia, alleluia!

Jesus said: ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.

No one can come to the Father except through me.’

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to John 14:1-12 ©

I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life

Jesus said to his disciples:

‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still, and trust in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s house; if there were not, I should have told you. I am going now to prepare a place for you, and after I have gone and prepared you a place, I shall return to take you with me; so that where I am you may be too. You know the way to the place where I am going.’

Thomas said, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’

Jesus said:

‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you know me, you know my Father too. From this moment you know him and have seen him.’

Philip said, ‘Lord, let us see the Father and then we shall be satisfied.’

‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip,’ said Jesus to him ‘and you still do not know me?

‘To have seen me is to have seen the Father, so how can you say, “Let us see the Father”?

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak as from myself: it is the Father, living in me, who is doing this work.

You must believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; believe it on the evidence of this work, if for no other reason.

I tell you most solemnly, whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself, he will perform even greater works, because I am going to the Father.’

 

The Fifth Sunday of Easter (Year A)