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

First Reading – Acts 8:5-8, 14-17 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 65(66):1-7, 16, 20 ©

Second Reading – 1 Peter 3:15-18 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 14:23

The Gospel According to John 14:15-21 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 Faith in God cannot be predicated on magic and miracles. To have faith in God means to trust in the divine, trust is an action that must established in reason.

 God, the creator of the universe, God did not make the world a place wherein God’s children are subject to demonic forces, reject this ideation.

 Know this!

 Jesus is not a lord. All people are created in the divine image, each of us bears a seed of the Word within us, a seed of the Word who is God, the spirit of reason and rationality, the Word of God in whom all things are created and without whom not one things exists. Each of us bears a seed of the Word within us, as we dwell within the spirit of God: the infinite in the finite, the part within the whole.

 It is boastful and dishonest to proclaim that God has shown to any one of God’s children, to any family, to any tribe or any nation…any favor over and above any other.

 Do not believe it.

 God does not intervene in human affairs, God does not intervene on behalf of individuals, the creator of the universe does not reach into the world to change the course of a person’s life. God does not break chains or crush rebellions; we do.

 Listen!

 It is proper to give reverence to Jesus, yes; the apostle is wise to encourage this. Give reverence to Jesus who showed us the way….it is more important to follow him, and demonstrate your reverence thusly.

 It is proper to give reverence to everyone. Treat everyone with courtesy and respect, walk humbly, love justice and seek mercy all the days of your life; this is the way.

 Do not concern yourself with slanderous opinions of those who might malign you simply for choosing a good life. Do not concern yourself with gossip if you are a blessing to your family, to your friends and neighbors. Do not concern yourself with any gossip against you for showing love to a stranger, or mercy to the condemned.

 Know this:

 Jesus did not die for the guilty and the sinful. His death was not in payment of debt.

 His execution was a political murder. He gave his life so that his friends and family, and his followers would be spared from persecution.

 Be Mindful.

 The grace of God is not transactional. Love fosters love, but there is always love and God is always with you. God abandons no-one. God leave’s no orphans, no-one will be left behind or stranded in the world. Not one of us shall be lost; this is the gospel we were given to preach.

 God’s spirit dwells in all people, the spirit of God permeates the whole creation.

 God is not, not present in any space, be mindful of this.

 God is with us!

 The Church is not the gatekeeper, the priest is not a mediator granting access to the presence of God. Salvation is not transactional; we are saved because God wills it, God wills it because God loves us.

 God loves each and everyone one of us, and our salvation was planned for at the beginning as a function of the Word within whom we are made.

 

First Reading – Acts 8:5-8, 14-17 ©

They Laid Hands on Them, and They Received the Holy Spirit

Philip went to a Samaritan town and proclaimed the Christ to them. The people united in welcoming the message Philip preached, either because they had heard of the miracles he worked or because they saw them for themselves. There were, for example, unclean spirits that came shrieking out of many who were possessed, and several paralytics and cripples were cured. As a result there was great rejoicing in that town.

When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, and they went down there, and prayed for the Samaritans to receive the Holy Spirit, for as yet he had not come down on any of them: they had only been baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 65(66):1-7, 16, 20 ©

Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.

Alleluia!

Cry out with joy to God all the earth,

  O sing to the glory of his name.

O render him glorious praise.

  Say to God: ‘How tremendous your deeds!

Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.

‘Before you all the earth shall bow;

  shall sing to you, sing to your name!’

Come and see the works of God,

  tremendous his deeds among men.

Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.

He turned the sea into dry land,

  they passed through the river dry-shod.

Let our joy then be in him;

  he rules for ever by his might.

Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.

Come and hear, all who fear God.

  I will tell what he did for my soul:

Blessed be God who did not reject my prayer

  nor withhold his love from me.

Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.

Alleluia!

 

Second Reading – 1 Peter 3:15-18 ©

In the Body He Was Put to Death, in the Spirit He Was Raised to Life

Reverence the Lord Christ in your hearts, and always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you all have. But give it with courtesy and respect and with a clear conscience, so that those who slander you when you are living a good life in Christ may be proved wrong in the accusations that they bring. And if it is the will of God that you should suffer, it is better to suffer for doing right than for doing wrong.

Why, Christ himself, innocent though he was, had died once for sins, died for the guilty, to lead us to God. In the body he was put to death, in the spirit he was raised to life.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 14:23

Alleluia, alleluia!

Jesus said: ‘If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him,

and we shall come to him.’

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to John 14:15-21 ©

I Shall Ask the Father and He Will Give you Another Advocate

Jesus said to his disciples:

‘If you love me you will keep my commandments. I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever, that Spirit of truth whom the world can never receive since it neither sees nor knows him; but you know him, because he is with you, he is in you.

I will not leave you orphans; I will come back to you. In a short time the world will no longer see me; but you will see me, because I live and you will live.

On that day you will understand that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you. Anybody who receives my commandments and keeps them will be one who loves me; and anybody who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I shall love him and show myself to him.’

 

The Sixth Sunday of Easter (Year A)